Judging Freedom - Ukraine War - Is Moscow Lying_ w_Col Doug Macgregor

Episode Date: June 23, 2023

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It's an implant that works inside your body to treat sleep apnea without a CPAP. That way you can breathe normally and rest more soundly. He sounds angry. Inspire is the only FDA approved sleep apnea treatment of its kind. It's helping tens of thousands of people finally get restful sleep. To learn more, visit InspireSleep.com. That's InspireSleep.com. Inspire, sleep apnea innovation. Inspire is not for everyone. Talk to your doctor to see if it's right for you and review important safety information at InspireSleep.com. Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Friday, June 23rd, 2023. It's about 2.35 in the afternoon here on the east coast of the United States. Colonel Douglas McGregor with us in a moment on who's winning that vaunted spring offensive.

And Yevgeny Prigozhin, you won't believe this, latest explosion accusing the Kremlin of lying as a pretext for war. Colonel McGregor's opinions on all of that right after this. When it comes to carrying valuables or even firearms in your vehicle, most people feel they have to choose between safety and convenience. A vehicle break-in occurs every 36 seconds in America. The Headrest Safe gives you the power to store cash, jewelry, medication, and yes, even your concealed carry firearm. You'll never have to worry about taking your valuables with you again. Keep them safe with the Headrest Safe. Use promo code JUDGENAP and enjoy $50 off for a limited time at the

headrestsafe.com. Colonel, always a pleasure, my dear friend. Thank you very much for joining us. What is the status of the so-called spring offensive now at the end of June? I think the kindest thing that can be said at this point is that the defensive phase, in a strategic sense, of Russian operations is coming to a close. Tragically, the Ukrainians have done virtually exactly what the Russians would have written for them and hurled themselves against impregnable defenses that they cannot possibly win against. They've never come to terms, and I don't think for that matter anyone in the West has come to terms, with the importance of the links between intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, particularly persistent reconnaissance and firepower. And the Russians understand this

probably better than anyone. They've used it very effectively to the point where I know President Putin recently said that he thought that the Ukrainians had lost 13,000 killed. My sources say at least 15,000 with as many wounded. So I think when the epitaph for the Ukrainian army is written, it will be written on the basis of this final phase from Bakhmut to counter-offensive. So is it fair to say that the three defensive rings which you characterized for us before today, that even the first one, the one closest to the Ukrainian troops, has not been breached by the Ukrainian troops, even reached? You're right, Judge. They've never reached the main defensive belt.

They moved into the security zone on a couple of occasions, which, of course, is the area chosen by the Russians to annihilate the force defensive belt. They moved into the security zone on a couple of occasions, which, of course, is the area chosen by the Russians to annihilate the force in detail before it reaches the defense. So this is over. The question is, what is next? You mentioned the Russian advantage in reconnaissance. Do not the Ukrainians have American reconnaissance to rely on? I think they do. In fact, I know they do, but I don't think they have the level of precision fire connected in an automatic sense to overhead surveillance. In other words, the ability to see something that you want to strike and within the space of a minute or two, annihilating that target. That kind of rapidity of response is something that's lacking on the Ukrainian side.

I think it's lacking on the NATO side. Here's what the Department of Defense, they have a new spokesperson, Dr. Deborah Singh. I think her first name's Deborahbra, I might be wrong, made a statement yesterday, which is the usual cheery optimism, but I'm anxious to hear your comments on it. I think our assessments have been pretty clear from the beginning. I think, you know, we know as you continue to see the fight that it continued to move to the east, it's become more of a grinding battle every day. You saw that in Bakhmut. The Ukrainians can speak to their operations and more to the day to day on what's happening on the ground. But we know this is going to be a hard fight. We know this is going to take time. And we are confident that the Ukrainians have what they need. They have the combat power.

They have the ability to be successful in their counter-offensive operations. We see them launching both defensive and offensive operations right now, but I would let them speak to more of that. Okay. It's Dr. Sabrina Singh. My apologies for getting her first name wrong, but does she know what she's talking about? Judge, we increasingly utilize women as spokespersons. The reason for that is that the journalists and tough-minded individuals that may still reside in the media are unwilling to ask women hard questions. They don't want to embarrass the women. They don't want to come across as impolite. God forbid that they should be termed toxic masculine types.

