Judging Freedom - Scott Ritter: What’s Next In Ukraine and Israel?

Episode Date: January 6, 2025

Scott Ritter: What’s Next In Ukraine and Israel?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, January 6th, 2025. Scott Ritter will be here with us in just a moment on what are we likely to expect next in Ukraine and in the wars in the Middle East. But first this. We're taught to work hard for 35 to 40 years. Save your money, then live off your savings. Unfortunately, there are too many threats undermining the value of our hard-earned dollars. The Fed's massive money printing machine is shrinking your dollar's value.

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We will lose our privacy. They can track anything we do. You need to take care of yourself and your family. So here's what you need to do. Immerse yourself in knowledge and information. The writing is on the wall. Now is the time to consider shifting some of your dollars into gold and silver as your bedrock financial asset. Call my friends at Lear Capital, the leader in precious metals investing for over 27 years. They help me diversify into gold and silver. They can help you too. Call Lear today at 800-511-4620, 800-511-4620, or go to learjudgenap.com. Scott Ritter, welcome here, my dear friend. Much appreciated, as always. Given the generations-long official government hatred, American government hatred of Russia and all things Russian, is there a feasibility, a likelihood of sustained peace between the United States and Russia on the horizon?

I mean, there's a possibility. You know, Donald Trump has articulated several times during the campaign for presidency, which he won, his desire to break free of the policy trap of the past several decades. He has called out the United States as the greatest threat to the United States because of the aggressive stance we have taken around the world. Our self-appointed role is a world policeman, and the fact that this role ends up getting us tied down in endless wars that achieve nothing and cost us everything. And he has singled out the situation in Ukraine as one such conflict. He's rightfully called out the 80-year-old NATO alliance as being problematic, definitely a resource drain for the United States, but also an organization that

has set a policy trap in Europe, that the more we invest in NATO, the more likely it is there's going to be a conflict with Russia, because NATO has, since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, used Russia as in the threat of a renewed Russian aggression as the reason, the justification for the continuation of NATO. So, you know, Trump has been primed to move us in a different direction. He has to overcome several hurdles. First and foremost, which is the fact that the United States has an establishment, deep state, whatever we want to call it, that is programmed for conflict with Russia. I mean, the military industrial complex alone needs the threat of conflict or the potential of conflict to justify the hundreds of billions

of dollars that it demands from the American taxpayer to build weapons to, you know, so that we can fight in such a war. The moment you start talking about peace with Russia, you talk about taking away, you know, a lot of money from a lot of people and money is power. And that is a problem for Trump. How does he overcome that? You might want to overcome that, you know, using your intellect. But the problem is that the American academic establishment has for the past several decades, not been teaching people about the reality of Russia, but rather the theory of how to dominate and exploit Russia. This is why we get ambassadors like Michael McFaul instead of ambassadors like Jack Matlock,

one of the last ambassadors of the Soviet Union. This is why we get advisors who whisper in Trump's ear about Russia who know nothing about Russia. So, you know, he's got to come over the domestic hurdle. And then the other one is, how do you convince Russia to cease a conflict that Russia's winning when your demands for cessation of conflict could only be imposed on Russia if Russia was losing?

Trump has to overcome his own ego on this one and accept the fact that Russia not only has won, but won big. And as the big winner, Trump understands the big winners get the big payout. And the United States is going to have to be willing to give Russia the payout that it's demanding in Ukraine. The neocons in the State Department and elsewhere, the deep state throughout the government, has this ingrained generations-long animosity towards Russia and the Russian people. School children, as well as academics at high-end universities, are involved in this same cultural hatred of Russians. You have been to Russia many times. You've studied the Russian government. You've interacted with

Russian officials and with Russian people. Do they have the same hatred for us as is preached here for them? There's no hatred for the United States and Russia. There's concern about the American government, about American policy. But the attitude of the Russian people toward the American people is actually one of human desire for peaceful cohabitation. I used to would say that they want to be friends and they do want to be friends. But I think the Russians at this stage are so perturbed by the United States that they're not going to extend their hand first. If the United States wants to come to Russia and extend the hand of friendship, the Russians would be more than happy to take it. But Russia's more than happy to keep the United States at arm's length right now because we haven't shown ourselves

