Judging Freedom - Scott RItter - Ukraine Russia War Latest

Episode Date: October 20, 2022

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Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Thursday, October 20th, 2022. It's about 1.05 in the afternoon here on the east coast of the United States. Our guest today needs no introduction. He is one of our several go-to guys on the conflagration between Russia and Ukraine, the military strategy involved, and what we think President Putin is up to next. Former UN weapons inspector and former, sorry, still Marine Corps, Scott Ritter. Scott, always a pleasure. Welcome back. Thank you very much for having me. Of course. Of course.

Thank you. Can President Putin lose this war? I mean, anything's possible. You never count your chickens before they hatch and all that good stuff. But as things stand right now, no, there's no chance that he's going to lose this war. The Ukrainian government is totally in a bind. Their economy is collapsing. Their currency is collapsing. Their military is being destroyed.

NATO is losing unity. There's no reinforcements coming. And Russia is just getting stronger. who declared martial law, which makes the lives of the people under whom it will be enforced miserable, in the four provinces, which he now says are legally a part of Russia. Well, first of all, martial laws existed in the Donbass, in Donetsk and Lugansk for eight years. So there's nothing new here. It's just formalizing something that was de facto in existence already. And Kereson and Zaporizhia are both regions that are in conflict. And so there's de facto martial law there already. So what Putin has done is established a formal declaration of martial law, which allows specific things to be done in these four territories that relates to security, counterterrorism, etc.

It also enables the military to streamline the efficiency of its operations. Again, I brought this up to a cop the other day, and I said, imagine Scott Ritter coming in with a marine rifle company into Elmar, New York, and you're a cop, and you still are the law of the town. And I ran around and said, hey, I want to do this. I want to take over that building. I want to build a strong point here. And you're going to go, you can't do that, dude. That's private property. This is that.

Now I come in and I say, hey, it's martial law, cop. Stand down. I'm in charge. I say, hey, it's martial law cop. Stand down. I'm in charge. People leave strong point, that point obstacles. Which one's more efficient from a military standpoint? It's almost like when the Nazi army took over France and the Gestapo had to work with the local police in Paris. It's almost the same thing. Yeah, but I mean, it's almost like the union going into Louisiana during the Civil War. They had to declare martial law as well.

Okay, okay, okay, got it. So yesterday, my guest on Judging Freedom was Jack Devine, whom I think you know of, a lifer in the CIA, now retired. And at the time of his retirement, he was very senior management. I asked him a lot of questions. We've cut some clips for him, for you. Here's his comments. It's about 35, 40 seconds long. Here's his comments on the condition condition of his military forces, their training, their leadership, communications, and the state of their equipment. Your response? Well, I mean, the proof is in the pudding. Russia's winning. Their military is extraordinarily well-led, professional.

Do they make mistakes? Yes. Have they made mistakes? Yes. But the notion that they fell apart the moment they took over 20% of Ukraine. So the idea that somehow they lost is absurd. Have they since vacated or exited, whatever the military term is, a noteworthy portion of what they took over. Absolutely. They traded space for time. We've had this conversation. They went in with too few

resources. They tried to do too much with too little. That's changing right now. Ask Mr. Devine how the Ukrainian power grid's looking right about now. Ask him how the Ukrainian future for the winter is looking. Ask him what's happening to the vaunted Ukrainian armored corps built by NATO right now in Karasov. Ask him what the casualty ratio is right now in Karasov. Ask him what the future of Karasov is in the coming month. No, Russia is winning hands down. They're getting stronger every day. Ukraine is getting weaker.

NATO is becoming more frantic. Here's your friend Jack Devine on psychological warfare being waged by President Putin. Does Putin seem to think that if he's vicious enough attacking Ukraine infrastructure and utilities, power, heat, that NATO and the United States will either stop getting involved or force Ukraine to a negotiating table. He knows he cannot win on the battlefield. So therefore, he's not a quitter, by the way, he's going to double down. He's betting that we're weak, cold winner, we're not going to stay the duration, we're sprinters, he's a long distance runner. And you look at what he's doing. He's firing these rockets. It's like the old days when we've had a threat, we'd shoot rockets out into

the desert, right? Said, oh, there, take that. So he destroys buildings and civilians. He's not winning anything on the battlefield. It's psychological. He's not winning anything on the battlefield. It's psychological. What do you say, Scott? I think General Armageddon, Sir Vulcan, the commander, the unified commander, I don't take umbrage at everything he just said. I always laugh when people go, the general's actual first name is Armageddon? No, that's his nickname. Just to tell you what kind of guy he is. But the fact of the matter is you know

i was in desert storm we kicked off that uh that conflict with a six-week strategic air campaign where to quote jack divine we fired missiles everywhere oh there was a purpose to that one of the things we did when we fired missiles jack was to take out the power grid, jack, so that the Iraqi government couldn't function. And you know that. Quit making crap up. The fact of the matter is, Russia, you talk about psychological warfare, the Russians have far greater affinity for the Ukrainians than we had for the Iraqis. And that's why they've taken a different approach. Now that NATO has become totally committed, Russia's had to change its approach. And the approach they're taking now is one that more replicates professionalism

in terms of waging total conflict with the nation. That's the change right now. Russia is waging near total conflict against Ukraine. And they're crushing it, Jack. All right. I have one more on Jack, but I'm going to talk to you a little bit just to let your blood pressure go down. Sorry. First of all, I have nothing but the highest respect for I'm going to talk to you a little bit just to let your blood pressure go down.

