The Ukraine War in the light of the UN Charter
(https://dezayasalfred.wordpress.com/2023/02/06/the-ukraine-war-in-the-light-of-the-un-charter/)
Alfred de Zayas, Professor of international law and world history at the Geneva School of Diplomacy (J.D., Harvard, Ph.D. Göttingen) former UN Independent Expert on International Order (2012-18), former Secretary of the UN Human Rights Committee, author of 12 books including “Building a Just World Order” https://www.claritypress.com/product/building-a-just-world-order/
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The war in Ukraine did not start on 24 February 2022, but already in February 2014. The civilian population of the Donbas has endured continued shelling from Ukrainian forces since 2014, notwithstanding the Minsk Agreements. These attacks on Lugansk and Donetsk significantly increased in January-February 2022, as reported by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine[1].
Like all wars, this war is a tragedy for all concerned, — not only for Ukrainians and Russians, but also for the continued validity of international law and the primacy of the UN Charter. Already NATO’s military campaigns in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq in the 1990’s and early 2000’s sorely tried the authority and credibility of the United Nations as an Organization. These military campaigns conducted outside Chapter VII of the UN Charter rendered the United Nations nearly irrelevant, because the Organization was unable to prevent the illegal use of force or mediate peace. The unilateral actions of a number of states were never subject to accountability, not even the grave war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan, as documented by Julian Assange in the Wikileaks publications. NATO countries grossly violated articles 2(3) and 2(4) of the Charter, absent any Charter justification, since article 51, which stipulates the right of self-defence does not cover pre-emptive military actions.
The so-called “coalition of the willing” perpetrated naked aggression against the people of Iraq in 2003 in a series of criminal acts that constituted a revolt against the UN Charter and international law. Such military campaigns carried out against the letter and spirit of the UN Charter and hitherto not subject to prosecution by the International Criminal Court have significantly weakened the force of international law and resulted in the emergence of “precedents of permissibility” [2], as I described in a Counterpunch article published on 4 March 2022, in which I clearly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine as an egregious violation of Art. 2(4) of the UN Charter.
On the other hand, it is clear that a violation of international law does not change jus cogens or create new international law (ex injuria non oritur jus – no right emerges from a wrong). Impunity only manifests the weakness of the system due to a lack of adequate enforcement mechanisms[3].
On 31 January 2023 Counterpunch published an essay by history Professor Lawrence Wittner entitled “The Ukraine War and International Law”[4]. He correctly condemns the violation of article 2(4) of the UN Charter by Russia and the war crimes that have ensued, for which there must be accountability. Prof. Wittner refers to “rules of behavior among nations” in connection with war, diplomacy, economy, etc. Among those rules of behavior are, of course, the “general principles of law” referred to in article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, notably the principles of good faith and the uniform application of norms.
In his book The Great Delusion[5], Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago elucidated principles of international order and the necessity to respect agreements (pacta sunt servanda), including oral agreements. In his article in the Economist on 19 March 2022[6], Mearsheimer explains why the West bears responsibility for the Ukrainian crisis. Already in 2015 Mearsheimer had signalled the importance of keeping oral agreements, as those given by the United States to Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989-91, to the effect that NATO would not expand eastward[7]. In subsequent lectures Mearsheimer has explained that, whether of not the West considers NATO’s expansion a provocation, what is crucial is how NATO expansion is perceived by those who feel threatened by it. In this context we must remember that article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibits not only the use of force but also the threat of the use of force. Promising to expand NATO to the very borders of Russia and the massive weaponization of Ukraine certainly constitute such a threat, especially bearing in mind the aggressive campaigns by NATO members in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Lybia.
For decades Russian Presidents Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev have been warning the West – notably at the 2007 Munich Security Conference[8] — that NATO eastward expansion constitutes an existential menace to Russia. Both Presidents advocate a European security architecture that will take into account the national security concerns of all countries, including Russia. Whether Russian fears are objectively justified or not (I think they are) is not the pertinent question, since their apprehension is a factum. What is crucial is the obligation of all UN member states to settle their differences by peaceful means, i.e. to negotiate in good faith. That is precisely what the Minsk agreements were all about. Yet, Ukraine violated the Minsk agreements systematically. Russia did make a credible effort to negotiate since 2014 in the context of the OSCE and the Normandy Format. German Chancellor Angela Merkel[9] and French President François Hollande[10] recently confirmed that the Minsk agreements were intended to give Ukraine time to prepare for war. Thus, essentially, the West entered the agreements in bad faith by deliberately deceiving the Donbas Russians. In a very real sense, Putin was taken for a ride at Minsk and during the eight years of Normandy Format discussions. Such behavior reflects a “culture of cheating”[11] and violates well-established principles of international relations amounting to perfidy, in contravention of the UN Charter and general principles of law. Notwithstanding, In December 2021 the Russians put forward two peaceful proposals in the hope of averting military confrontation. Although the treaty proposals were moderate and pragmatic, the US and NATO refused to negotiate pursuant to article 2(3) of the Charter and arrogantly rejected them. If this was not a provocation in contravention of article 2(4) of the UN Charter, I do not know what is.
Professor Wittner is right in reminding us of the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 and the 1997 Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership, but these instruments have to be placed in legal and historical context, in particular in the context of Western pronouncements since 2008 to bring Ukraine into NATO, an issue that in no way was foreseen in the two instruments above.
Wittner is wrong in his evaluation of the Crimean issue. I was the UN representative for the elections in Ukraine in March and June 1994 and criss-crossed the country, including Crimea. Without a doubt, the vast majority of the population there and in the Donbass are Russian and feel Russian. This brings up the issue of the jus cogens right of self-determination of peoples, anchored in articles 1 and 55 of the UN Charter (and in Chapters XI and XII of the Charter) and in Art. 1 common to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Wittner seems to forget that the US and EU supported the illegal coup d’état[12] against the democratically elected President of Ukraine, Victor Yanukovich, and immediately started working together with the Putsch-regime in Kiev, instead of insisting in re-establishing law and order as provided for in the Agreement of 20 February 2014[13]. As Professor Stephen Cohen wrote in 2018, Maidan was a “seminal event”[14].
Without the Maidan Putsch and the anti-Russian measures immediately taken by the Putsch-regime, the Crimean and Donbass peoples would not have felt menaced and would not have insisted on their right of self-determination. Wittner errs when he uses the term “annexation” to refer to the reincorporation of Crimea into Russia. “Annexation” in international law presupposes an invasion, military occupation contrary to the will of the people. That is not what happened in Crimea in March 2014. First there was a referendum to which the UN and OSCE were invited – and never came. Then there was an unilateral declaration of independence by the legitimate Crimean Parliament, only then was there an official request to be re-incorporated into Russia, a request that went through the due process mill, being first approved by the Duma, then by the Constitutional Court of Russia, and only then signed by Putin. Had a referendum been held in 1994, when I was in Crimea, the results would surely have been similar. A referendum today would confirm the will of the Crimeans to be part of Russia, not Ukraine, to which they had been artificially attached by decision of Nikita Khruschev, a Ukrainian himself. There are no historical or ethnic reasons justifying Crimea’s attachment to the Ukraine. Many international lawyers agree that Crimea exercised its right of self-determination and was not “annexed” by Russia[15].
Wittner is correct in recalling the fact that the General Assembly adopted a Resolution of 27 March 2014 rejecting the “annexation” of Crimea. But what exactly does that Resolution tell us? As a former senior lawyer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former UN Independent Expert, I must admit that for many decades the United Nations Organization applies double standards and does not live up to the Charter. Many resolutions and pronouncements by successive Secretary Generals apply international law selectively, à la carte. What the 2014 GA Resolution demonstrates is that the Organization is largely in the service of Washington and Brussels, partly because of the enormous financial dependency of the UN on the West. Similarly, the GA Resolution of 2 March 2022 is yet another example of double-standards, bearing in mind that the GA had not adopted any similar resolutions when NATO committed aggression on Yugoslavia in 1999 or when the “coalition of the willing” devastated Iraq in 2003 without any threat or provocation by Saddam Hussein.
Wittner also cites Secretary General Guterres with regard to the “annexation” of Crimea and the Donbass. As a former senior UN staffer and former rapporteur, it pains me to see how the Organization has been hijacked to support certain untenable positions of Western countries, and how it allows itself to be used in the geopolitical game, instead of remaining true to the Principles and Purposes of the Organization as laid out in the Charter. Where is the “outrage” of the Organization when it comes to the multiple aggressions of the United States against Cuba, Grenada, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela, the many coups-d’état directed by the US against governments it does not like, when the Organization keeps silent about the crimes committed by the CIA in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and secret detention centres, when the “annexation” of the Syrian Golan Heights by Israel is tacitly accepted.
Wittner poses an important question “what…are we to think about the value of international law”? As a professor of international law and a believer in the UN Charter, I ask the same question. My 25 Principles of International Order[16] give some answers. In my 14 reports to the UN Human Rights Council and General Assembly (2012-18) I formulated pragmatic recommendations how to reform the United Nations in order to deliver on the 1945 promise to “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. I agree with Wittner that it is necessary “to strengthen global governance, thereby providing a firmer foundation for the enforcement of international law”. But there is a caveat – the Organization must be truly committed to peace, and not only sometimes. It must not continue to apply international law à la carte, or it will lose all its authority and credibility.