to be trustworthy as friends, as people capable of friendship. I just want to say one thing when you speak of the animosity that America has towards Russia, I disagree with that contention, because in order to have animosity, you actually have to know that which you have a dislike of. Americans know nothing about Russia, nothing, absolutely nothing. So how do you have animosity to something you don't understand? And that's the problem. Russophobia is the irrational fear of Russia, but it's a fear based upon ignorance. One of the most dangerous things to the United States, to the establishment, is when people like myself go to Russia, learn about Russia, capture the true essence of Russia, then bring that reality back to the United States and seek to inform our fellow Americans about the fact know, the fact that Russia does not constitute a threat. The Russian people are not our enemies. The United States is fearful. This is why they took my passport away and they won't let me travel to Russia anymore because they don't like what I was doing. Why do people like Victoria Nuland and her colleagues in the State Department engineer the coup in 2014 and believe that they can actually

use American weaponry in Ukraine as a battering ram with which to drive Vladimir Putin from office? Well, why did the CIA think that they could arm and equip Ukrainian nationalists back in 1948 and 49 and fly them and parachute them into Ukraine to continue an insurrection that killed hundreds of thousands of people because the CIA, the American government don't care about Russia, don't like the Russians, don't want to have anything to do with the Russians. They want to destroy Russia. It's been our goal and objective since 1948 when the CIA began using Ukraine as a battering ram through violence to bring down the Soviet Union the CIA funded Ukrainian Nationalists from 1946-47 up until 1990 for the purpose of subverting Russia to bring Russia down you know when the Soviet Union went away we went away from saying oh we're going to destroy Russia down. When the Soviet Union went away, we went away from saying,

oh, we're going to destroy Russia to saying we have destroyed Russia. Now we need to keep Russia down. And we spent a decade with our foot on their throat. One day, a definitive book that will be accessible to Americans will be written about the decade of the 90s in the former Soviet Union, in Russia, and the horror of that. It makes what happened in the American Depression pale by comparison. Millions of people died. There was rampant crime, and we were responsible. There's a memorandum that just released by the National Security Archives based on a Freedom of Information Act written by a diplomat named Mary. And it's stunning to read about the arrogance of the United States. And he calls this out. He says, what you're doing in promoting Yeltsin is destroying democracy.

You're destroying any chance of democracy by supporting this autocratic dictator. And you're failing to focus on the things that have to happen for Russia to recover from the calamity of perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet Union. But the United States had no interest in doing anything that benefited the Russian people. We simply wanted to control Russia so that we could oversee the destruction of Russia. And we've been doing that ever since. So why does it surprise anybody? You know, this didn't happen in a vacuum 2014. We've been trying to get Ukrainian nationalists in power in Ukraine since Ukraine became independent. 2004, 2005, the color revolution, the orange revolution brought Ukrainian nationalists

into power. That was a CIA-backed, CIA-funded operation. But unfortunately for the CIA, the Russian population of Ukraine reelected Viktor Yanukovych. He won the 2004-2005 election, but we orchestrated basically a soft coup to nullify that election illegally, put the people in. He won again in 2010, and now in 2014, they had to get rid of him and destroy the Russian speaking population. That's what happened. It's what Victoria, Victoria Nuland was just the face of what has been a continuous policy objective to destroy Russia by using Ukraine, by using the forces of Ukrainian nationalism to be that battering ram you speak of. General Keith Kellogg, who President-elect Trump has indicated he will utilize as an envoy to Russia and to Ukraine,

has basically is reported to have said that if Vladimir Putin doesn't negotiate in good faith with Donald Trump, the United States will increase the military supplies that it provides to Ukraine. Isn't this insane, if true? If true, it is insane um i have no reason to doubt it because that's been the consistent theme of the trump administration when it comes to russia or the the trump team when it comes to russia uh peace through strength is their mantra um but strength i mean it it's basically the mantra of a bully means I'm going to come into the, to the, to the playground and there will be peace in the playground as long as you do what I tell you to do.

And that would be the equivalent of the bully coming into the playground while there's a game going on. And one of the teams is really studly team that's winning. And the bully says that game's over, um, call it a draw. Then the studly team is going to look at the bully and say, you know, you're sort of fat, you're out of shape, you haven't done this in a while. Everybody on our team can kick your butt.

Do you really want to do this? Because we're going to keep playing the game. We're going to win the game. Then we're going to turn around and we're going to beat you at whatever game you're playing. And that's the Russian attitude right now. They really don't care about Keith Kellogg, about Donald Trump, about anybody. Why? Because we have had a policy. We being the United States have had a policy since 1948 to destroy them. We openly articulated in

2022 when Lloyd Austin flew out of Ukraine, landed in Poland and said, the strategic goal of the United States is the strategic defeat of Russia. That means political collapse, economic collapse, societal collapse. That's what we want to do to Russia. Do you think Russia really has any time for lunacy such as that? They have prepared a military that's capable of defending Russia. And if we want to fight them, they will fight us. And wherever you want to take it, they will beat us up to and including destroying the world with nuclear weapons. So it's time that Donald Trump, if he really wants peace, fires his entire team and takes over the helm himself and goes meet with the Russians and follows through on that which he says he wants, peace.

