Judging Freedom - Western Elites, Ukraine & Madness w_ Alastair Crooke fmr Brit ambassador

Episode Date: June 20, 2023

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You Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, June 20th, 2023. It's about 10 30 in the morning here on the East Coast of the United States. Big brain time when Alistair Crook will join us in a moment. What are the Western elites doing wrong? What kind of a hole have they dug for themselves? 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 judge nap and enjoy 50 off for a limited time at the headrest safe.com alistair welcome back to the show and thank you very much uh for joining us before the uh war in ukraine, before the inflation ravaging the West, Western Europe and the United States, before the onset of recession, which might be here or probably is coming, what kind of a fantasy world were all of us living in in the West? Well, it was a world of delusion because we thought it could go on and just continue. And indeed, it was really only a sort of brief interval where the sun shone and things were favorable. We had a wind behind us. And now everything has changed because the structural

changes have taken all that away and instead substituted strong headwinds. And we don't now have any real chance to change it. We've taken all the easy decisions. We've gone for comfort, the comfort generation of, if you like, taking all the easy decisions. And now we don't really have much choice but to keep on doing what we used to do, even though it doesn't resolve anything, because that's all the choices that are left to us. We experience zero interest credit, zero inflation, a colluding media, cheap energy subsidizing a shrinking, I'm quoting from your most recent piece, and increasingly sclerotic manufacturing base, at least in Europe. What happened? It wasn't just the war in Ukraine. No, no, no. It was a structural change.

We had this brief period where we could have zero inflation because of China, because of Russia, because they kept the prices down for us and enabled our industry to be competitive. And then suddenly we took it on ourselves to sanction Russia to end, to seize its foreign reserves. And then at this period and decoupling with China, the two things came together. Inflation has come back to us. It wasn't their fault. Inflation was coming anyway. Inflation has come back with a real rebound, and that means everything has changed. The whole paradigm changes, and we don't have now any instruments to large measure by U.S. sanctions against Russia, that would make Joe Biden the least foresighted and maybe worst president in the modern era, because not only has he failed to strike effective blows on the Russian economy, but the boomerang effect has struck effective blows on the American economy. Have I stated that fairly and accurately as you see it Alistair? Absolutely right absolutely right because we Europe and America to a lesser extent but Europe depended on cheap energy we have relatively a high-end manufacturing economy and it required cheap energy and now we've been ending up paying seven or eight times what we used to pay before

europe contributed to it by sort of so enthusiastically deciding it was going to abandon all forms of russian energy and cut itself off and pay for liquid natural gas which is very expensive let me take you to the other side of the world. What role, as you see it, does China play in the, I don't want to say demise, but degradation of the West? and putting tariffs on China. And as a consequence, all those cheap manufacturers that were coming into Walmart and all of these stores were keeping the prices artificially down. We were able to buy things that normally we wouldn't be able to buy at reduced prices. So inflation was zero.

And of course, now things are starting to go up because supply lines have had to be remade. Now they're buying. Now the manufacturing is going to Vietnam or India or somewhere else in Asia. And the costs are higher. The cost of security to the supply line is higher. So all of these things together have changed, if you like. It's a structural shift and we can't undo that because inflation is now embedding itself in our economies. It may go up or may go down briefly, but it is there and it's going to be very difficult to get rid of it. And meanwhile, that makes much of manufacturing unprofitable in Europe. And that's why we're seeing so much of industry is relocating to China or to Asia or to the

United States. What do you think Tony Blinken's best hope was? What could he have hoped for? What could he have attempted to achieve in the 36 hours he just spent in Beijing? I think he wanted to show that America could do this double act of both, if you like, having a commercial agreement with China, at the same time criticizing it, and at the same time pouring weapons into Taiwan and encouraging independence

of Taiwan. I think it was all about buying time, essentially. And the Chinese saw it as an effort to buy time because America is not ready for a real conflict with China at this moment. It hasn't, it's not prepared for it. It hasn't geared itself up to it. It needs a bit more time. You remember one of the generals, top generals said, well, the war will start in 2025, at the beginning of 2025. Their supply lines are not geared for this. Their weapons are not in the right places. They've been pouring the weapons into Ukraine and they're not now available for going to China. So I think all of this was a process of buying time. And that's how I think the Chinese see it. They haven't got any doubts that, you know, the United States is preparing for showdown eventually.

Gary, do you have the clip of Secretary of State Blinken? it's either yesterday or Sunday, but it was after his meetings in China, acknowledging that the American public policy is one China policy. I don't know how they can say this and yet say they want to arm the Taiwanese. Do we have that clip, Gary? We do not support Taiwan independence. We remain opposed to any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side. We continue to expect the peaceful resolution of cross-strait differences. We remain committed to meeting our responsibilities under the Taiwan Relations Act, including making sure that Taiwan has the ability to defend itself.

