Judging Freedom - U.S. forces in Ukraine_ More Leaks Coming_ _ Teachers Carrying Guns in School

Episode Date: April 12, 2023

Resolve to earn your degree in the new year in the Bay with WGU. WGU is an online accredited university that specializes in personalized learning. With courses available 24-7 and monthly start dates, you can earn your degree on your schedule. You may even be able to graduate sooner than you think by demonstrating mastery of the material you know. Make 2025 the year you focus on your future. Learn more at wgu.edu. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Wednesday, April 12, 2023. It's a little before 12 o'clock noon here on the East Coast of the United States.

These are your hot topics today. And the first three of them all pertain to the latest developments and revelations with respect to Ukraine. The third one, or the fourth one, is a bit of a sleeper, and it has to do with guns in schools and what happens when teachers and staff are exercising the right to keep and bear arms. You all know about the revelations made by the documents that were pilfered and published from a top secret defense meeting at which the documents were discussed. We know from markings on the documents that they were prepared by the staff of General Miley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Miley, and that they were disseminated to a small group of intelligence and military personnel affiliated with General Miley in the

Pentagon. And somebody in that group, probably an American hero, probably a person who wants the government to know or wants the public to know that the government is lying about the war in Ukraine. The government always lies, particularly lies about wars, publish those documents. That person, of course, is in great legal jeopardy because the government hates and fears what it hates and fears. And that means it hates and fears the truth. And so it will prosecute aggressively those who reveal the truth. The documents made it obvious that Secretary of State Lloyd Austin was not being truthful or candid with the Senate Armed Services Committee when he, in response to questions by Senator Roger Wicker, Republican of Mississippi, stated that Ukraine was in good shape, expected a good

military spring for Ukraine and significant victories in the winter. That would be the winter of 23. So we're talking about nine or 10 months from now. He said that while he knew of the Russian kill ratio, seven to one, meaning in plain English, the Russians kill seven Ukrainian troops for every one Russian troop that the Ukrainians kill. Do the math. That cannot last forever, particularly when the Ukrainian population is half, and thus the base from which troops come, is half the Russian population. Secretary Austin knew this at the time he made those misleading statements to the Senate Armed Services Committee, under oath, I might add. It's interesting, under oath, not under oath,

because Congress sometimes forgets to administer the oath to tell the truth to its witnesses. This is never in my history as a lawyer and judge ever forgotten in a courtroom, but Congress sometimes forgets to administer the oath. And because Congress sometimes as a courtesy to certain witnesses will not put them under oath. Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez famously asked the Senate Judiciary Committee not to put them under oath, and it did. But because of this, Congress has enacted another statute. Obviously, it's a crime to lie under oath under any circumstances. It's a crime to lie under oath to Congress. If they forget to put you under oath, it's a crime to lie to Congress, period, whether you're under oath or not. I'm not suggesting that the secretary committed a crime, but it does appear as though he was not being truthful, whether it was under oath or not,

because at the time he said Ukraine is doing well and we expect military victories in the future, he knew about the kill ratio, which a high school student can do the math for and predict how much longer their military can last. He also knew that their air defenses have been degraded so that by the end of May, they'll be down to zero, meaning they will not be able to shoot down a single Russian plane or a single Russian artillery piece or a single Russian missile. He knew all of that at the time he said he was confident in the spring counteroffensive. What did he say yesterday, Tuesday, four days after the second tranche of documents came out,

seven days after the first tranche of documents came out, he reaffirmed his confidence in a spring counteroffensive, notwithstanding the leaks. Oh, the leaks are not a problem. We'll deal with the leaks. We're still confident in the counteroffensive. My dear friends, the government lies, cheats, and steals. We all know that. Everybody knows that. When it lies about killing and when it lies about its own lying, it is unworthy of being our government. It is hard for me to believe how someone like this can still be in office. And then you got to consider the mindset that put him there.

Joe Biden, this guy is speaking for Joe Biden. Joe Biden wants this war. Joe Biden wants to run for reelection in 2024 as a wartime president. He's stated many times his hero, his paradigm is FDR. He wants to be like FDR and run like a wartime president. Mr. President, don't look at FDR. Look at LBJ. He destroyed his own presidency, and he nearly destroyed the country with the Vietnam War. And the reaction to the country to the war. Now, there was a draft to that, and so the reaction was more severe. There were 500,000 American boys in Vietnam, 10% of whom, 52,000 came home in body bags, far more severe than we're going through now.