Today what is absolutely necessary is an immediate cease-fire. The United Nations is failing the Charter if it does not make peace its priority and puts the entire system in the service of peace. The mediation proposals of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula[17] must be taken seriously as well as the warnings and proposals by Professors John Mearsheimer[18], Jeffrey Sachs[19] and Richard Falk[20].
[1] https://www.osce.org/special-monitoring-mission-to-ukraine/512683
https://www.osce.org/special-monitoring-mission-to-ukraine-closed
[2] https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/03/04/precedents-of-permissibility/
[3] https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/07/no-right-arises-from-a-wrong/
[4] https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/02/01/the-ukraine-war-and-international-law/
[5] Yale University Press, 2018.
[6] https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2022/03/11/john-mearsheimer-on-why-the-west-is-principally-responsible-for-the-ukrainian-crisis
[7] http://www.mearsheimer.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Why-the-Ukraine-Crisis-Is.pdf
[8] http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/24034
[9] https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/merkel:-minsk-agreement-attempted-to-give-ukraine-time
[10] https://global.espreso.tv/minsk-agreements-gave-ukraine-time-to-strengthen-army-and-destroyed-putins-plans-in-2022-francois-hollande
[11] https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/01/28/a-culture-of-cheating-on-the-origins-of-the-crisis-in-ukraine/
[12] https://www.nouvelobs.com/rue89/rue89-le-yeti-voyageur-a-domicile/20140311.RUE9766/le-coup-d-etat-ukrainien-a-bien-ete-pilote-par-les-etats-unis-la-preuve.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26079957
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2658245
[13] https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2011/S00116/how-the-western-press-lied-about-the-2014-coup-in-ukraine-pretending-that-it-was-instead-a-real-democratic-revolution.htm
[14] https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/four-years-of-ukraine-and-the-myths-of-maidan/
[15]https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/die-krim-und-das-voelkerrecht-kuehle-ironie-der-geschichte-12884464.html https://www.rubikon.news/artikel/die-krim-und-das-volkerrecht
“Putin hat die Krim nicht annektiert.“ Prof. Dr. iur. Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8OJ07D7gPI)
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ukraine/2020-04-03/russia-love
[16] https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/11/28/principles-of-international-order/
See Chapter 2 of my book “Building a Just World Order”, Clarity Press, 2021.
[17] https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-war-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva-mercosur-olaf-scholz/amp/
[18] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmqojuijtFg
[19] https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#search/mearsheimer/WhctKKXpTdsZMnWHKprjzQLSCBwNkVfcWmKkHxltlbQMdkZgfksnmLmnKDjdVDrHpNTHxLV
[20] https://richardfalk.org/2022/09/14/ukraine-war-statecraft-and-geopolitical-conflict-the-nuclear-danger/
joseba says:
Prentsa independentea? Zein?
https://youtu.be/N0H7PIJcEP0
Transkripzioa
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now you talk about Terror [Music]
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what about for me [Music]
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I’ve been terrorized all my days
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having all my days [Music]
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the Ukraine conflict has plunged the world into a geopolitical crisis but
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this is not as the writer Patrick Lawrence points out the only crisis the war in Ukraine has exacerbated the
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crisis within the Western press inflicting damage that he believes is ultimately irreparable
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the press in the U.S and most of Europe slavishly Echoes the opinions of a ruling Elite and oversees a public
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discourse that is often unhinged from The Real World it openly discredits or
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censors anything that counters the dominant narrative about Ukraine however
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factual for example on August 4th Amnesty International published a report
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titled Ukrainian fighting tactics endanger civilians the report charged
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Ukrainian forces with putting civilians at risk by establishing bases and operating Weapons Systems in populated
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residential areas including schools and hospitals a violation of the laws of war
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to call out Ukraine for war crimes however well documented saw the press
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and the ruling Elites come down in Fury on Amnesty International the head of amnesty International’s kieve office
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resign calling the report quote a tool of Russian propaganda and one of the
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many broadsides the Royal United Services Institute in London wrote that the amnesty report demonstrates a weak
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understanding of the laws of armed conflict no understanding of military operations and indulges in insinuations
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without supplying supporting evidence it is nearly impossible to question the
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virtues of Ukraine’s government and Military those that do so are attacked
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and banned from social media how did this happen why is a position on the war in Ukraine
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the litmus test for who gets to have a voice and who does not why should a position on Ukraine justify
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censorship joining me to discuss these questions is Patrick Lawrence who was a
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correspondent and columnist for nearly 30 years for the Far Eastern Economic Review the international Herald Tribune
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and The New Yorker he is the author of somebody else’s Century East and West in
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a post-western world and time no longer America after the American Century
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I just want to begin with that first question because it does mystify me uh the United States is not actively
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engaged in a conflict with Russia in Ukraine it’s a proxy war why has any
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criticism of zelenski or the Ukrainian government or the Ukrainian military
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become such uh an anaphyla within the media landscape yeah
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nice to meet you Chris we could be in with a face to a name after reading you for
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years um there are a couple of ways at that
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question uh maybe more than two uh mine I begin with some
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something John Pilger said uh back in 2014 after the
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American cultivated coup in Kiev the not precisely the beginning of this
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crisis but uh certainly a mile marker um and um he observed during a lecture
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at Berkeley hours is a isn’t information ours is a media age
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and an age of War by information you know defamation by information uh
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Etc and um I’ve been really struck the extent to which that quotation 2007 year
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uh of 2014 2004 eight years old now really
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it it’s quite remarkable the extent to which this is kind of a meta War uh
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being waged in um in words in column inches and so on
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uh and uh that leads me to my second thought on your question
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uh closely related to my first um it is very important
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to keep the reading and viewing public hours in America you know the Brits and so on
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but behind this project um because public Ascent or perhaps my word is
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acquiescence is essential um
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in direct proportion to the bloody senselessness of the whole thing right
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we’ve got to keep those blue and yellow flags waving off the front porch
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um and and therefore you can’t have any cracks in the facade
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um a report like this uh risks
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rather perilously if a lot of it comes out public support for this conflict and uh
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you know given all the sacrifices people are uh being asked
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to make in in behalf of this uh campaign and I and have no doubt we haven’t
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tasted the worst of it uh uh given all those sacrifices
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people really do have to have their minds massaged in in order to maintain
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public support that’s those are my thoughts on it you and I have both covered conflicts
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and what is apparent to those of us who have covered conflicts is that reporters
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in Ukraine are actually nowhere near the fighting or if they are
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they’re taken out on kind of what we call dog and pony shows where they’re escorted by Ukrainian military for a few
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hours at a certain place and then they Retreat again but it is certainly evident to me that daily reporting uh
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doesn’t really exist that one writes whatever they’re handed uh probably at a
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Ministry of information the Press Center in Kiev uh you want to know my take on that uh I
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I go back to I just finished a column for Bob Shear literally two hours ago
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this is share post which we both write for uh yeah on this very topic right uh
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I I go back to 75 April 75 um
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uh look the Vietnamese people won the Vietnam War
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um but the Press had a role in it our anti-war movement had a role in it
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and I think the governing Elite and the
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defense establishment the National Security State was uh I’ll use the phrase
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sort of nostalgic they were fairly freaked out after that uh and um I I
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think from that time onward they recognized uh the Press has got to be
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controlled um uh in these kind of War situations uh
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during the Vietnam War I didn’t cover it incidentally I haven’t covered nearly the number of conflicts you have Chris