His national security team, and of course none is in office yet because he's not in office yet, are not only neocons, they're ardent Zionists. Is there a connection? Yes, unfortunately there is a connection. The philosophy of Zionism, if you think about it, is about a superior power, superior people, basically imposing their will on inferior people. That's what Zionism is about. The United States is a Zionist power from that perspective. We seek to impose our will on people that we deem to be lesser i mean look i love america i i would say i love my my country as much or more than most people but the love of my country comes from a love of the constitution and the potential of my country i believe that we have the potential to be a great nation and be a great people. But that

doesn't mean that we're superior to anybody. It doesn't mean that we have a right to go around and impose our will on anybody. That doesn't make us a great nation. What makes us a great nation is living up to the ideals and values that we set for ourselves. If we can do that at home, then we become a great nation because we're great to ourselves. But the idea that we can go out and conquer people, bully people, impose people doesn't make us great. It makes us lesser. It makes us, you know, less than the people we're seeking to impose because the people we're trying to impose our will on just want to live in peace in their own home. They're not trying to come here and impose their will. We're not acting in self-defense. We are in search of enemies, and that doesn't make

us great. That makes us weak, morally weak, intellectually weak, and we're not strong enough physically to get away with that anymore. Secretary of State Blinken has been giving a series of farewell interviews, one of which was to the New York Times. Some of this will probably make your blood boil, Scott. But here he is repeating his mantra that Putin has failed. Not making it up. You'll hear it out of his mouth in just a moment. Chris, cut number two. Do you feel like you've left Ukraine in the strongest position that you could have? Or what are the things that you could have done differently? Well, first, what we've left is Ukraine, which was not self-evident

because Putin's ambition was to erase it from the map. We stopped that. Putin has failed. His strategic objective in regaining Ukraine has failed and will not succeed. Ukraine is standing. And I believe it also has extraordinary potential Ukraine has failed and will not succeed. Ukraine is standing. And I believe it also has extraordinary potential not only to survive, but actually to thrive going forward.

And that does depend on decisions that future administrations and many other countries will make. It's hard for anybody to take that seriously, Scott. Let's start off with some statements of fact. Russia never had any territorial ambition in Ukraine whatsoever, even on the very sensitive issue of Crimea. Russia always operated on the fact that with the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the agreement to the 1991 borders, Crimea was Ukraine. There was a certain sovereignty about the Sevastopol and based upon treaties and such that Russia wanted Ukraine to continue. But Russia never said, you know, we're taking Crimea. And when this conflict started, you know, remember when in 2014, when the Donbass Russians said we're done with these Ukrainian nationalists and they sought independence.

Russia said, no, you're part of Ukraine. The Minsk Accords was about making, retaining them as part of Ukraine. Russia is the only nation that was trying to implement the Minsk Accords. And even when this conflict started and Russia was compelled by law and by humanity to recognize the independence of people who wanted to be independent from Ukraine in the Donbass. The territory that they took in support of this military campaign was territory that Russia was willing to and ready to cede back to Ukraine. Russia wasn't fighting a war of territorial acquisition. So Tony Blinken is a liar, a stinking liar, the worst kind of liar, because he's the

Secretary of State and he knows better. It's not as though he's some cat we pulled out the street who's sitting there talking because they don't know any better. He's the man who made policy. He knows what the truth is. He is a liar, straight up. And to say that Ukraine has survived, my God, Tony Blinken, a million dead Ukrainians isn't surviving. He's a war criminal of the highest sort. I really look forward to the day that the United States Congress calls him in to investigate him for high crimes and misdemeanors, for lying to the American people, and for behaving unconstitutionally. Because I believe that much of the U.S. policy towards Ukraine, especially since September of last year, has been done unilaterally by Blinken in total obviation of constitutional norms.

