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[Music]
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hi everyone judge andrew napolitano here
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with judging freedom today is tuesday
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june 21st
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2022 it’s about 11 o’clock in the
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morning here on the east coast of the
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united states
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with the
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country’s attention focused on the
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decisions of the supreme court of the
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united states
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some of which came down in the past hour
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and the remainder of which will come
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thursday we cannot lose sight
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of what continues to happen in ukraine
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and so we have today our go-to military
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expert
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colonel douglas mcgregor who really
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needs no introduction to this audience
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colonel mcgregor always a pleasure thank
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you for joining us here
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on judging freedom
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sure
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so a couple of events have occurred
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since we were last together but
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before we zero in on them
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can you give us your assessment from
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your observations and from your sources
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of how the conflict is going in ukraine
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and how and when it is likely to end up
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well the first uh question is an easy
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one to answer uh
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ukraine has lost this war
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i would argue had lost it some time ago
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it’s now becoming so apparent that even
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the most ardent supporter of
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ukraine’s war on russia in london
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berlin paris or the united states and
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washington can’t really stand up and say
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anything else i suppose some will but
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the truth is the war is over the
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ukrainians are losing on a daily basis
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somewhere is between 500 and 1 000 dead
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and wounded
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their army is effectively annihilated
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they’re throwing reservists the
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equivalent of what we would call
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national guardsmen into the buzz saw
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and the russians are very calmly
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methodically annihilating whatever shows
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up
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the russians have already begun
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consolidating their control over 25 30
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percent
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of ukraine
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where the ukrainian forces were
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previously paused to attack russia
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they now control uh territory that is
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responsible for roughly 80 percent of
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ukraine’s gross national product
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so i expect that the russians will hold
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on to this and incorporate it into
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russia it will be annexed it was
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historically russian it is a game
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now as far as how will this end
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well we have a lot of people that seem
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to be determined that it will not end
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and that is extremely dangerous because
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the longer this lasts the greater the
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potential for this regional conflict to
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widen and engulf more countries and
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ultimately to drag us in which
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some people think is the real goal in
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incomprehensible as that may seem
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is the united states still sending uh
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cash and military equipment or have the
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56 billion that the congress authorized
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plus some of the president’s
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discretionary funds as recently as
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another billionaire where he got it but
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this is the type of discretion we give
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to the president of the united states
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uh has that all been spent has it all
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been delivered
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well not all of it has been spent uh not
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all of it has yet been delivered but
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most of it is is effectively gone and
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the thing that most americans don’t
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understand is that
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we are actually paying double
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we’re close to double uh what we
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normally pay for equipment because
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remember what happens is that
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we ship equipment and support and
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supplies to ukraine as well as cash
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because we are effectively funding the
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ukrainian government if we stop funding
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the ukrainian government everything
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would collapse i’m sure mr zielenski
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would climb into an airplane and fly to
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miami where he owns a mansion
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and essentially try to duck any
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responsibility for what’s gone on but we
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continue to send hundreds of millions of
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dollars in hard cash over there that
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pays everyone but the key thing is that
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the military equipment we send ends up
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costing us twice what it normally would
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and why does why is that well it’s first
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of all we can’t replace it right away
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that’s part of the problem we have to
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replace it in order to replace it we
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have to pay more for what we’re giving
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away
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so we end up sending enormous quantities
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of money in a direct
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transfer
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right to the department of defense
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if you simply view this as part of the
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american defense budget well now you’re
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you’re approaching a trillion dollars uh
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in in ways that we never have before
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we’re spending so