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uh um the Press could basically correspondence could basically
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go where they wanted that created problems the next major
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uh conflict um that the American armed services
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engaged was the Iraq War in in 1990 and
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we had the phenomenon of embeddedness I I
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could not have disapproved of this idea uh more completely
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uh correspondence were not so far as I understand allowed to go anywhere they want they were embedded with a given
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platoon or some other unit and therefore they saw what they were permitted to see
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and if you control what a correspondent is permitted to see in essence you’re
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exerting a considerable amount of control over what that correspondent writes
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um so I traced the phenomenon to to that uh period there’s another side to this
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um and that is the the acquiescence of correspondence to this arrangement I
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at the time embeddedness it came up I said you know all the big organizations
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the American Society of newspaper editors what have you uh should stand up
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and say absolutely not but of course they didn’t um and I I think some of this goes to
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the correspondence themselves um what are they doing cooperating in
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this way right uh in one of the pieces you may have in your hands I I suggested
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there a couple of ways around this refused to participate
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um participate and do a runner uh
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you know elude your minders or quit right
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um uh at the very least correspondence such as Carlotta Gaul
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should announce in their column in their pieces I was on a guided tour or whatever
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phrase one may wish to use but they don’t say that
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um and there’s a fourth alternative and that’s why I included
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Eva Bartlett uh you and I are participating in that fourth alternative
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as we speak Chris and that is Independent Media and for my money the
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dynamism in this field not to mention the Integrity lies with Independent
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Media outsized as these responsibilities may be at the moment to our resources
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well you nailed it I covered the first Gulf War for the New York Times I’m an
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Arabic speaker I didn’t need to be escorted around nor having covered conflicts five years years alone
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covering the war in El Salvador was I about to be escorted around I violated
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the pool system I lived out in the desert uh and ended up entering Kuwait
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by attaching myself to a Marine Corps unit but there was something that you said that was very important which is
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true and that is that the majority of the press wanted those restrictions this is true in many of the wars I covered
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because much of the press did not really want to leave the hotel they did not want to go near the
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fighting which is a perfectly rational response to war but then they shouldn’t be there and so we were battling not
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only the attempt by the military to censor us but battling most of those
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within the Press who wanted to pose as War correspondence uh on these little
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dog and pony shows that they were taking on for a few hours here or there uh they liked playing Boy Scout dressing up in
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military uniforms and uh you know being part of the group uh and they completely
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were completely obsequious I mean this was kind of the irony you’re right that these restrictions were imposed because
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of the relative Freedom that the Press had in Vietnam but they didn’t need to impose them because 90 plus percent
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maybe more than 95 percent of the press uh was perfectly happy to do the bidding
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uh for you well you were there
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um what do you put it down to gutlessness um yeah absence of principle cow cow cow
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cowardice weren’t reporting as entertainment I would put it down to cowardice uh in that they didn’t want to
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go out and careerism uh that they wanted to be credentialized as War correspondents without being or
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correspondents so I was not working for the New York Times in the war in El Salvador so I didn’t have that kind of power uh but those of us who were going
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out and Reporting on the atrocities in El Salvador were battling uh
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establishment figures such as with the New York Times the horrible woman there who never left the hotel and wrote
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Whatever the embassy handed her uh was so we were battling not only the forces the uh local forces that were attempting
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to block our reporting but uh the the the Press competitors within the Press
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especially papers like the New York Times who were printing stuff diametrically opposed to what we were
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writing of course it was false and so getting back to the Ukraine uh my uh you
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know my my problem with the rewarding I know this is your problem as well is that uh the the truth about how
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information is being managed and let’s be clear I’ve covered many wars both sides in a war lie like they breathe the
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Russians are lying in the same way the ukrainians are lying the only way to tell is if you’re there uh but I think
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there is not the understanding by the mass of the American public and probably the European public that most of the
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press in essence is not there yeah yeah I they’re uh
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there’s culpability here uh Chris in their own way uh
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the um the Western media are prolonging this conflict
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um just about as much as the Brits are when they’re sending missiles or whatever
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we’re sending at the moment um it’s it’s a part of uh it’s it’s a
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part of this that uh bears quite serious responsibility
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um and uh I I don’t know what people like I’m okay for naming names right I I
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don’t know what people like Andrew Kramer and Andrew Higgins and so on are thinking when they’re out there
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reporting on the events they haven’t witnessed telling us if they tell us at all that
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they’re quoting Ukrainian accounts it’s in paragraph 12. um I don’t know what they’re thinking I
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don’t know whether they think this is harmless as you say careerism I wish I
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had thought of the word myself right I don’t know but uh I I can say with
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confidence I uh you know I honestly think I would never have done
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that during my years as a correspondent I would have just well I didn’t do it I told the New York
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Times I came to be a reporter and if I can’t be a reporter I’ll go home of course Cheney tried to expel me the
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irony being that he couldn’t find me um he was the defense secretary um it’s because I was sleeping literally with
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Bedouins up near Kuwait Porter um I want to talk about the censorship that’s taken place uh because when there
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are reports I mentioned the Amnesty International report but you write about CBS uh in a report uh where they
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documented that some 70 percent of the weaponry and material the U.S and its European allies sent to Ukraine never
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reaches uh the AFU it is diverted and we can safely assume sold on the black market and then what happens because uh
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first of all Ukraine was reputedly one of the most corrupt regimes in the
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country it was a transparency according to Transparency International but just use that as an example of how anything
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that uh is negative or reflects negative Lee on Ukraine is immediately uh shut
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out yeah yeah you know I often wonder how much can you sweep
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under the carpet until the lump under the carpet is just so large you can’t even walk across the room right
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there’s something a phenomenon I I like to call Polo
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the power of leaving out Lying by Omission right um
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and uh we were reading well the paying attention Among Us uh have been reading
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for a good while now that um the Weaponry
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America Britain and to an extent the Continentals
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are sending in is not getting anywhere near the front
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lines a considerable percentage of it um so you know the CBS report
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was in in the way of a a very useful
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uh concrete confirmation number one uh they had some good sources and number
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two the phenomenon had broken the surface and uh found its way into
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mainstream media right that those were the important uh things about that uh
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and then you know uh as I said of the AI report they may have well they may as