The president is not mentally capable of governing. Others are governing his stead without the American people knowing. And Blinken initiated policies in November that bypassed the Department of Defense, who normally would provide a check and balance. These are policies related to the approval of the use of ATAKOM's missiles and other aggressive acts against Russia that brought the United States very close to the brink of war. The Secretary of State is not authorized by the Constitution to declare war, to take the United States to war, and yet that is what Tony Blinken is doing. So he's not just a liar, he's a warmonger and a criminal. Alistair Crook has written a fascinating piece out yesterday speculating that if Donald Trump and his team are unable to achieve the type of negotiation that General Kellogg has asked for,

that he might actually, in order to manifest a certain American hegemony and personal virility, attack Iran. Does that make sense to you? I do think that Trump can separate Iran from Russia. I do believe that, again, we come back to the peace through strength mantra that is the foundation of Trump's approach. I think he wants to enter into any potential negotiations with Iran about the future of their nuclear program with the Iranians understanding what the consequences, potential conflict, consequences of failing to take these talks to fruition. Trump has said there could be no nuclear program, no nuclear weapons program in Iran. Iran is literally a nuclear weapons state today. They're one political decision and four or five days away from having a nuclear bomb. This is something that's unacceptable to Donald Trump. And normally, if this was the government of Iran that existed before the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the government of Iran that existed when President Raisi was in power, we would be headed towards a military conflict with Iran. But there's a new president in town. He's a moderate president.

He ran on a platform when he ran for presidency back in June of last year of saying, I want to reach out to the West and repair relations with the West. And he has not been a fan of bringing this conflict to Israel. He's not looking for a war. He's told this to the Turkish foreign minister and has said he's ready to negotiate. So I think this is Trump posturing. But I do think that Trump, you know, when Trump withdrew from the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal back in 2018, he didn't do it as part of a policy of regime change. He did it saying, I want a better deal.

This is a bad deal. I want a better deal. Now he has the chance. He has an Iranian leader in a set of circumstances in which he can begin negotiations for a better deal. Whether or not Trump has a team capable of pulling these negotiations off, I don't know. But there is the potential for this. Should these negotiations fail, however, I do think that the United States and Israel will be looking at military strikes against Iran. And that would be devastating because we don't have the capacity to deliver a knockout blow. And Iran's retaliation would destroy Middle East oil production, gas production, and the global economy at a time when that's the last thing Donald Trump needs. When you're a new president seeking to, you know, make America

great again, the last thing you need is a global energy crisis that destroys your economy. Do you think it's realistic that the new Al Jelani, the one who trimmed his beard and wears what appears to be Brooks Brothers suits, will actually have an alliance with Bibi Netanyahu? I don't know about an alliance. I don't think there'll be an actual recognition of that. But there's a de facto understanding amongst the Al-Qaeda people that represents the guidance given to them by their masters, the United States, Turkey,

Israel, and others, that this new government in Syria will not be seen by Israel as a threat and will not be threatening to Israel. And I think that Jolani is happy to trade to concede that in exchange for getting what the Islamists have always wanted, a caliphate. And that's what he has. For four years now, he's going to govern without any effort for an election. And at the end of four years, he will not turn this power over. He has turned over every senior ministry, the defense ministry, intelligence ministry, et cetera,

to head choppers, to guys who execute women, to people who set people on fire, slit throats. This is who they are. This is the real face of Jolani and his government. You can put them in a suit all you want. At the end of the day, they cut off heads, and they're still cutting off heads. What's going on in Syria today is an absolute calamity, tragedy, et cetera, the prosecution and persecution of Alawites, of Christians, of Druze, and of anybody who at any time said, you know, I worked for Bashar al-Assad or I supported the Assad government. These are all dead people walking. All of this orchestrated, perpetrated, financed by Tony Blinken's Department of State.

100%. Hey, I just have a curious question for Tony Blinken. You had a $10 million bounty on this guy's head, and now you took it off. What made you do that? What part of him being Al-Qaeda suddenly went away? And he can't answer that question, which means that the $10 million bounty was always a lie. It was always an act of theater that the United States never intended to fully hold these people to account, that Al Qaeda has always been an extension of American foreign and national security policy when it comes to implementing American policy objectives in the Middle East. Scott, a pleasure, my dear friend. No matter what we talk about, I wish all of us were more optimistic, but maybe we'll be in for some surprises after January 20th. Thank you for your time. Look forward to seeing you again next week,

my buddy. Thanks for having me on. Have a great day. Of course. Thank you. All the best. Coming up at four o'clock this afternoon, on the economy, on the problem with spending more money than you take in, Kevin Demuret. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Hey there. Ritual here to give a big shout out to you for making it through the hectic holiday season. The magic of those family moments? That was you. And now there's new milestones to prep for in 2025. This new year, check clean, quality pregnancy nutrient support off your to-do list with Ritual.

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