Well, what kind of sense does that make? One China policy, Taiwan's not independent, but we're going to make sure it defends itself. He's speaking out of three sides of his mouth. Yeah, exactly. And the Chinese, I mean, this is why they, I mean, they just don't trust the United States in this at all. They can see it. More and

more weapons are going in higher. I mean, it's the same story we had in Ukraine. This is now the China sort of, you know, this Taiwan becomes Ukraine for China. A pressure point, a point of building up pressure on China to give leverage to the United States. And the Chinese see that and say that very clearly that that's what they see this to be. How, back to Ukraine, how much longer will the U.S. and NATO continue to supply Ukraine? By every objective standard, Ukraine is losing. By every objective measurement, the so-called spring offensive

is getting them nowhere. It's costing them more than they're gaining. And as far as we know, the West has not built itself. Certainly the Biden administration has not crafted for itself an off-ramp. Oh, there's clearly no,

they were taken by surprise, I think by the failure of the offensive. I mean, maybe a further attempt, but it's failed and that's a shock and they don't yet have any clear answers to that. But I think it will be a case of trying to go on doing what they're doing, at least through to the election period, because I think they see it very damaging

for Biden if there is seen to have been a failure, all the money, all the weapons put in, and it hasn't achieved any of its objectives. So the answer is just to try and keep it sort of ticking over not actually going the neocons would like to go to a full war with russia but i don't think biden is interested in that i mean what he wants to do is just to keep ticking over f-16s attack hands other things like that at vilnius the nato will agree to give more money and probably more weapons just to keep the thing going at least and the run-up to 224 election the um this past weekend general ben hodges i don't know if you know the name you may may know him. Four-star. I know him. I don't know him. All right. Retired, but until a year ago, four-star commander-in-chief of all U.S. military in Europe, very close to your former colleagues in Great Britain, said that it's not unreasonable to think that Ukraine can recapture Crimea.

What? I mean, not only is that irrational, it's insane for someone of his position to make a statement like that for all the world to hear. What does Europe think when they hear something like that from someone who was practically one of their own? He lived in Europe for 10 years, the last five of which he was the senior American military official there. I think they see this as a major, this is the major problem, is when is the West going to exit

from its delusion? How long will it stay in this sort of delusionary state, believing their own propaganda, believing that it just takes a column or two of tanks charging across the steppe in is it's the last war that they're fighting. They're trying to fight it as if it was Iraq. You know, tanks charging across the desert, all the defenses falling. The truth is the Republican guards were not going to fight the Americans anyway. There was an understanding between America, private understanding between them and the Republican guards of Iraq, that the tank commanders would not put up a fight in that way. But so it's gone down in legend as this is the way to operate, this is the way to fight. And it's become a delusion. And the question is how long before we can get out of this delusion? Because I don't think we can have a political process at all until we get out of this delusion.

And in any case, the political process is going to be very difficult because we have such a complicated one. We have on one hand, we have the problem of Donbass, which which is rather like Ireland the Northern Ireland and the Southern they are different worlds they see the future differently they see their history differently they're at odds with one another it's very difficult and unless you solve it I mean just to call for withdrawal from from Ukraine don't forget this started in 1917. Donetsk called for a republic. It was at that time in 1917 because they wanted to stay with the Soviet Union and didn't want to be put into Ukraine. All of Donbass were part of that. And they set up this republic and Lenin said no, and Stalin said no.

And so it was stopped, and then we had it again after the Maidan coup to republic. Donetsk, Luhansk republic set up because it's been a civil war. And unless you can solve this in some respect. Actually sitting down, some American sitting down in Moscow has got nothing really to say, because how do you resolve this issue, you know, against the bigger picture? It's very, very... We need to take a break, but before we do, I have to ask you this is there any question in your mind that the uh cultural uh attachment between eastern ukraine and russia which you described in 1917 is manifest today it is all right when we come back uh alistair Crook analyzing President Putin complaining, why won't the Americans talk to us right after this? also means your items don't fall into the wrong hands. You don't have to choose between safety and convenience. The Headrest Safe keeps your firearm where you can access it and no one else

can. Just order your Headrest Safe, install it yourself when it arrives, and enjoy peace of mind. It starts at theheadrestsafe.com. So let's take a look at President Putin just a few days ago, Alistair. There's a running translation in a female voice, obviously not his voice,

about how happy he will be to talk to the U.S. As for the contacts, we don't have any contacts, practically, but we didn't reject them. If there's a desire

to enter into a dialogue with us, they are welcome. It's not us who stopped this dialogue. They moved this dialogue into this fear of supplying weapons and armory. Okay, we are going to burn all that they have supplied, and then we'll see what we are going to do next.