But this chased LBJ out of the White House and out of politics. He went back to his Texas ranch and died of a heart attack. I really think your calculations are wrong, Mr. President, and they're cruel, cruel, if you want to kill Russian boys so that you can run for re-election. And it is profoundly immoral for you to dispatch a Secretary of Defense or anybody else to mislead the Congress or mislead the public with respect to what we're doing in Ukraine. I publish an article, as most of you know, an op-ed, if you will, a column every Thursday. It comes out at 11.59, 59 on Wednesday, so late tonight.

Published on Thursday in a variety of places. It used to be at lewrockwell.com. It hasn't been there lately. I don't know why, but I think it'll be back soon. The flagship publication is the Washington Times. You can actually get it at the Washington Times website about five or six in the afternoon, Eastern time on Wednesdays.

Then on Thursday, it's in a variety of places, townhall.com, creatorsyndicate.com, a variety of places that are easily accessible and for free. It's one of the more important columns that I've written. My title, and the publisher gets to change the title, my title is called The Pentagon Papers Again. So I argue in this column that whoever revealed these documents last Tuesday and last Friday, Good Friday, is an American hero who is risking his life, his property, and his liberty, or hers, to reveal that the American government is lying to the Congress, the DOD is lying to the Congress, and the government is lying to the public about the extent of our involvement in Ukraine and our willingness to help a losing cause and extend a losing cause, which only causes more death and more destruction. For the government to come out yesterday morning in the face of all of this and say we're still confident

in the counteroffensive is lies on top of lies. One of the things that was revealed in these documents is the presence of American special forces and British special forces. The British defense ministry denied the presence of British special forces. It's interesting. The documents don't say where the American special forces are, but the documents do say the British special forces, their elite special forces are the Army version of the Navy SEALs. My buddies in the Navy are not going to like this, But for an understanding of these people, they are the best trained, the highest paid, the most heavily equipped, the most experienced, the most daring military forces we have. They're also out of uniform. They're also out of uniform. This allows Admiral Kirby and Joe Biden to say there are no troops fighting in the

battlefield because they don't look like troops. They're the best trained American troops there are and they're unshaven. They really don't look like troops. They're taking their lives in their hands, not so much that a bullet will kill them, but that if Russian troops capture them, they can be summarily executed as spies because they don't have a uniform on with a recognizable insignia. If they did, the Geneva Convention theoretically protects them because they don't. If they are arrested, no law would protect them from a summary execution. Nevertheless, the Brits deny that their special forces are there. The documents say otherwise.

Admiral Kirby yesterday did not deny that American special forces are there, but he says they're in the embassy in Kiev. If you know anything about special forces, they're not sitting still in an embassy. That's not why they're there. The Marines are there to protect the embassy. The special forces are there either to pull dirty tricks on the Russians or to kill Russians. Are American boys using American hardware to fire American-made ammunition and kill Russian boys? Answer, yes, beyond dispute. Are American intelligence assets stealing Russian secrets and giving them to the Ukrainians? Answer, yes. American intel stealing secrets from Russia, American forces shooting at Russian forces. If that doesn't indicate we are already at war with

Russia, Mr. President, Secretary Austin, Admiral Kirby, I don't know what does. You are all rational people to whom I happily speak every day. You can think as well as I do, and you can think for yourself. This is war no matter what the government calls it. The statement to Fox News that special forces are confined to the embassy defies the very reason why we have special forces nullifies the millions that are spent per special force person to train him, only guys, for this type of dangerous mission. They do not spend their time in an embassy basement. They are outside the embassy engaging Russian forces out of uniform, heavily armed. The goal is to kill the Russians. Why doesn't the American government tell us the truth?

Ah, because Congress hasn't declared war. Why doesn't Congress declare war? Because the United States has signed treaties which limit our ability to declare war to those countries that pose a serious military threat to us. Does Russia pose a serious military threat to the United States of America, Mr. President, Secretary Austin, Admiral Kirby? Absolutely not. Boy, would I wish one of them would come on the show. Probably the Admiral or the Secretary. I wouldn't expect the war because Russia poses no military threat to the United States. Does the United States pose a military threat to Russia? You can answer that for yourself. We have nuclear warheads in Italy aimed at Moscow.