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recklessly at this point
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it’s hard to know exactly how much we
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are investing not just in the department
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of defense but of course in our
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intelligence agencies all right so if we
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if we give them a tank
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and i’m just gonna throw out a round
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number we give them a tank worth a
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million dollars it’s going to cost us a
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million 250 to replace it is that the
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essence at least at least okay
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okay
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have any of the people around the
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president as far as you know uh military
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diplomatic or intelligence
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come to the same conclusions that you
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just articulated
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well if there are they’re in deep hide
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let’s face it
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you know you’ve got to keep in mind
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something and this is what americans
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don’t understand people say well how
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could we have reached these conclusions
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and done such a stupid thing say in
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the in the wake of 9 11 or any number of
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different instances in iraq afghanistan
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syria now with ukraine
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the point is there are always people in
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the intelligence system who provide
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sound analysis
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it’s just that their analysis is not
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wanted
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so you have political leaders who
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essentially pick and choose from the
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intelligence estimates the same thing is
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true on the military side with generals
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there’s an old expression
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presidents ultimately get the generals
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they want now that can be positive you
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know look what lincoln went through
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until he finally had u.s grant that’s a
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good example
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uh fdr was a little more fortunate
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early on with marshall but it was still
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a very tough fight for marshall to build
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an army because fdr wanted to fight the
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whole war with the air force and the
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navy
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the these things happened over time and
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and jfk ultimately got the generals he
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wanted
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and they were the generals that led us
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into vietnam
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everyone does this and people forget
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that that general officers don’t emerge
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heavily or surprisingly no he agrees
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with them but there must be there must
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be military intelligence and cia
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that have come to the same conclusion
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you have not that ukraine is losing but
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that ukraine has lost
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oh yeah i’m sure that russia controls
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that russia controls enough property so
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it’s 80 of the gross national product
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which includes the ability to derive
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taxes for the government to stay alive
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is somebody telling that to joe biden
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and is he rejecting it or maybe you
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don’t know this because you’re obviously
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not in the administration is that advice
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not even making its way into the oval
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office
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you know i suspect that uh
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our friend president biden is sort of a
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mushroom
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they keep him in a dark place and and
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feed him crap
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i think susan rice
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uh jake sullivan blinken
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oligarchs frankly rich powerful figures
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that control
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the democratic party and let’s face it
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large portions of the republican party
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who dominate washington
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they all have much more influence now
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than americans realize
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they’re running the show so i i think
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they’re not telling joe biden anything
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that they don’t really want him to know
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but more important
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they’re riding this this train to
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oblivion and they’re not going to get
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off and they’re throwing more coal into
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the locomotive with each passing day
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now as they’re they’re doubling down on
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failure in the belief that if they just
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hang on long enough
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somehow or another miraculously they’re
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going to win and they’re destroying nato
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they’re tearing europe apart europeans
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are finally beginning to wake up to the
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disaster
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they’ve lost control of eastern europe
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you have the lithuanians
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who want to cut the russians off from
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east prussia or this place called
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kaliningrad you have russian retired
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officers now calling for putin to commit
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nuclear weapons to the defense of
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kaliningrad
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at the same time you have the poles who
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continue to advocate for greater
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violence against russia and greater
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support for the non-existent ukrainian
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state because let’s face it ukrainian
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ukraine is now a failed state it’s
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collapsed
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people are being pushed at gunpoint into
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the into russian fire this whole thing
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is a disaster but no one wants to admit
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failure because they know once they
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admit failure they lose all credibility