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well have belched in Chapel you just don’t say these things it goes back to a point
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we were considering earlier you know the public has got to be kept on side right
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now I want to mention something else uh in this line if I if I may Chris since
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the CBS report came out well to catch up your viewers
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CBS withdrew the report saying uh they were going to republish at a later date after a review
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they did republish uh two days later altering parts of it to soften it from
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the headline on down and they call this updating these days right
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um so that’s that’s the fate of that report it’s quite interesting
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uh neither AI nor um CBS retracted what they said
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and I detected in both cases a certain conflict between uh who’s on
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the ground and whose in head office
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in the case of AI field workers in the case of CBS the correspondence in
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Ukraine and elsewhere where they did their reporting um you’re getting people who are
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somewhat more concerned with the the facts there unearthing and they’re
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reporting uh versus people who are primarily concerned with ideological
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Conformity right I think that’s how these things happen now my my earlier
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point subsequent to the CBS report The Gray Zone maybe some of your viewers
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are familiar with it uh published an absolutely extraordinary report by a
20:47
woman named Lindsay Snell uh who’s had her ticket punched here and
20:53
there foreign policy magazine I think PBS and here and there and everywhere um
20:58
uh a a really nuts and bolts account of
21:03
the theft of these weapons based on interviews with Ukrainian
21:10
soldiers coming off the front an excellent piece of work and in the in
21:17
the in the file with Eva Bartlett’s work being
21:22
there being on the ground asking questions of people who are actually
21:29
participants in this conflict um and and the the Lindsay Snell piece
21:35
confirmed everything that was in the CBS report in in absolute Spades right
21:41
um again a tribute to the the importance of independent
21:49
journalism I want to read something you wrote have you comment on it all correspondents bring their politics with
21:55
them as I did in Portugal you’re talking about covering the revolution of carnations in 1975. this is a natural
22:02
thing a good thing an affirmation of their engaged Civic selves not at all to be regretted the task is to manage your
22:09
politics and Accord with your professional responsibilities the unique Place correspondents occupy in public
22:15
space there can be no confusing journalism and activism to do your best to keep your biases political
22:22
proclivities prejudices and what have you out of the files you send your
22:27
foreign desk it takes discipline and ordered priorities we are not getting this from the Western correspondence
22:33
reporting in Ukraine for mainstream media you may associate the era of
22:38
mistaking journalism for activism with independent Publications and fair enough to a point it happens the truth here is
22:46
that almost all mainstream journalists reporting from Ukraine are guilty of this and I am this far from editing out
22:54
my almost they are effectively activists in the cause of the American National
22:59
Security State its campaign against Russia and Washington’s later day effort
23:06
to defend its Primacy thanks for the fishing that out Chris
23:14
that period in Portugal was very important to me I was in my mid-20s my
23:20
first outing as a correspondent I was as I wrote in the piece Lisbon was my
23:26
classroom it was it it was extraordinarily uh
23:32
invigorate you know just every day was full of Vitality the
23:38
Portuguese people were I just left a very deep impression on me um
23:44
uh and uh I was writing for a a small
23:49
Weekly Magazine newspaper that published in
23:56
off Union Square in Manhattan okay and uh okay so the question
24:03
was um I I wanted to go to one of the core questions facing journalists and it’s
24:11
typically a question uh assigned to Independent practitioners such as I was
24:18
then um and that is are you a journalist or are you an activist right you can’t the
24:25
the mythology the the the fallacy is you can’t have politics
24:33
and be a correspondent right um that’s activism
24:39
as a phrase in that passage suggests that’s a problem there’s no question of
24:46
that right in the anti-war Press uh during that time
24:52
there were plenty of people uh performing as journalists but they were really activists right um
24:59
foreign and it’s a question I think every journalist needs to sort out and I came
25:06
to realize while I was in the Lisbon and wandering around that wonderful country
25:13
uh yeah well I have my politics right but wait a minute so does Marvin Howe
25:19
the times correspondent there so do all the others with the dailies
25:24
the wires and so forth right that’s not the issue there’s no such thing as a
25:30
correspondent without politics I don’t think there’s any such thing as a human being without politics but uh whether
25:38
they are understood or not um to have no politics is to have politics
25:43
basically it’s what you do with them and I I came to realize then
25:50
that uh journalists occupy a very very special place in society they are in it
25:57
but not entirely of it they have special responsibilities right um uh and and one of these is to
26:06
to order their priorities such that they’re perfectly fine having their
26:13
political views and so on uh biases if you like but they can’t let them inform
26:21
their work let me add to the fullest extent possible okay all right I’m talking
26:30
about ideals um and ideals are never achieved by definition you do the best you can right
26:37
and that’s the point I wanted to drive home and it it occurs to me now just in
26:43
in the course of watching the Ukraine coverage uh these people the aforementioned Andrews
26:51
and various others the times crew the post crew the wires they’re basically
26:56
activists they’re committing the error that was that is commonly assigned to
27:03
Independent practitioners such as Eva Bartlett they’re activists right uh posing as
27:11
professionals that’s what they are in net terms right uh and that’s the point
27:16
I wanted to drive home it’s a question every journalist has to face no matter
27:23
who you’re with what your pay grade however fancy your title you have to
27:29
resolve that question right I I would say my own experience is that
27:35
a lot of them don’t even have enough political cohesion to be activists they’re just
27:41
craving careerists they understand what is good for their career and what is not I had been the Middle East bureau chief
27:47
for the New York Times I was very outspoken about the cause to invade Iraq that was a career killer there was no
27:53
daylight between myself and most of the other reporters who had covered the
27:59
Middle East uh they were just more astute than I was about protecting their career because they understood that
28:05
standing up and speaking about it was as it was it turned out to be uh uh
28:12
very detrimental uh if you if you wanted to further your career so I think these
28:17
people understand uh that feeding the dominant narrative is very good for them uh and that’s why
28:26
they do can I interject it you make an excellent point and and my response is
28:31
this a little Paradox here if you are passively an activist I.E and you put it
28:38
absorbed in your career and you don’t even understand what you’re doing
28:44
um that doesn’t that doesn’t mean you’re not an activist passively an activist I I hope your
28:50
listeners can can grasp the Paradox and my meaning and I think that’s where you’re going if I understand yeah no I I
28:57
think you’re right I think they serve the role as activists but without even knowing I’ve been around a lot of them
29:03
uh and I I think they’re so obtuse most of them didn’t know anything about the Middle East frankly uh they just they
29:09
understood which way the wind was blowing I just want to close by talking a little bit about some of the stories
29:16
that have surfaced in the western press that you do a pretty good job of uh
29:22
debunking I don’t know how many we’re going to get to but let’s talk about the Russian Detention Center the dawn boss
29:27
that shelled uh that story and and what the truth turned out to be yeah uh you know that as I remarked in
29:36
one of those columns these people are in a very tough spot they’ve got to write things that at this
29:42
point they have to write things that don’t make any goddamn sense right uh um the Detention Center was uh
29:50
uh located in um I believe in the territory held by
29:57
either the Russians or the in as part of the Donetsk People’s Republic
30:04
um and it was shelled uh all of a sudden I think 50 odd casualties many many more
30:11
wounded um uh and uh the Russians had been running it for
30:19
some time most of the for most of the war so
30:24
just before well I’ll get to that in a sec um why would the Russians shell their
30:31
own detention camp pow can it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever now why
30:39
would the ukrainians why would the Armed Forces of Ukraine AFU why would they do it
30:45
well it transpired that um just prior to the shelling
30:50
the Russian side had begun releasing videos
30:55
of their interrogations of some of these prisoners who were recounting orders they had
31:04
received to brutalize any Russians they had managed to capture and we do we
31:13
there is video of Ukrainian soldiers these Neo-Nazi as off people uh shooting
31:22
Russian soldiers in the legs um captive Russian soldiers in the lake
31:27
so these and other such things so the Russians had begun to release these
31:34
videos they raised the question of war crimes problems for the Commanders
31:42
and that’s when the shelling started uh as I say the times people not that I
31:48
have some great deal of sympathy for them but they were really in a tough spot they had to try to sell it that the
31:55
that the Russian forces were shelling their own PW POW Camp senseless and the
32:04
the the the little caker here is Carlotta gaul’s reference to this
32:09
Detention Center as a penal colony I mean really how how deep based are we going to take the
32:17
English language right I just want to close quickly about the nuclear plant
32:23
because again that the issue of the shelling which is kind of uh kind of
32:29
self-evident unless you’re reading most of the reports about it yeah
32:35
um uh look the Russians captured that plant in late February I believe someday late
32:41
February by early March they were guarding it that is what they are doing there they are guarding it okay
32:48
um it is on the East Bank of the nepro river uh at a very key Point
32:56
um kind of the Ukrainian held City on the West Bank is is vulnerable
33:04
and all of a sudden we realize we we are asked to believe that the Russians have begun shelling
33:12
the nuclear plant they have been guarding since March uh and the cut the
33:19
coverage became so impossibly contradictory at this point uh one one
33:26
day a couple of weeks ago Andrew Kramer reported that
33:32
um the Russians were Sheltering in the plant um uh and the next day and the two
33:39
Andrews Higgins and Kramer reported that the Russians were shelling the plant
33:46
um well wait a minute wait a minute Andrew and Andrew uh they’re shelling the plant they’re Sheltering in do you
33:54
see where I mean it’s a train wreck Chris um and that’s what they have to that’s
34:00
what they have to report if they want to stay with the paper um uh and my
34:06
my reasoning on this is they’re getting all of this from Ukrainian officials I
34:12
don’t get the impression the Ukrainian propaganda operation is all that
34:17