So that's part of the problem. Second thing is this woman has a pedigree that goes all the way back to Hillary Clinton. She's been a Democratic operative for many years, which means that she can lie without compunction, and she did so very effectively here. This is not surprising in the least, and it's become standard fare inside the Beltway. Does she really understand anything? You know, I have no idea. But lying without compunction is a precondition for rising in the current Washington environment. I mean, it's almost criminal,

the substantial and material deceptions that she offered. And in my opinion, it's, is there such a thing as journalistic malpractice? Who knows? For the media to just pick it up uncritically and not to challenge her, whether it's because she's a woman or for whatever reason. Well, the media is part of it. I mean, let's be frank. The media is dominated by people who are 100% behind this war to destroy Russia. The whole war began as a lie. It continues as a

lie. It will end tragically for the people that are the most vulnerable, that is the Ukrainians. It will end badly, I think, for any Europeans that continue to support it. Hopefully, we will not be dragged in, but the bottom line is it's one lie after the next. The Russians will ultimately establish the truth, and that will be hard to conceal when it's finally revealed. Well, here's your former colleague, I think you know him, retired General Ben Hodges, on what he thinks should happen next. Ukraine needs long-range precision weapons, and I'm very frustrated that our administration has so far refused to provide the ATACOMs and other long-range

precision weapons, which would help Ukraine hit Russian targets in Crimea. Because at the end of the day, Crimea is the decisive terrain. As long as Russia occupies Crimea, Ukraine will never be safe and Ukraine will never be able to rebuild its economy. So Crimea is the decisive terrain. And if the U.S. would provide these long-range weapons to Ukraine, then the Russians would have to begin to leave Crimea. Well, first of all, Judge, I do not know Lieutenant General Ben Hodges. I think he said he was class of 80 at West Point. And like Petraeus and many others, he has joined in to a substantial extent

to push lies about this entire conflict. And I think in professional terms, the kindest thing I can say about him and Petraeus for that matter, is that these people are professional pygmies. They don't seem to understand the gravity of their- What was the word you used, Colonel? Pygmies? Pygmies, yes. In general terms, these people are not serious professional soldiers.

To make those kinds of suggestions is to invite a much wider and more destructive war. He also doesn't bother to point out, and of course we never do in the West, that thus far President Putin has actually held back the Russian military. The Russian military can do an infinitely more serious amount of damage than it has to thus far. Putin has never wanted to kill large numbers of Ukrainians. He has been very mindful from the very beginning that at some point in the future, he's going to want to live with the people that he's been fighting. And he does not want to inflict unnecessary damage.

We've left him no choice. And as we've done in the past, we've said, you know, you can do one of two things. You Russians can either leave Ukraine or commit suicide. Those are the only options. And if you don't choose those, then we will fight you until there are none of you things. You Russians can either leave Ukraine or commit suicide. Those are the only options. And if you don't choose those, then we will fight you until there are none of you left. Under those circumstances, he's had to persevere. And he's done so very effectively. But the Russian military has never really unleashed its full power. You sent me a piece in one of our many

email exchanges for which, of course, I am deeply and personally and professionally grateful. military commander on the battlefield surrenders to a Russian military commander on the battlefield because the Ukrainian military and political leadership will either be dead or will have left Ukraine. Do you subscribe to that doomsday scenario, Colonel? Well, if we insist on stonewalling the Russians, if we continue to live in fantasy world and drag the Ukrainians down this path with us, we'll all end up in hell together. And I think that's what the message is. The Russians will now move forward. Now, will they do it next week or July or will it come at the beginning of August? I have no idea, but they're in a position now to launch

a punishing offensive. There have already been some offensive moves up near Lyman and towards Zaborizhzhia. I would expect the Russian military to sweep across the rest of eastern Ukraine and then cross and seize Odessa. So I think those things will happen. The question is, what are we going to do in the meantime? Are we going to talk to the Russians? Are we going to establish some sort of arrangement based on reality, based on the facts? Are we finally going to recognize their legitimate security interests? I mean, I thought it was interesting that Hodges said, well, as long as the Russians are in Ukraine, or excuse me, in Crimea, Ukraine will never be safe.