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what could what could we or what could
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the united states have done
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to have uh tempered or lessened
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uh the bloodshed
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well the very first you’re talking about
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five or six months ago colonel yeah well
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of course obviously we could have paid
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attention to what
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mr putin was saying and had been saying
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for
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literally a decade
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i mean this goes back to 2008 in
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budapest and the munich security
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conference
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where he effectively said we cannot
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accept what you’re doing we we will not
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tolerate the presence
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of nato forces particularly u.s forces
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on our borders we could have listened to
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that
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there was always the opportunity to say
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you know
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we don’t need ukraine we don’t need to
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turn ukraine into a platform for attack
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against russia we don’t need it it’s
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unnecessary and russia whatever we don’t
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like about it is not the soviet union
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we refuse to do any of those things we
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refuse to consider neutrality
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and remember we also intervened once the
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intervention began by putin and frankly
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i disagree with people who say oh
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putin’s evil he started this war no i i
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think we started the war he simply acted
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as he did because he thought he had no
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choice or he was going to end up with
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the equivalent of something like
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pershing missiles in eastern ukraine
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that would threaten and destroy russia
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so i think he did what he thought he had
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to do
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but even after he did he was always
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willing to negotiate we kept intervening
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and telling uh
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zelensky and his friends don’t give an
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inch we’ll support you and perhaps they
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they thought
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i wouldn’t be surprised they may well
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have thought that we were coming to the
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rescue
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and at the time i said they’re in the
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same position the polls were in 1939
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when churchill and the french said oh
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we’ll stand by you poland
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well that didn’t do the polls any damn
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good
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uh and poland emerged from the war
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perhaps in the worst position of anybody
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but the point is we we refused to
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consider anything that made sense and no
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one looked at the region and said this
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is a part of the world judge where we
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don’t want a war
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this is more dangerous than anything
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else we’ve experienced in the last 75
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years all right recently
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as recently as this morning
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general sir patrick sanders
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chief of the general staff
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of the british military i guess the
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rough equivalent
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to our chair chairman of the joint
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chiefs of staff
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said we are the generation that will be
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preparing british soldiers
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for world war iii
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what do you make of that what do you
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make of a public statement like that by
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the chief the highest ranking military
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officer of great britain
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well we need to understand something the
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british system is very different from
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our system
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uh you can still reach one or two stars
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in the british army on the basis of
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demonstrated character competence and
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intelligence
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that’s
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impossible uh in our system today
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everything is highly politicized
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but the british will tell you quite
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openly you don’t get to three or four
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stars without being politically
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acceptable to the reigning political
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leadership or regime whatever government
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that happens to be
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my point is this
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sir patrick sanders would not say what
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he did
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unless he were told by boris johnson to
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say something like that
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so this is not a
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boris johnson
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a madman
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why would he have why would he have his
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chief military officer say something
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like that well i i don’t want to be too
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harsh but i i think it’s reasonable to
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say that uh boris johnson is a
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bloviating blowhard and a fool
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and he was known for that for many
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decades it’s tragic that he ended up
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where he is he’s an opportunist
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he’s not the first one i mean i saw a
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lot of this kind of behavior from tony
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blair during the kosovo air campaign
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and then subsequently when we went into
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iraq he thought it was his opportunity
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to posture his churchillian
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i think boris johnson has simply taken
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that to the extreme he thinks this is
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benefiting him politically
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i i think it’s disastrous i think he’s
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going to face a no-confidence vote and
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be out on his ear within the next few