coordinated at ground level so on Monday they get an account from some
34:23
field commander uh that the that the Russians are are Sheltering in the plant
34:31
um and on Tuesday they speak to somebody else and the Russians are shelling the
34:36
plant and and since they’re only sources of information are the ukrainians they
34:41
go into print with both I I just I thought of all the examples of of
34:49
nonsensical reporting we’ve we’ve had over the months I I think this is right
34:55
up there with uh with the worst I’m just going to close as you point out Eva bartletts is the Canadian
35:01
correspondent is uh reported that the ukrainians are using so-called butterfly
35:06
mines these are lethal mines that are littered over civilian areas and Jen
35:11
just uh finally because you have dared to challenge this narrative you have been censored removed from from Twitter
35:20
I want to I want to thank the real News Network it’s production team Cameron grenadino Adam Coley Dwayne Gladden and
35:27
Kayla Rivera you can find me at chrisedges.substech.com
35:32
[Music]
joseba says:
Zelenski:
https://youtu.be/4A2Gmiya-Uk
Transkripzioa
0:00
were you shocked when zielinski gave
0:01
that speech to Congress a couple weeks
0:03
ago and and in essence said there will
0:05
be no compromise I mean it’s a little
0:07
odd to say and I agree with you on the
0:10
first off we at locals we had an office
0:12
in Ukraine we had to move our guys out
0:14
we’ve gotten some of them to the United
0:15
States but some of them are in Macedonia
0:17
right now like I have complete sympathy
0:19
for everyone there but the guy that’s in
0:22
the war shows up here and says I will
0:24
not compromise with the guy with nukes
0:26
and everyone applaud it it’s like do you
0:28
know what happens when the guy with
0:30
nukes thinks he’s losing
0:32
exactly exactly
0:35
um there there was so much that was
0:36
deeply disturbing about that speech and
0:39
how most members of Congress reacted
0:43
with Applause with adoration
0:46
um
0:47
treating him as though he is some some
0:49
hero or or rock star I think one of the
0:52
things that in addition to the point
0:54
that you mentioned about about we have
0:58
actively and and I I hold our leaders
1:00
responsible zelinski is going to do what
1:02
zelinsky’s going to do but I hold our
1:04
leaders responsible President Biden
1:05
Democrat Republican leaders in Congress
1:07
responsible for the decisions that they
1:09
have made that have put the American
1:11
people in our country at risk by
1:13
escalating this war against a
1:16
nuclear-armed power pushing us to the
1:19
brink of nuclear catastrophe with no
1:21
with no plan with no investment saying
1:24
okay well here we are good thing we went
1:26
and invested trillions of dollars in
1:28
underground bunkers for every American
1:30
citizen to go and take shelter because
1:33
we’ve put you in this situation they’ve
1:34
not done that at all if anything they’ve
1:36
done it for themselves but not for the
1:38
American people which leaves which
1:40
leaves us in a position of of Parish in
1:43
that scenario but the other thing in
1:45
addition to that that was so disturbing
1:47
about his speech was
1:49
how he spoke about freedom and he spoke
1:51
about democracy and he’s not only
1:53
putting himself in the position as being
1:55
this champion of democracy around the
1:58
world but our own leaders have lionized
2:02
him and made this whole War about well
2:04
we have to defend democracy and freedom
2:07
in Ukraine or else democracy and freedom
2:09
in the world will be assaulted or or
2:12
attacked well let’s look at what uh kind
2:17
of democracy zielinski is leading in
2:21
Ukraine you know he not only uh jailed
2:24
his political opponents very very very
2:26
early on he banned their entire
2:29
political party
2:31
um you know there are so many different
2:32
you know he shut down any media that was
2:35
not controlled by him and his government
2:37
essentially so no free speech uh no no
2:41
room for any political opposition
2:44
and then he went after uh religion no
2:47
religious freedom in this country he
2:49
shut down the second largest Christian
2:51
Church in that country uh and for for
2:55
what under the guise of democracy and
2:58
freedom how how is this representative
3:00
of of the kind of democracy that that
3:03
our Founders envisioned it doesn’t and
3:06
so what what I what I reflected on what
3:08
I think every American should think
3:10
about is they watch this this is the guy
3:12
they have put as the figurehead of
3:13
democracy and we saw Republicans and
3:16
Democrats cheering and applauding for
3:18
this person uh who doesn’t believe in
3:21
free speech doesn’t believe in freedom
3:23
of religion doesn’t believe in Freedom
3:24
or democracy really at all
3:26
and so we should not therefore then be
3:29
surprised if this is what they believe
3:31
democracy is
3:33
then we shouldn’t be surprised at the
3:34
kinds of things that they’re doing to
3:36
undermine our own freedoms here at home
3:38
and our own uh democracy here at home
3:41
because it’s it’s happening it’s not a
3:43
question at this point and this should
3:45
be this should be alarming uh for
3:48
everybody and not surprising that this
3:50
is the the direction that they’re that
3:52
they’re taking which is not
3:53
representative democracy at all it’s
3:55
more representative of a dictatorship or
3:57
an authoritarian government yeah and the
3:59
funny part is I don’t blame zielinski
4:01
for coming here and demanding money and
4:03
demanding no compromise because why the
4:06
hell not and then you walk away with
4:07
everything you asked for so he’s doing
4:09
what’s what he believes is right for
4:11
himself or his party or his country and
4:14
you’ve got a bunch of people here that
4:16
are like oh how much can I write on that
4:18
check and exactly yeah exactly and and
4:20
that’s that’s the thing that that’s so
4:22
crazy to me I even after that speech I
4:23
think it was a couple of days ago there
4:25
was a story that popped up where
4:27
zielinski was was basically saying that
4:30
his quote-unquote allies have no excuse
4:32
not to to send him these light armored
4:35
vehicles there’s no excuse why they
4:37
aren’t just sending him exactly every
4:39
single thing that he demands
4:43
that’s crazy to me and it’s crazy what’s
4:45
even crazier than his demands though is
4:48
he knows what power he has because he
4:52
has the most powerful people in the
4:54
United States of America bowing to him
4:56
and giving him whatever he wants and
4:58
President Biden essentially seeding our
5:02
country’s foreign policy decisions to
5:05
this guy
5:06
in Ukraine
5:09
um you know what when people ask the
5:10
president well when when does this war
5:12
end when do we stop when is enough
5:14
enough and he says well well you know
5:16
we’re in it why I don’t I’m not going to
5:18
quote him directly because I don’t have
5:19
the quote but he basically has said
5:21
we’ll do whatever it takes we’re in this
5:24
until what this is up to Putin to decide
5:27
like what what about your leadership
5:29
your responsibility as the president
5:31
United States what about the leadership
5:32
of of the head of the house the head of
5:35
the Senate from both political parties
5:36
where is their leadership and their
5:38
responsibility coming to play because
5:40
they are certainly not serving the best
5:41
interests of the American people our
5:43
security and our country with these
5:44
decisions
joseba says:
Ukraina:
https://youtu.be/Cgnros_Flo4
Transkripzioa
0:00
Colonel McGregor is with us again Colonel it’s a pleasure thank you for joining us when last we spoke one of the
0:08
last things you said to me and I wrote a note to remind myself to ask you about it the next time we were together you
0:15
said that none of the senior Generals in the American Department of Defense want
0:22
to fight in Ukraine and since you said that to me you’ve written a brilliant
0:27
and terrific piece in foreign affairs called This Time It’s Different and your opening line is nearly the same but it’s
0:35
a little bit more sweeping it says neither we nor our allies are prepared
0:41
to fight an all-out war with Russia regionally or globally
0:47
so can you weigh in on these two statements why would generals be leaking
0:54
that they don’t want to fight are we militarily and from an equipment
1:00
perspective incapable of fighting Russia Today in Ukraine or anywhere else
1:07
well I don’t know about the leaking bit uh depends on who you talk to I I’m
1:13
simply saying that based upon my sources in the Department of Defense
1:19
people who are close to the senior military leadership tell me that they have made it very
1:25
clear that choosing to fight Russia in Ukraine would be a serious mistake and should be
1:32
avoided that’s what they’ve said and I think they’re being honest about that and I think they’re being truthful
1:37
for a change the second part is are we capable of fighting well of course we’re capable of fighting the real question is
1:45
if you’re going to fight will you win and this is the question that people don’t ask enough this this is goes back
1:52
to an old strategic Axiom measure what you might gain by what you might lose
1:57
a a collision with Russia would be a loss for us there’s nothing to be gained
2:03
by the Russians have nothing that we need or want there’s no ideological hostility we’re not competing for power
2:11
or control over any particular region Russia’s dispute is exclusively with
2:16
Ukraine we’re a large part of the reason why the dispute exists there’s no question about
2:21
that but we can end that tomorrow morning if we decide to by simply saying we fought long enough
2:28
uh Russia has the upper hand zielinski sit down shut up and take notes uh we
2:34
must have a ceasefire but first we have to agree to negotiations without preconditions
2:42
does Washington want to fight Russia via a proxy war
2:49
I think they did I think they regretted at this point to be blunt with you no one will admit it publicly but if you go
2:55
back to the donor conference where Lloyd asked Austin spoke to the
3:00
gathered donors from NATO and other nations and said we have a very short time left
3:06
a very short window of time in which to make things happen and time
3:12
is running out I mean I quoted him in in the op-ed piece for that reason he knows
3:18
everyone in Washington in a position of authority now knows Ukraine is losing
3:23
Ukrainian resistance is crumbling the state itself is in danger of going out of existence that’s how bad it is
3:30
so the theory is well if we can give them anything within the next 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 days perhaps we can rescue
3:39
them from disaster I don’t see much evidence for that but I think that’s the theory can Ukraine survive uh as a
3:47
country if Putin pursues this war all out whether for military reasons or for
3:53
domestic Russian political reasons well the first thing to keep in mind and this
3:59
is something of which I was not aware until I consulted with a friend who’s done some excellent demographic analysis
4:06
and he points out that at the beginning of this war there were at least in theory 37.5 million ukrainians in
4:12
Ukraine and he makes the point that today that’s not the case there were already two million
4:19
ukrainians working in either Great Britain or the European Union outside of the country
4:24
you now have four million Ukrainian citizens albeit Russians people who speak Russian living under Russian
4:31
occupation or Administration right now in the provinces in the south then you have over 10 million ukrainians
4:39
that have fled the country this million 10 million that’s a third
4:44
of the country or a quarter of the country yeah you’ve got a million that have gone into Russia and the rest that
4:50
have headed west now two this must be added to losses and and again no one is telling us the truth
4:56
in the west about the horrific losses that Ukraine has taken you’ve heard me say about 150 157 000 dead on the
5:04
battlefield that includes 35 000 missing in action presumed dead
5:10
and I’ve talked about a total of almost 400 000 casualties people that are wounded in most cases not all but in
5:17
most cases more than half of those will never return to duty because the wounds
5:22
are too horrific in other words they’re permanently lost to the Ukrainian fight now supposedly when zelusny was in town
5:30
speaking to secretary Austin and general milley several people have insisted that
5:36
he actually told them that 257 000 ukrainians have died that includes
5:43
soldiers in other words those in uniform civilians all types all kinds 257 000.
