Judging Freedom - U.S. arms are shrinking in numbers

Episode Date: January 25, 2023

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Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Wednesday, January 25th, 2023. It's about 5 30 in the evening here on the east coast of the United States. Those of you who know me, which is probably all of you who are watching, know that I'm a lawyer and a former judge and a constitutional scholar, that I hold myself out as an expert on the Constitution. I've written extensively about it. I've testified about it before the United States Senate and I've spoken about it in many, many forums. But I have become fascinated with the war in Ukraine and have been substantially educated by my personal research and outside reading, and especially by the conversations I've had on air with Colonel Douglas McGregor and with Scott Ritter.

And many of you have been interested in this already. I am convinced that no matter how harsh Vladimir Putin may be perceived by the media in the United States, he has a very, very strong moral and legal case to be made that the areas of Ukraine that are Russian-speaking for years, for decades, in some cases for centuries, have been part of Russia. I am also convinced that the United States should have no dog in this fight, none, none, none whatsoever. I'm an anti-war person who believes we should only fight defensive wars. We can only pull the trigger, the first trigger, if someone is just about to attack. fought since World War II, particularly the ones in our lifetimes, my age and a little younger, Vietnam, Cambodia, Iran, and Iraq. They've all been a waste. All of them have been because

presidents like war, because presidents want to enrich the military industrial complex, because presidents think they can tell others how to live. You believe George Bush, we're bringing democracy to the Middle East, that's hogwash. Unless the United States human beings or property or national security is substantially at stake, we have no stake in these wars and we shouldn't be fighting them at all. This especially goes for Ukraine. My friend Gerald Salenti, he and I do a podcast together on Wednesdays. His property is called Trends Journal, has been arguing for 11 months now that this is the beginning of World War III. At first, I was a little skeptical of that argument,

but now I see it happening. We have 100,000 troops in Europe right now. You're going to hear that confirmed by Admiral Kirby in a couple of moments. We have 40,000 troops in Poland. They are interacting with 90,000 Polish troops. They're at the ready. They're in such a state of readiness that within 24 hours, they can move east over the Poland-Ukraine border and continue to go east until they reach the battle lines where the now deteriorated and dilapidated Ukrainian military is fighting the Russians. This would be a catastrophic mistake for it to happen.

In my opinion, it's a catastrophic mistake for us to be sending military equipment to Ukraine. Where does the military equipment come from? Well, it comes from our surplus equipment, much of which is already in Europe. It's American equipment. It's in Germany. It's in France. It's in Romania. It's in Poland. And we ship it south or east to Ukraine. And then we have to replace it. Except the replacements don't exist. We have to order the replacements. So during the time it takes to order them and get them manufactured and shipped to where they are, if you believe we should have all this military equipment around the world, I don't. But if you believe that, if you're with Senator Lindsey Graham,

who believes he never met a war he didn't like, and we should be fighting all these wars, I don't mean to pick on Senator Graham, but he is emblematic of the ideology with which I disagree. He and I are friends, but I still disagree on this. Then you know that we need to replace what we have been given to Ukraine. Where do the replacements come? From the manufacturers, from the military-industrial complex, which now is in its glee because we are ordering all this equipment to replace what we have given away.

And what we have given away and will continue to give away will be destroyed. It's a waste. It will be gone. And it's not going to defeat the Russians. The Russians have an army and military equipment of such an enormous size that there's no way that Ukraine alone, even with everything Germany and France and Britain and the United States are going to send it, can possibly use. I make this argument now and today because in my opinion, the president of the United States has made a catastrophic error earlier today when he said we're going to send Abrams tanks. These are the best tanks we have.

And in return for sending these Abrams tanks, the German government is going to send leopard tanks. Now, I don't know much about tanks. Colonel McGregor is a former tank commander. In his opinion, the best tanks in the world are these German leopard tanks and the Germans are now sending them and the second best tanks in the world are the Abram tanks, named after the late General Creighton Abrams, which we're sending. Let's listen to some of the things that Admiral Kirby is saying.

Sometimes they call him Mr. Kirby. He's a retired admiral. You'll know his face as soon as you see it. We'll run the clip. He is the chief spokesperson for the Pentagon, but he spoke today from the White House press room shortly after President Biden announced that the Abrams tanks are on their way. Take a listen to what he said and listen to the very last two words of this. He is calling what President Putin is doing to win back the Russian-speaking portions of Ukraine, Putin's folly. I think it's very dangerous to tweak a dictator like Putin.