Well, as far as the Russians are concerned, as long as you have this NATO-backed government or Washington puppet in Kiev with a large army at its disposal in Ukraine, they will never be safe. So the question is, how do we satisfy everyone's security needs? And the answer has always been the same neutrality. The question is, what's going to be left of Ukraine? The longer we wait, the more likely it is that Russian troops will stand on the Polish border. Those are facts. Right. We'll take a break.

When we come back, another outburst from Yevgeny Prigozhin, a very, very strong, typical Prigozhin outburst for Colonel McGregor to analyze right after this. The headrest safe is quick and easy to use. Some may even call it a game changer. The headrest safe acts as a safety net, protecting your belongings while keeping them out of sight and out of bounds of others, serving us security while also keeping your valuables in balance that's what the headrest safe provides for me game set match so uh colonel welcome back um um mr reprogosion issued another one of his outbursts this is is about a 30 minute, we're not going to play the whole thing. This is about a 30 minute, appears to be extemporaneous statement he made on his own telegram channel. The first one references that we've excerpted from it, leopards, tanks. And since you're a former tank commander, we'll play that first.

And then the second one is more big picture. But first his reference to 60 leopards destroyed and the monstrous lies surrounding the report of their destruction. What we are being told is a profound deception. And we will face the fact only when, as was the case on Krasnyi Liman, as was the case in Kherson, as was the case in many other places, a bunch of these scum, realizing that they have already lost a huge piece of territory, gather and declare that they have regrouped the more advantageous positions. The same thing is happening in Bakhmut. The enemy is getting deeper, deeper and deeper into our defenses. The enemy saves his soldiers, the enemy saves his equipment.

All that the enemy doesn't save is ammunition, and that's why our soldiers die and leave with injuries. Time is rapidly collapsing. All right, that's not the one in which he mentions the Leopards, but it makes it sound like he thinks the Ukrainians are winning. Even if he believes that, why say it in public? What has he gained by that? Is he running for president of Russia? Well, I don't think that he believes the Ukrainians are winning. I don't think that's his point. I think he's expressing frustration with the Russian high command that they have not already launched decisive offensive operations. And why? His attitude is if you allow the ukrainians to survive this phase in any form if you allow them to withdraw history teaches that they will try to regroup that they may receive new

weapons from the west and we've got to fight it all over again so i think his view is let's get this over with let's attack decisively crush's left, and that will do more to save Russian lives than anything else. Do they fear a long-standing guerrilla war, and thus they want to destroy as many soldiers as they can? Well, I think that's in the back of his mind, and I think others in Moscow are considering that. Again, this goes back to the question of what do you have left when this is over? And if you want to negotiate an end to the war, you've got to have strict neutrality. Otherwise, you see something in the sort of vein of Kosovo resurfacing in Ukraine, where you're going to have the enemy come back again and again and again.

I think he's worried about that. And, you know, he has his reasons to feel that way, because he also knows Ukrainians are very tenacious fighters. Let there be no doubt about it. Ukrainians are good soldiers. The ones we're facing now, or he's facing at this point, are probably the least well-trained that he's seen since this war began. If you're leading an offensive against a well-entrenched adversary, do you lead with your best troops or your newest troops? Well, if you have to do what they've done, and I don't think they had to, but unfortunately made decision to do it under great pressure. You really do have to use your best troops, the people that are most accustomed to operating

under fire. Having soldiers that have been under fire before is helpful because they know what can and can't happen. They have a more sober-minded view of the operation. The problem with this entire thing from day one is that even if you brought in the United States Army in great numbers and you said, breach this defense, it would take substantial air force as well as army capabilities to work on it for months. It would not come quickly. So the Ukrainians never had a snowball's chance in hell, frankly, of breaking through these defenses, not in any span of time that we demanded. You mentioned the advantage of experienced soldiers, and of course you yourself have much experience under fire. Is it instinctual? Is it like muscle memory that you just instinctually know what to do at the right moment on the basis of having been there before?