5:50
wow we don’t know I mean that’s that’s an unconfirmed rumor but what it does tell you is that today in Ukraine there
5:57
are roughly between 18 and 22 million people left in the country under
6:03
zielinski’s control now judge that that number is roughly the same as
6:10
the number of people living in the Netherlands you cannot sustain this war with that
6:17
small population okay apologies it’s okay you’re watching and uh and
6:22
listening sometimes I’m all thumbs uh I want to play a clip from Jack Devine this is a guy that our audience
6:28
loves to hate he is however career CFA and for many years was in charge of
6:34
American Espionage in Russia and monitoring Russian Espionage here here’s
6:41
Jack Devine betting on a Ukraine win I’m betting on the Ukrainian still it’s
6:48
not to say that the Russians aren’t going to be formidable I do think there will be under trained there’ll be
6:53
sometimes we create something big and it’s not well trained they become a cannon fodder so I think it’s going to
6:58
be a really tough spring and I think the war in many ways will be decided there won’t be a Victor in other words the
7:04
Russians cannot conquer ukrainism and the ukrainians are not going to beat the Russians at a certain point where both
7:10
sides pull back and even if you’re not in agreement they’d lower their intensity and that’s what I think Putin
7:15
personally is in trouble in its own country and I think he goes that’s why the stakes are so big
7:21
so he’s suggesting that this will be over when both sides lower their intensity and a Putin does that quote he
7:28
goes because that will not be interpreted as a victory for the Russian nationalists your comments on that
7:34
Colonel well remember the CIA has been telling us lies almost from the very
7:40
beginning about everything happening in Russia well when Mike Pompeo was running the CIA he publicly acknowledged that’s
7:47
their job to lie to us so how do you know whether to believe them or not well they do a very good job of lying the problem is they’re lying to Americans
7:54
and this man Divine knows absolutely nothing about Russians I don’t care what his job was or about ukrainians or the
8:00
Slavic peoples that occupy Eastern Europe the Russians are winning
8:07
Ukraine is crumbling Ukraine’s on the verge collapse we’re going to watch that happen over the next several weeks the
8:14
Russians will crush out of existence what remains of the Ukrainian armed forces and I think they’ll have to go
8:19
after this regime assuming solenski and his friends don’t rapidly flee the country to Poland or somewhere else now
8:26
having said that the Russians are being very methodical very deliberate they are moving
8:31
constantly but they are not moving on multiple axes simultaneously in other words you’re not going to see the
8:38
Blitzkrieg what you’re going to see on several axes are what I would call large meat grinders they’re just
8:44
systematically plowing forward annihilating everything that they come in touch with that is Ukrainian until
8:51
the ukrainians are finished there is no incentive for them at this point to negotiate with us unless we go
8:57
in without conditions would the Russians prefer not to annihilate everything in
9:03
Ukraine yes they never went in there with that goal to begin with but you can’t walk in there and say well the
9:09
only way we’ll talk to you is if you withdraw all your forces from Ukraine and Crimea that’s absurd is that really
9:15
what what you’re saying is there’s no way that Ukraine and I’m now paraphrasing you from the column which I
9:21
mentioned earlier there’s no way Ukraine can survive this war as an intact country listen I just told you what the
9:28
demographics say and the what’s even worse is that Ukraine has the lowest birth rate in Europe so in addition to
9:35
having lost millions of people because frankly people like Devine and his Masters have decided to wage this war on
9:42
the backs of Ukraine Ukraine is destroyed I don’t know what survives of it I have no idea what will happen even
9:49
though I am your friend and admirer and at times you’re a student let me raise your blood pressure one more time
9:56
with Jack Devine on a weakened Russia do we want a strong Russia with Putin
10:04
and she is that going to bring us peace and Harmony so we can live in isolation I think Putin the day he crossed I’m on
10:11
record I’m on record in the Washington Post in March last year a few days after evaded he sowed the seed of his own
10:18
demise that is actually good news for us whoever causes it that’s a good news a
10:23
weak Russia that sees Putin going weakens China as well as Russia
10:28
does that make sense to you uh again I think the man’s delusional Putin has never been stronger than he is
10:36
today the Russian people have never been more united than they are today only
10:41
someone who’s who’s never spent any time in the country and doesn’t know anybody over there would make such Preposterous
10:47
statements is this is part of the larger false narrative look he reminds me of some of the
10:53
Germans that stood around in Berlin in 1945 and asked you know what about the
10:58
inevitable Victory what’s what’s wrong what’s happened because the regime over the last over the previous six to 12
11:04
months had lied so consistently and effectively that the Germans were surprised to see Russian and American
11:10
troops in the outskirts of the of the city I think the all I can tell you is that no he’s dead wrong now let’s talk
11:17
about this week in Russia business it’s not weakened the IMF has now stepped
11:22
forward and talked about growth in Russia dramatically improving their exports are way up none of this nonsense
11:28
that we anticipated that was bad has happened to Russia Russia is in a very strong and healthy position we on the
11:35
other hand our growth is declining and it’s not going to get better in the near term secondly Russia is a state with an
11:43
important role in Central Asia and Eastern Europe if Russia were to be destroyed which is
11:49
not going to happen if it were to weaken it would open up opportunities for all sorts of potentially malicious actors to
11:57
intervene first of all Eastern Siberia is not of much interest to the Chinese contrary to popular belief but it’s very
12:04
interesting to Japan and Korea and the Japanese and the Koreans view Eastern
12:09
Siberia as their territory because up until about 300 years ago Mongols turkic
12:15
peoples Charters they were the only people in the region and their brothers of the manchus Mongols and Japanese and
12:22
Koreans so do you really want Russia to collapse in eastern Siberia I don’t think so
12:27
you’re going to Central Asia Russia is a stabilizing Factor there in fact G depends upon Russia to help stabilize it
12:34
because the people in Central Asia have much more confidence and Trust in the Russians than they do in the Chinese
12:41
how uh unified is NATO behind Washington
12:48
yeah right I’m going to play a clip for you in a minute from the president of Croatia it’s not Germany it’s not France
12:54
it’s Croatia but the language is very strident and the criticisms of the West
13:01
are very strong and articulate uh take a listen yeah
13:29
foreign
13:35
foreign
13:44
you’ve been saying that the tanks coming from Germany he didn’t mention the American tanks the tanks coming from
13:52
Germany will only gin up the Russians to fight uh more aggressively it’s in
13:57
nobody’s interest to weaken Russia and he’s a member of and he’s a member of NATO of course two things Nasim Talib
14:06
often talks about finance and he talks about people at the top who don’t have skin in the game our problem in
14:13
Washington DC and in many capitals in Europe right now is that they’re perfectly happy to fight this war until
14:19
Ukraine ceases to exist and a million ukrainians are dead because they have no skin in the game they haven’t put
14:25
themselves at risk nor will they do so and that’s disgraceful and he’s talking about that to some extent
14:31
then secondly it’s interesting this man is a croat because you know the croatians like most Europeans to be
14:37
perfectly blunt that people don’t like to admit were part of the Crusade to destroy bolshevism during World War II
14:43
but he knows that Russia is not a communist state he knows Russia does not aspire to conquer Europe
14:50
the Russians learned the hard way that imperialism is a very bad form of
14:55
government and business when you move into countries that are not yours and you have to govern and sustain people
15:01
that are not yours inevitably there’s bad blood there’s anger there’s corruption Alexander solzhenitsyn who
15:08
probably more than anyone else inspires the Russians who are at the top today made it very clear we should all be
15:14
grateful that this horrible Empire that existed is gone we don’t want to govern other people we want to govern ourselves
15:21
we want our own country this place called Russia and that is the way the Russians think
15:27
right now they’re not interested in Kahu anything but we are making it impossible for them to turn away because we make
15:34
threat after threat after threat to dismember the country to destroy its regime we keep talking about it as
15:40
though this is something the Russians want they do not want that after uh
15:46
Decades of German political leaders disarming
15:51
Germany and depriving Berlin of its credibility quoting your article
15:58
uh Chancellor Schultz decides to send tanks is this to please Joe Biden because he’s not going to please anybody
16:05
domestic his domestic political uh forces is he uh he’ll please some people in Germany a
16:13
minority I would suspect the majority I think are somewhat horrified because the Germans based on their
16:19
experience and they also know their own history know that when Berlin and Moscow have cooperated and done business
16:26
together there has been peace in Europe you know if there’s anything any one war
16:32
in human history that made absolutely no sense it was the war between czarist Russia and Imperial Germany they had
16:38
been close all eyes and friends for hundreds of years there was no reason for that to happen it did the second world war we know the background on that
16:45
it was a huge tragedy everyone decided in 1945 it was German this will not
16:50
happen again we will not permit it I cannot imagine Chancellor Cole or Chancellor Schmidt helmet Schmidt that
16:56
some of your viewers may remember standing up and urging equipment be sent to this corrupt gangster regime in Keith
17:05
that’s killing off its own people with these stupid uh instructions that are given to their Generals in the field
17:11
with a military structure that is corrupt and and celebrating it on the
17:16
contrary I I think they would have said absolutely not out of the question this man Schultz is not going to last long and if
17:23
anything what we’re seeing now even though it is not patently obvious is the beginning of the end of NATO
17:31
so Colonel big picture here’s here’s my head scratcher
17:36
if the West if the leading country’s economically
17:43
in NATO the United States Germany Great Britain France want to wage this war
17:50
against Russia if Tony blinken and his globalist buddies uh in the foreign
17:57
Ministries in Western Europe really think that they can use the war to push Putin out or weaken him if Jack Devine
18:04
and the CIA or if Jack is actually articulating what the CIA is trying to
18:10
accomplish why is the Western military response so tepid I mean you can’t you
18:16