Sorry. First of all, I have nothing but the highest respect for Jack. Nothing but the highest respect. That's great stuff. You know, this is not Fox, and I don't have all the bells and whistles that I used to have. But if I did, we would have you and Jack on at the same time. And if I could afford it, I would invite you and Jack to my home. The three of us would do the whole studio, and we would do this at the same time. Maybe we'll do it at Cilenti's. He's got a big studio and centrally located.

I drink beer, not scotch. You mentioned winter and Jack Devine mentioned winter and you and I have talked about winter which is now just a month and a half, two months away, although it's 30 degrees out here in northern New Jersey today. Who does the cold weather favor? The Ukrainians or the Russians? The Russians, 100 percent. Why? Well, first of all, war is an extension of politics by other means.

So we can't just look at the battlefield. But I'll start on the battlefield. Russia is operating from a position of strength. They have gas. They have heat. They have energy. They have electricity. Ukraine's operation from a position of weakness.

They got nothing. They're going to freeze to death. They've been begging NATO to provide them with 100,000 sets of cold weather gear because their troops don't have it. So the troops on the front line are going to be freezing. Can't go home to warm up in the home because there's no gas. There's nothing. There's no electricity. They can't call home.

There's no Internet connectivity. They're losing big. But we have to go out broader because Jack also talked about the Putin's counting on weakness. Hey, Jack, what just happened in Englandland today let's trust a prime minister anymore how many more prime ministers is england gonna have to cycle through before somebody comes in and recognizes that the economic problems england has are directly related to the sanctions they posed against russia the germans are realizing that the french are realizing that the italians are all of europe is it's not a psychological war, but it's economic reality. So who's playing the game? I'm in 100% accord with the analysis you just gave about why she's no longer or soon will be no longer prime minister and the reluctance

of the conservative party in England to recognize reality as their counterparts throughout most of Western Europe have done. I don't usually read comments during the show, but you'll like this one. One of these is hilarious. It says, Jack Devine was on the grassy knoll in Dallas. Jack, if you're watching, I love you. Let's go to Jack's third and final comment, Scott.

Putin, from his childhood, believed we were the main enemy and we were out to get his Russia. In other words, he is a diehard anti-West, anti-American. I love to mention my book in this context. I was too nice to Putin. I said he was a lousy strategic guy, but he was a good tactician. I take that back. He's not a good tactician, but he is a thug.

So is he animated by a hatred of the West personified by the U.S., a fear of NATO personified by the U.S., or is he a patriot trying to return to Russia, that which the Western globalists have succeeded in temporarily taking away? How's that? I think it's the last one. He's a patriot. Look, he served his country in the KGB. And Jack, if you got a problem with that, then guess what? Who has a problem with you serving your country in the CIA?

He served his country as honorably as you did, Mr. Devine, in a different service, not with the same level of seniority, too. Keep that in mind. He was a lieutenant colonel doing a mundane job in Dresden, Germany, when the wall came down. He went back to St. Petersburg unemployed. He drove a taxi for a while, got a job with Mayor Sobchak's office, and anybody who dealt with him, from the U.S. consular to every non-governmental people, said he was the most honest man they ever dealt with. Never took a bribe or asked for a bribe. This kind of honesty and integrity and efficiency in operation got him moved up the ranks and subject to St. Petersburg, and then over to the Kremlin, where Boris Yeltsin

eventually promoted him to several positions, including the head of the FSB, the former KGB, and then ultimately handpicked him to be president. He inherited a nation that had just undergone a decade of devastation brought on by the West. But did he hate the West? No. He actually started his first years in office trying to court the West, to come up with normalcy in terms of economic relations, because he knew that Russia's best hope for an improved future was good economic relations with the West, based upon the notion of equality. No more the West coming in, buying off oligarchs, stealing everything. How about

the West coming in under normal contract law and dealing with the Russians as equals? That's all Putin wanted to be treated as, as an equal. And by 2005, when it became clear that the United States, Great Britain, and the West was not going to do that. Putin then said that I have no choice but to go it alone. And you look at his 2007 speech he gave to the Munich Security Conference, a classic of modern political rhetoric, and you'll know where he's coming from. He's not anti-West. He's just reflecting on the reality that the West is anti-Russian. Scott, on that, we're going to end.

You're at your articulate best. And now I know how to get you going is just to have Jack Devine hang out around here. No, if he's on the grassy knoll, no, I don't want to have any of that. He's a good shot. I don't want to do it. I'll get Jack, give Jack an opportunity to respond about whether he was in Dallas on November 22, 1963. It's not funny. It's just funny the way it was put to us.

Scott Ritter, always a pleasure. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.