All discipline is a form of habit. Much depends on how rigorously and frequently you have trained. And you have to train on a scale that we rarely do in peacetime, so that you reach a point where it comes naturally to do what is right and what makes sense. Now, you just said, for a soldier like me, well, I'm out of date. You have to have people that have been fighting in this war that have developed an appreciation for Russian capabilities, for the missiles, for the rockets, for the artillery, for the tanks and armored fighting vehicles, mines, and so forth. Understand Russian tactics, understand where they set up and why. For instance, today it was reported that HIMARS had supposedly destroyed a Russian rocket

artillery battery, a Grad missile battery. And we can't find much evidence that they destroyed the battery, but there was a huge explosion, so we assume they did. The more that we look at, the more convinced we are that this was to entice the Ukrainians into firing more ammunition so that their batteries could be targeted. My point is the Russians are competent. They were never stupid, and you have to understand that. I think there may not be as many people on hand now as there were a year ago to fathom that and appreciate it. Gary, play the other clip, please, from Mr. Pergozhin. No one destroyed 60 leopards. This is total nonsense.

Shoigu leaves according to the principle that to be believed, the lie must be monstrous. And that's why deceptions happen. Two realities. No one destroyed 60 leopards. Shoigu, that's the Russian Minister of Defense, operates under the principle, I think I'm fairly summarizing this, that to be believed, the lie must be monstrous. Have 60 leopards been destroyed? First of all, what's a leopard? And secondly, again, why attack Shoigu by name like this? The leopard tank is the standard tank weapon of the German army. Now, I don't know what kinds

of leopards he's referring to because there are different variations. There's the leopard one, the leopard two, leopard four, and so forth. I didn't know that there were 60 leopards he's referring to because there are different variations there's the leopard one the leopard two leopard four and so forth I didn't know that there were 60 leopards on the battlefield I knew that there were at least 16 to 25 maybe more have shown up what we can say with absolute certainty is that the ukrainians have lost almost 280 tanks, perhaps three or 400 other armored fighting vehicles, as well as the 15,000 dead. That's absolutely certain. Secondly, on Schauge... Excuse me for interrupting. Just in the offensive? Yes, just in this offensive. I don't know how many of them are Leopard tanks. I don't know. I don't think it makes much difference because the way things are set up right now,

you could destroy almost anything on that battlefield because of the links that I explained earlier between persistent surveillance and almost immediate precision fires. When do you think the neocons in the State Department, Mrs. Newland, and the politicians in the West Wing who somehow think that President Biden can be reelected will recognize they need an off-ramp or stated differently, will recognize that Ukraine can't win this, cannot win this. Remember ideologues, or let's go back to the beginning. Ideology is a secular variant of religion. These are true believers in the ideology, and the ideology of militant, liberal democracy, wokeism, combine it with globalism, internationalism, all bound up as one,

is something they fervently believe, and they're certain that it will bring them victory. I don't think you're going to convince them of much of anything unless you were to suit them up and put them on the battlefield, which I think has very little chance of ever occurring. So I think they're going to fight it to the last Ukrainian. So I don't see much of it in charity. The only thing I did want to say, though, is about Shoigu. Shoigu is not a professional soldier.

He was appointed as Minister of Defense for a whole range of reasons. He has a long record of competence in action. He's someone that President Putin trusts. And I think Shoigu is somebody who is cautious. And if Prokhorin is upset about anything, it's the extent to which the Russian military has been so deliberate and cautious. Okay, you know, I'm sympathetic to him because if I were sitting where he is with the kinds of forces that I know the Russians have, then I would say, let's not waste any more time. Let's pull the trigger and get this over with. So I'm sympathetic to his views. But, you know, Shoigu has done a good job. He's performed well.

Gerasimov is highly competent. Everything has gone down well. If you look at the balance of casualties, Russian casualties are very, very light. They've been very successful. And President Putin's intent of not killing large numbers of Ukrainians, if it can be avoided, has actually been adhered to. So I understand how he feels, but I think it's a bigger picture than he realizes. Colonel McGregor, always a pleasure, my dear friend. Thank you very much for sharing your time and your thoughts with us. Sure. Thank you, Judge.

Of course. More as we get it. If you like what you saw, like, subscribe, and tell a friend. We're very close to that 175,000 subscribers by the 4th of July, which will soon be upon us. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. You want to feel safe in your vehicle. With access to your firearm, that's both secure and convenient. The Headrest Safe keeps your firearm where you can access it and no one else can. It starts at theheadrestsafe.com. Thank you.