can’t fight the Russians with just a half dozen tanks and you can’t fight them at all with tanks that aren’t going
18:22
to get there for another four or five or six months and American troops in Poland
18:28
are not going to keep Putin up at night we have a hundred thousand troops in
18:34
Europe and of that number I’d be surprised if we have 40 or 50 000 combat troops that
18:40
means the soldiers sergeants lieutenants captains who actually go in and shoot
18:46
people in other words most of that is still support and we don’t have that much artillery we
18:52
don’t have that much uh in in the way of immediate uh indirect fire support we’re
18:57
in no position to do it we could bring in more polls they bring in a couple of hundred thousand polls to fight but
19:03
they’re not going to be adequately armed to take on the Russians and they’re not going to be adequately trained so it’s
19:08
it’s sheer lunacy but again you’ve got to go back and understand how this began at the beginning
19:15
Putin sent in a very small force and gave them very specific instructions that they were not to kill civilians
19:21
they were not to damage infrastructure because he was simply trying to demonstrate the seriousness with which
19:27
Russia viewed what we were doing in eastern Ukraine by building up this dangerous Force against them
19:33
well it took two to three months he finally figured out no one is going to negotiate with us no one cares to in the
19:39
meantime we reached the erroneous conclusion that see look the Russians are weak the Russians can’t cope the
19:46
Russians are no threat we can beat them well that was the wrong conclusion and
19:52
what we’re seeing happen right now is a massive expansion of Russian military power on a scale that we have not seen
19:59
since the Cold War and this is going to be a permanent expansion a large and powerful force the 700 000 plus that are
20:06
around Ukraine right now are a brand new force a brand new Army this thing is poised to do one thing
20:12
annihilate whatever is in its path it will do that however again the Russians
20:18
are being methodical they’re being cautious because they do worry that we are led by impulsive erratic
20:25
Personalities in Washington and that stupidly when we realize that the place is falling apart I mean Ukraine someone
20:32
will say well we have to do something I don’t know how many times while I was on active duty I heard people at the top
20:38
of the political structure said well we have to do something as soon as they say that right leave the room right get the
20:45
hell out of there I mean this is a favorite government line they have to give the impression to the public that
20:50
they’re doing something even if it’s 180 degrees from what they’re doing but but the but the West whether it’s a
20:57
chancellor of scholes or a President Biden uh or to a lesser extent uh the
21:04
the new Prime Minister of Great Britain Great Britain is like a boxer punching with his left hand and then
21:12
apologizing to the gallery with his right for hitting too hard what are they
21:17
accomplishing Schultz is doing what he’s done throughout his career remember that Schultz and others have grown up over
21:24
the last 30 or 40 years in this environment where there was very little change and their formative period of experience
21:30
came after the Cold War ended and they saw a very different world and they became I think enamored of this
21:38
notion that the United States is the hegemon of the world and that whatever
21:43
we do is right and anybody who resists us is morally wrong they’ve taken this position and this justifies all sorts of
21:50
dangerous Behavior I don’t think that Mr Schultz is going to last much longer I
21:55
certainly don’t think his foreign minister will these people are out of touch with reality no competent German
22:00
Statesman over the last three or four hundred years would have made the stupid remarks and statements that they have
22:07
didn’t he just lose his defense minister about two weeks ago well we haven’t had
22:12
much of it in the way of Defense ministers in that Country Now for at least 20 years I mean when I was when we
22:18
went to Desert Storm in 1991 arguably the Germans had the finest forces in NATO
22:24
I mean they were top-notch and they remained excellent through the mid 1990s and then a series of leftist governments
22:31
systematically demand dismantled them this is after Chancellor Cole left now on the one hand
22:37
they took the position that Russia was not a threat and it is not a military threat to them unless they make it so
22:44
and that was that was understandable but they they lost sight of the fact that if you have
22:49
nothing no skin in the game as I said earlier when it comes to military power nobody’s going to pay attention to you I
22:55
mean the Polish Army could invade Germany tomorrow morning and Conquer it in a week well that that’s the line of this uh
23:03
that’s true this interview Colonel it’s always a pleasure sir thank
23:09
you very much for joining us okay thank you by the way can I add one thing that a lot of our people don’t seem to
23:15
understand about these tanks please we promised 31 M1 series tanks
23:20
they have to be built from scratch and people have said well why is that well it’s very simple
23:27
we have a form of armored protection on the existing M1 series tanks that is
23:33
some of the very best in the world if not the best that was developed over many years it’s
23:39
a very complex composite form of armor we will not allow tanks
23:44
with that unique armor to fall into the hands of the Russians and we have to assume based upon the
23:51
ukrainians that have lost we estimate 7 000 Vehicles including at least a couple
23:56
of thousand tanks and two or three thousand other armored vehicles that have either been destroyed or fell into
24:02
the hands of the Russians we have to assume that these could so the decision was made to build 31 M1 series tanks but
24:09
apply the 1970s armor to them ah so that if they fell into the hands of the
24:16
opponent it would not be a security risk for us we would not lose this advantage
24:21
that we have but there’s something larger here and this is very important there’s a lot of nonsense going on about
24:27
what we’re going to send and we you’ve heard all the analysts that are worth a damn and honest point out it’s not going
24:32
to make any difference I think we’re preparing an apology in advance I think everybody in Washington in a few
24:39
months is going to say well we did all we could look at all that we sent we just couldn’t make it happen
24:44
and I think that’s where we’re headed in the meantime millions of ukrainians lives are destroyed the state has
24:50
destroyed the nation is destroyed who who will be held responsible for that if they point the fingers at Putin he’s the
24:57
wrong man he didn’t want to do it he was The Reluctant fighter in this whole mess he held off for years he
25:04
begged us to listen you can go back all the way back to George Kennan who pointed these things out and right up to
25:10
to Ambassador Burns who is now the director of the CIA who wrote the famous memo niet means no don’t Advance the
25:19
borders of NATO to Russia all of this is well known Scott Ritter joins us now
25:25
Scott many things have happened with respect to the war in Ukraine uh
25:31
decisions in Moscow events on the battlefield decisions in Washington decisions in Berlin but I want to start
25:37
with something you’ve written about extensively lately in fact your piece on it was the best I have seen on this
25:45
event and of course as you know thanks to you and Colonel McGregor I’ve begun to devour everything I can get my hands on
25:52
and that is Ramstein what happened in Ramstein Germany involving the uh
25:59
Secretary of Defense of the United States and many others in the past week
26:05
well January 20th they convened I believe the um eighth session of the what they call the
26:11
Ramstein contact group that’s basically a forum where the
26:16
defense Ministers of NATO and Allied States like Sweden Finland um gather and uh and coordinate with
26:25
their Ukrainian counterparts on the material support that Ukraine says it
26:32
needs to continue this conflict with Russia this current iteration of the
26:38
Ramstein contact group was um notable because it came in the aftermath of a
26:44
declaration made by General zelusni who’s the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces where he said
26:50
straight up unless you provide me with 300 tanks 500 infantry fighting vehicles and 500 artillery pieces in other words
26:58
no Army a new Army um I’m going to lose the war with Russia we we can’t win straight up said it to
27:04
The Economist magazine um so the Ramstein group met to meet
27:10
this requirement and uh what they emerged with was um
27:15
less than 50 percent of the Infantry fighting vehicles that uh that as general zillusiony uh requested and even
27:21
these the majority of them 90 um Striker Vehicles aren’t infantry fighting Vehicles they’re infantry
27:28
carrying Vehicles if you actually took them into the Ford Edge of the battle area in a modern war they’d all be
27:33
destroyed um less than 20 percent of the artillery that was requested and uh at the time of
27:40
the Ramstein group um barely 10 percent of the tanks that were requested now
27:45
since then uh there’s been pressure placed on Europe to increase the number of tanks and uh right now the number of
27:52
armor vehicle or tanks that have been promised still is less than 50 percent of that which was requested but what
27:58
complicates this go ahead before we get into tanks and Bradleys versus leopards and the American tanks versus uh the
28:06
German tanks um you have your finger on the pulse of NATO is there a fissure down the middle
28:13
of NATO between Hawks like the United States
28:20
and doves I’m just going to throw out a country Finland France in other words are there
28:27
countries in NATO that see this for what it is and inevitable Russian Victory
28:33
and the futility of the West getting involved and are those countries at odds
28:38
with other Western NATO countries like the United States and perhaps Germany
28:43
after Joe Biden twisted their arms you follow my question well I follow your question I mean I’ll start up by saying
28:49
there are definitely doves and Hawks in uh in NATO that uh I mean it was interesting to hear uh uh Lloyd Austin
28:56
the Secretary of Defense and general Miley uh Mark Miley the chairman of the joint Chief staff come out of the Ramstein group saying NATO has never
29:03
been more unified in its entire history yeah it’s it’s basically uh you know
29:09
horse horse Stone um the the NATO is extraordinarily divided uh and you know there are
29:17
nations that are just saying straight up we’re not participating in this there’s other nations that uh participate in a
29:22
farcical level meaning providing equipment that uh doesn’t work can’t work won’t work but the the most
29:29
important thing is coming out of the Ramstein group is um that none of them none of them believe
29:36
Ukraine can win the war none of them and the reason why I say that is if you thought Ukraine could win the war then
29:42
you’d give Ukraine that which it claims it needs to win the war instead you give them less than 50 percent and it’s
29:48
staggered on a timetable which means it’ll never get there you won’t be properly trained on it
29:55
um it won’t be logistically sustainable so you’re guaranteeing that Ukraine will
30:00
lose the war but you’re creating the political image that we’re doing everything in our power to help Ukraine
30:06