We have nuclear warheads in the Netherlands aimed at Moscow. We have nuclear warheads in the Netherlands aimed at Moscow. We have intercontinental ballistic missiles in Germany and in Poland aimed at Moscow. As far as I know, the Russians don't have anything in Mexico or Canada, but you can imagine how we would react if they did. And NATO, oh, NATO just keeps moving closer and closer to Moscow. In the midst of all of this carnage in Ukraine, extended by American military hardware, helping Ukraine in a cause that the government itself knows Ukraine can't win. We know that too from the documents. In the middle of all of this, Finland joins NATO as if to spit in President Putin's face, because when the Soviet Union collapsed, it did so with the understanding by President Gorbachev,

made to him by Secretary of State Jim Baker and President George H.W. Bush, that NATO would never move closer to Moscow. It's now 800 miles closer to Moscow than it was when that promise was made. And as if to rub salt on the wound, Finland, which adds an 800-mile common border between NATO and Russia, was just added to NATO. Special forces in the field. British special forces in the field. United States troops out of uniform in Ukraine. Aiming American equipment and choosing the targets on computer, aiming it at Russians, yes. Pulling the trigger, yes. American boys using American equipment to shoot American ammunition at Russian boys, yes. Is any of it legal?

None of it is. Has the Congress declared war? Absolutely not. Has the president or his people opened up to the American people about what's truly going on? Of course not. And when they're caught with their pants down by a heroic and courageous leaker of these documents, who no doubt will become a criminal defendant because the government really, really punishes aggressively people that embarrass it. We don't know how this is going to end, except that it's about time the American public learned the truth. Here's another truth the American public should learn. Two good friends, I have a lot of friends, but two good friends, Congressman Thomas Massey, the Ron Paul of the

House of Representatives today, the most courageous defender of personal liberty in the House of Representatives. Apologies to Andy Biggs and his Republican colleagues. There are a lot of great defenders of personal liberty in that group as well, but none as outstanding as Thomas Massey. And John Lott, L-O-T-T, John whose son Maxim and I used to work together happily at Fox. John is the foremost scholar in the country on the following theory, where there are more guns, there is less crime. So today in the Washington Times, where my column, the Pentagon Papers again, will appear tomorrow. Today in the Washington Times is a column jointly authored by Congressman Thomas Massey and Professor John Lott. And it demonstrates statistically, all these school shootings, none, easy number to remember,

zero, has happened in schools where the teachers and the staff are armed. So instead of a crazy sign, you are entering a no-gun zone. You are entering a school zone. Go home. Instead of advertising to the crazies that going in that school would be like shooting fish in a barrel, these schools have signs that say, you are entering a heavily armed area. Do so at your own risk. And the crazies that can read, the crazies that can rationalize, go home. And you know who else goes home? The children go home. They don't go to a hospital. They don't go to a morgue.

God have mercy. They go home. Because the school system was courageous enough to allow the teachers and allow the staff to exercise their God-given natural right to keep and bear arms, and in this case, to protect children. So my hat is off to Congressman Massie. He and I agree on just about everything. My hat is off to John Lott, who's been on this show, who was on both of my Fox shows when I was happily employed by Fox, but my hat is off to both of them. John Lott, of course, is the country's foremost authority on guns, and he's demonstrated conclusively that there is far less crime and less death where the public is armed because the crazies know this and the criminals know this.

And we also know from history that there's only one way, one way that these mass killings stop when the killer is confronted by superior firepower. Sometimes the killer stops because he doesn't want to get killed. Sometimes he's crazy enough to keep on shooting and then he gets blown away. But it is only superior firepower that stops these mass killings. Laws don't stop them. These people don't read the laws, don't understand them, don't care about obeying them. The liberals on guns are crazy enough to think that a person who's crazy enough to kill innocents, to kill children, to kill babies,

is astute enough to obey a gun registration law? Open up your eyes and wake up. Only superior firepower will work. In this article in today's Washington Times, Congressman Massey and Professor Lott demonstrate conclusively that superior firepower does work. And superior firepower doesn't always have to be used. It only needs to be present. And the potential killers, murderers, thugs, and brutes that are out there need to be told that superior firepower is present. More as we get it. More on Ukraine, 4 o'clock Eastern tomorrow, Thursday, the 13th of April. Sorry, 3 o'clock Eastern tomorrow, Thursday, the 13th of April. Colonel McGregor, the latest on Ukraine. More as we get it. Thank you for watching.

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