Why aren't the Americans and the Russians speaking? You know, and I've heard it not just from the speech of Putin. The Russians are open to a discussion with a credible American at any time. But the problem is that they understand that the actual discussion is complicated. I just outlined the problems with Donbass, Donetsk, a divided country. You can't just simply ignore that and say, oh, withdraw, and then everything will be fine. What will happen will be both sides will start killing each other again, as they have been for many decades now. So you have to think about a solution to that. But also, because Russia wants a solution to the meta problem, which is the problem of the unwillingness of the United States to form some form of coexistence, if you like,

between the Eurasian sphere and the European Western sphere. How to bring some sort of coexistence. Those were the subjects of those two treaties that Russia drew up in December 2021. And it is a complex, but the first start must be because they're not interested in talking to Europe at all. But is there, and I ask this question, is there an American who's prepared to put their reputation and credibility on the line to start a discussion like that? Because it'll be surely painful for whoever tries to do that. Or do we have to wait till we're right up to the election process for that to happen with another 100,000 dead in Ukraine as a consequence of it. Maybe that'll be what will happen because it's very hard to see in any way Biden and his team, his campaign team will say, we can't afford for you to be seen to abandoning Ukraine

or giving up on the project of Russia like that before the election. So let's just keep the thing ticking over, the wheels turning, even if nothing comes out of it. But that means a lot more people, if they try and if they insist on Ukraine continuing with offensive, a lot more Ukrainians are going to die until the point at which maybe it'll happen earlier, that Ukraine just enters into stasis, becomes paralyzed, can't move. The military just doesn't function anymore because there's no order. The center has collapsed and there's no political structure or military structure to replace it. We may be closer to that than we believe, but no one really knows. I'm sure they know in Moscow, but I don't. I wonder what the domestic political reaction in the U.S.

would be to such a stalemate or such a collapse of the center. Here's President Putin in the same interview complaining that the U.S. is provoking him. The Kremlin, there are terrorist attacks organized by Kiev and of course all those drone attacks including the Kremlin. On the one hand the Biden administration is quite categorical in saying that they do not approve of such actions and they never promoted their destruction of Nord Stream 1 and 2. Can you evaluate it and how are you going to deal with it? You know everything you mentioned these are their attempts to provoke us to some powerful counteractions. The attempt to hit and cause some damage to the Kremlin and all those assaults on the Belgorod region and villages near the border. All these

are attempts to provoke us. So if we destroyed five Patriot complexes near Kiev. So what do you think? Can we destroy any building in Kiev? There are no limitations for us, but we don't do it due to a number of considerations. All right. Patting himself on the back for his restraint, something you and our colleagues on this program have admired. When talking about what he destroyed, the first thing he said was, in other words, military equipment supplied by the U.S. He obviously believes that those drone attacks on the Kremlin, there were two of them, one in the neighborhood where he lives, one in the building that is his official residence,

where he apparently doesn't actually live, were approved by the U.S. as some sort of a pinprick provocation. He didn't look very worried or upset to me. He looked rather calm and in control. Absolutely. I don't, my belief isn't that that isn't what he's referring to. I don't think those pinpricks, as you rightly say, concern him very much. He's very calm about those. What really worries him is a major false flag provocation that comes, something like an attack on Zaporizhia nuclear power station or some sort of a dirty nuclear bomb being set off,

something that will really be unanswerable and that he'll be forced into some sort of reaction. So it's a serious worry for them, not for these tiny things in Bolognard or the drones that were attacking Moscow, but worries about a major escalation done by people intent on bringing NATO into the war by one means or another. And that's what he's trying to prepare the Russians for and to tell them, we will not be drawn into it. We will not do an overreaction. We must keep it done. As I've always said, you know, his main concern is

he doesn't want to get to the situation where something is attributed to Russia falsely. And then suddenly in America, everyone says, oh my God, oh no, this is 9-11. This is, you know, Pearl Harbor. We must do something against Russia. So he's very concerned about a big false flag provocation. And that's what he's really talking about. Not these little micro affairs. He's quite comfortable with that. Interesting that you use the phrase false flag and Pearl Harbor in the same sentence. But we won't go there. We won't go there now.

Alistair Crook, always a pleasure. My dear friend, your words, whether spoken or written, are always so thought-provoking, deeply appreciated by my audience and certainly by me. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you very much. Thank you. More as we get it. 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.