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months i agree with you about johnson
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but let’s look at the other side of coin
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about
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what sir patrick said
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if the real goal of anthony blinken the
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american secretary of state
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is to
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make it look like we were dragged
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reluctantly into a war so that we can
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knock off putin and liberate russia
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amounting what i think he would say
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might not sir patrick’s uh language
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have been part of that goal and that
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pattern stated differently
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sir patrick wouldn’t be where he is
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if he weren’t part of the european
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globalists who have the same mindset as
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the american secretary of state and
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secretary of defense agree or disagree
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no i think your point is valid the
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question is how far do we take it
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and i think once you move to the edge of
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the abyss and we realize we’re talking
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about waging high-end conventional
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warfare in eastern europe
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i think everyone in europe would would
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take a a very quick step backward
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uh they’re not interested in that
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uh patrick
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sanders may also in the back of his mind
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think that the british army can finally
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be funded
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adequately remember the united states
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marine corps is twice the size of the
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british army
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so you’re not talking about a
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significant force the british today are
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about as
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irrelevant to what happens on the
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continent as they were in 1880 their
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army is very small and it would have to
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be dramatically enlarged and
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fundamentally reorganized and
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re-equipped so it’s it’s more hot air
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than reality which is again goes back to
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my point on boris johnson he’s hot here
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he’s not real
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now that doesn’t mean you’re not right
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right
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perhaps sullivan thinks in his mind oh
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this is a great way
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sort of to move into the into the fight
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but then again you’ve got millie
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you need to understand general milley
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general milley knows we’re in no
15:30
position to fight anybody
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this is the legacy force that emerged
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from the last 20 years of clubbing baby
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seals
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we don’t seem to understand we haven’t
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fought anybody who can fight back we’re
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not prepared
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if i were to sketch for for the audience
15:44
the logistical realities and what’s
15:47
going on in central europe right now
15:49
people would be horrified at the thought
15:51
that we would even consider moving a 50
15:53
miles into ukraine it’s it’s crazy and
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then finally there’s always the nuclear
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dimension once you move towards the
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russian border
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there is no guarantee that we will not
16:04
face a nuclear confrontation this is a
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terrible state of affairs
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if the president of the united states
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doesn’t understand what you’re saying
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and if the people around him you
16:16
mentioned sullivan you mean jake
16:18
sullivan
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forgive me i don’t know his real first
16:21
name jake
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this is uh clinton’s chief
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advisor on national security now the
16:28
national security advisor to the
16:29
president of the united states is the
16:31
highest security clearance if these
16:33
people are keeping
16:35
the mcgregor
16:36
analysis
16:38
from the president
16:39
it’s almost criminal
16:41
because this could result this could
16:43
result in in death more deaths of more
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innocence and some of them might be
16:47
americans
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judge
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franklin roosevelt was told in no
16:53
uncertain terms by the chief of naval
16:56
operations and the commander-in-chief of
16:57
the navy in the pacific
16:59
that if he embarked on the embargo
17:01
against japan they would bomb pearl
17:04
probability that japan would attack us
17:06
was very high
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what happened
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right so we’re dealing with something
17:11
very similar right now in fact i was
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thinking about this this morning
17:16
oliver cromwell who’s one of my
17:18
favorite people brilliant man who saved
17:21
great britain from
17:22
total anarchy
17:24
stood up in british parliament and and
17:26
finally said
17:27
to the king
17:28
you know for all the good that you’ve
17:30
done and for as long as you’ve sat here
17:32
and whatever you’ve promised you need to
17:33
go
17:34
you’re a disaster you must leave to save
17:38
england
17:39
and i think you’re reaching the point
17:40
where someone’s going to have to stand
17:42
up and say to save the united states mr
17:44
biden you and the people around you must
17:47
go that’s the only solution i can think
17:49
of right now
17:50
let me um
17:52
switch to another issue but related to
17:55
this
17:56
um american soldiers of fortune uh
17:59
american uh veterans
18:02
uh fighting on the ground two of them in
18:04
in ukraine two of them but captured by
18:05
the russians allegedly
18:07
a beaten and made to uh give confessions
18:10
so the kremlin says they’re not
18:12
protected by the geneva convention
18:15
they’re going to be tried as terrorists
18:16
which means they’ll be convicted and
18:18
executed
18:20
are you surprised at this
18:23
and is this a just a bloviating threat
18:26
or will it happen
18:27
no i think the russians are very serious
18:30
remember
18:32
every effort that they made
18:35
a good faith effort in their minds
18:37
to put an end to this war to negotiate
18:40
it into it has been spurned by us
18:42
we have supplied
18:44
our proxy in ukraine
18:47
with weapons and and support on a scale
18:49
that you know we did not provide to the
18:52
french or the british
18:53
for a very long time during world war ii
18:56
um
18:57
if if you’re looking at this from the
18:58
standpoint of the russian you say first
19:00
of all the americans are not only
19:02
supporting our existential enemies
19:05
now they’re they’re actually allowing
19:08
former soldiers to show up and fight
19:11
with the ukrainians now we can say these
19:13
people volunteered and
19:15
they’re at their own risk but the
19:16
russians are going to look at this and
19:17
say this is no accident
19:19
the americans could stop this if they
19:21
wanted to
19:22
so now the problem is if you’re sitting
19:24
in the white house how do you how do you
19:26
approach the russians either privately
19:29
or publicly on the issue it’s very
19:31
difficult so no i think
19:33
i think it’s very serious and i think
19:35
the worst could happen
19:38
general douglas mcgregor no matter what
19:40
we talk about it’s it’s eye-opening and
19:42
it’s refresh refreshing to hear the
19:44
truth
19:45
thank you for joining us okay thank you
19:47
judge of course judge napolitano for
19:50
judging freedom
19:52
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