Would you form your own opinion? Here's Admiral Kirby on Putin's folly. There's no question that Russia's military is weaker today than it was 11 months ago. When you talk about the resources and the casualties that they have sunk into this unprovoked war of theirs, and the literally thousands of missiles and rockets and now drones that they have launched into Ukrainian territory. I mean, they have burned through a lot of inventory and they have suffered a lot of casualties, killed and wounded. So there's no question that their military is weaker for

Putin's folly here. For Putin's folly here. So why would the chief spokesperson for the Pentagon be tweaking an autocrat, a dictator? One thing that dictators can't stand is when they're mocked. The devil could never stand when he

was being mocked. It's a famous phrase from St. Thomas More, the devil proud spirit, he cannot endure to be mocked. It's a famous phrase from St. Thomas More, the devil proud spirit, he cannot endure to be mocked. Why mock Putin? Unless World War III has started. Unless we are really so close with all these troops in Romania and Poland that the president is about to pull the trigger. So if you are concerned about whether the president's going to pull the trigger. So if you are concerned about whether the president's going to pull the trigger, consider the following. We, of course, are members of NATO. We are the leading country in NATO. NATO has something called Article 5. Article 5 of the NATO treaty obligates all NATO members to come to the aid and the military aid and

comfort of any one of the others should they be attacked. Thanks be to God, Ukraine is not in NATO. But take a listen to General Kirby on President, or sorry, Madam General, Admiral Kirby, sorry, made him a general, Admiral Kirby, sorry, Admiral, to Admiral Kirby on President Biden, Article 5, and old Joe's willingness to send young men into battle in Eastern Europe. President Biden has said since the very beginning of this conflict that we take our Article 5 commitments to NATO seriously. Article 5, of course, is the notion that an attack on one is an attack on all. And we take that seriously. In fact, we take it so seriously that President Biden ordered an additional 20,000 American troops alone onto the European continent, and they still are there. Now, we'll be rotating them in and out, but the net number of 100,000 American troops on the European continent

has stayed the same and will stay the same for the foreseeable future. Do you see how dangerous these times are? Look, I know the country is divided. There are people that love Trump and people that hate Trump and people that want him to go to jail and people that want him to be president again. There are people who think that Joe Biden is out of his mind and the people around him are really running the country. There are people who want to divide the country racially. After January 6th, the most frequent two-word phrase Googled was civil war.

I realize that these are difficult times, but the president's decisions with respect to Ukraine and the military, in my view, are exceptionally dangerous. I love all of you because you watch and participate in judging freedom, but I want to tell you we're going to go hard and heavy on this because these are very, very dangerous times. Joe Biden has some very serious political problems, even with Democrats, because of the classified or national defense secrets that were found in his former office's house and his garage. Now, what do presidents do when they are confronted with domestic political

problems that they want to forget about? They take you to war. That's what I fear. You just heard Admiral Kirby lauding the fact, not bemoaning, lauding the fact that we have 100,000 troops at the ready, ready to fight in 24 hours notice. They're not wasting their time in swimming pools or gyms. They are training as units, ready to fight. The American public needs to know this. I suspect Scott Ritter and Colonel McGregor have told us that there are troops on the ground already. They're not wearing uniforms. That, of course, is very, very dangerous because they do not have the protection of the Geneva Conventions if they're out of uniform. They can be arrested and they can be executed as spies. That's international law. That's what the Geneva Conventions say. You want to protect your troops, put them in uniform.

Joe Biden is not ready to do that because the American public is not ready for it. And as for these tanks, they're not going to get there for a couple of months. Colonel McGregor and Scott Ritter tell me the war will be over in a couple of months. Oh, there'll be snipers and there'll be fighting going on. But the military of Ukraine will have fallen. If you don't believe me, it's going to take a couple of months for the tanks to get there. Admiral Kirby. And given the process, what's the soonest the Abrams could get there? The Pentagon, I think, talked about this earlier today.

There's no date certain on the calendar. I think what we're looking at is what's probably going to be many months before they're actually there. Thank you. Many months before they're actually there. From time to time, we will have these conversations. We are getting so many messages from so many of you. I'm deeply happy that you're doing that, that you take this as seriously as I do. Sleep well at night, even though these things are very troubling and very bothersome.

You know, the Constitution, we'll go back to my world, the Constitution says only Congress can declare war. But so many military incursions have been conducted by presidents and the Congress does nothing. The War Powers Resolution allows the President of the United States to run a war for 90 days and then another 90-day period. He's got to report all that to Congress and after that he needs congressional consent. That's really a time period for him to beat the drums of war and build up public support for it. I think that's coming. Watch out. More as we get it. A lot more will come and you'll hear it here. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.