win it they fail to win that’s on Ukraine why did uh President Biden uh
30:12
Secretary of State Lincoln Secretary of Defense Austin twist the arms of their
30:18
opposite numbers in Germany to get Germany to Spring loose with these leopard tanks what is the significance
30:28
Cosmic more than one I put I put Chris on the other side of the house um what is the significance Scott
30:35
uh of German tanks if anything
30:42
okay let me let me try and answer the question uh the um
30:47
the arm tuition that took place is purely political well the fact of the matter is Germany is constrained by law
30:55
uh to provide military equipment of this nature I mean there’s a you know in the
31:00
aftermath of the second world war there’s this uh and today is Holocaust Remembrance Day people should recall that the um there’s this thing never
31:08
again and that was about never again will we allow the Holocaust to take place but Germany took that to heart never again meant never again will they
31:14
allow Germany and especially German industry to be militarized in a manner which has German tanks
31:22
going on Ukrainian soil to kill Russians which is what people have been asking to
31:27
do Germany was the key here The Leopard 2 tank is the most modern tank that’s
31:33
available in numbers sufficient enough to actually have a meaningful impact on the battle but they can’t be provided
31:39
unless Germany agrees the exportation Germany said we’re not going to do it unless
31:45
somebody else steps up to the plate the British said 14 Challenger tanks that’s nothing the Germans wanted Americans so
31:51
the Americans said that they would I apologize for this the Americans said that they would uh provide the M1 tank
31:58
but they’re not it’s a lie first of all we’re not giving the ukrainians the real take
32:04
the real tank has depleted uranium armor and can actually survive in a modern Battlefield we’re not giving them that
32:09
we’re giving them the old tank with steel armor and we don’t even have those so it’s going to take months to prepare
32:16
these things to produce them some people say they won’t be available until the summer the fall maybe even next year
32:22
which means the M1 Abrams tank isn’t part of this it’s all about Germany getting the German tanks freed up and
32:29
that’s what the United States did we misled the Germans we lied to the Germans we lied to the ukrainians in
32:34
order to get them to release these leopard two tanks Colonel uh McGregor
32:39
our colleague uh on judging freedom and elsewhere says that the leper 2 tank is a far
32:46
better tank than the Bradley he agrees with you it’ll take months to get there here’s Admiral Kirby on how long the the
32:55
spokesperson for the defense department though in this clip he’s speaking from the White House how long it will take
33:01
the tanks to get there well watch how reluctant his answer is
33:08
what’s the soonest the Abrams could get there the Pentagon I think talked about this
33:14
earlier today there’s no date certain on the calendar but I think what we’re looking at is what’s probably going to
33:20
be many months before they’re actually there many months from now will there even be
33:25
a war going on uh to receive the tanks or will the Russians have triumphed
33:31
whatever many months means it’s got to be more than three or four if he’s using the word many
33:36
yeah this you know these tanks aren’t going to be provided from draw down stocks that’s what previously had
33:42
happened we went and took equipment out of the American inventory and gave it to the ukrainians these tanks have to be
33:47
built which means we have to get the money to the producer they have to be built and the timeline for that could be
33:53
this is different than the other military equipment we’ve been providing
33:58
which has been from either Surplus or substance but let’s draw down the stuff already existed why are we promising
34:06
something that doesn’t exist unless the promise is fanciful or political but not
34:11
military not militarily significant well that’s exactly it it’s it’s not
34:16
military my bet is the M1 Abrams will never show up on the Ukrainian Battlefield uh because the reason why I
34:22
say this is let’s just draw on uh on zielinski the president Ukraine himself he came out and said if I don’t get
34:28
these tanks by August it’s too late now what do you mean too late it means the war is over and he knows
34:35
that he knows it zillusion he knows it all the ukrainians know it that this war is over unless they receive overwhelming
34:42
amounts of military support which they’re not getting let’s um get to the battlefield
34:49
um how how is the Russian will to fight now
34:55
that the troops that have arrived are either reservists called up and trained
35:00
probably veterans they’ve been there before not in Ukraine but they’ve done something in the military before or
35:06
conscripts how is the how would you characterize the Russian will to fight and by Russian will I mean of the grunts
35:13
of the troops on the ground not of the generals I would compare it this way there’s a
35:19
great Trilogy written by Rick Atkinson about the uh the US Army in World War II and by the end of the first volume Army
35:26
of dawn which talks about North Africa you get into the second one day of battle which gets into Sicily in Italy
35:32
and basically he talks about the transformation of the American Military from this conscript force that didn’t
35:38
know how to fight into this group that are still conscripts but they’re now hardened Killers who know the only way
35:43
they’re going to go home is through Germany through Berlin killing the Nazis that’s the Russian army today there’s
35:50
300 000 guys that don’t want to be in the military 300 000 guys don’t prefer to be home but they know the only way to
35:56
get home is by finishing the job on the battlefield killing the ukrainians
36:01
bringing this war to an end there 100 motivated dedicated to that test
36:06
what is the status of the Ukraine Army
36:12
well the best way to characterize the Ukrainian military today is to note um this everybody I think has seen the
36:18
videos of the uh Ukrainian police running around chasing guys down and getting them into vehicles for
36:25
mobilization that tells you the enthusiasm that exists here’s the other thing you know the guys that are chasing
36:30
them they’re cowards they spent twenty to thirty thousand dollars to buy the right to stay off the front line to hunt
36:37
these guys down this is pathetic there is no will to fight in the Ukrainian military all right
36:43
um I want to run a clip from Stefano sanino Mr sanino is a high-ranking uh
36:50
official of the European Union he’s an Italian uh Diplomat forgive me I don’t
36:55
know exactly which committee he’s on or which position he holds but it’s one of
37:01
the positions in the EU that is full-time uh his fluent in English so you’re going to hear it in what we call
37:07
a New Jersey broken English but you can understand what he says and I want your thoughts on what commissioner cenino
37:15
says about the nature of the battle going on Putin has moved from the
37:22
concept of Special Operation to a concept now of a war against nature and
37:27
the West so we are not speaking anymore about Special Operation to free up a
37:33
country from a Nazi leadership now we’re speaking about the war with them with Nathan with the West
37:39
different story different story is he
37:46
recognizing a realization that you and uh Colonel McGregor and
37:52
others have been warning about that there are forces in the west that want
37:58
this to be Russia’s war with the West
38:03
I think what he’s recognizing that is that Russia recognizes his war with the
38:09
west and Russia is organizing itself and preparing for just that uh that you know
38:15
the Russian army that’s fighting right now in Ukraine is not the Russian army that started this conflict this is an
38:20
army that has been built from scratch rebuilt from scratch to fight NATO it’s
38:27
not you know when they when they talk about closing with the ukrainians they’re not thinking about these are ukrainians they’re saying this is NATO
38:33
this is the collective West and they’re prepared to take this to whatever level the West wants to take it but this is a
38:39
Russian army that is trained equipped motivated ready to win uh to fight a NATO threat not a Ukrainian threat and
38:46
how long is NATO and the West prepared to keep putting arms into Ukraine
38:54
went inwardly they know that it’s futile well I think I think we’ve answered that
39:00
question um because Kirby won’t be honest the point is we know we know Ukraine has
39:07
lost We Know It uh the CIA director General Mark Miley of all brief ukrainians on what the Russians are
39:13
getting ready to do and the ukrainians know they don’t have sufficient resources to match what the Russians are
39:19
getting ready to do this war will be over as zielinski said by August all right I don’t know to whom Admiral Kirby
39:25
uh speaks and by the way I’ve met him many times when I was at uh Fox he’s a
39:31
competent Charming guy but right now he’s got a mouth of political voice I want you to listen to
39:37
his answer to a question about not how long the U.S is going to be there but
39:42
how long this is going to go on we need to prepare ourselves that to to
39:51
continue to to have to continue to support Ukraine for for quite some time I can’t be perfectly predictive
39:59
you know what he’s talking about quite some time or it’s not going to last quite some time
40:05
no first of all politically speaking we have to remain committed to to supporting Ukraine and so we know our
40:14
own military leadership has said that Ukraine will not be able to evict Russia from Ukraine this year they never will
40:21
be able to but we can’t say that so we say it’s going to be a long fight but the fact is we can’t we’re I’m willing
40:28
to give Ukraine the equipment they need to win the war in the time frame available which means we know this war
40:33
will be over come August September October now listen to Admiral Kirby who
40:41
sounds as if this will really get your blood pressure Scott who sounds as if Ukraine is a
40:50
member of NATO take a listen to this President Biden has said since the very
40:56
beginning of this conflict that we take our article 5 commitments to Nato
41:02
seriously Article 5 of course is the notion that an attack on one is an attack on all and we take that seriously
41:09
in fact we take it so seriously that President Biden ordered an additional 20 000 American troops alone onto the
41:16
European continent and they still are there now we’ll be rotating them on in
41:21
and out but it’ll the the the the net number of a hundred thousand American troops on the European continent has
41:28
stayed the same and will stay the same for the foreseeable future well this is a lot to unpack first what the hell is
41:34
he talking about Article Five Article Five is irrelevant because because Ukraine is not a member of NATO there’s
41:42
no legal or or treaty obligation whatsoever on the part of any country to
41:48
come to the defense of NATO and secondly why is it saying how many American
41:54
troops near a thousand more than you as than
41:59
usual sending more bodies there they should start with your card well
42:06
Kirby uh in my view just a popular reference
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well first of all the reference Article 5 of course has nothing to do with Ukraine it has everything to do with the
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fears that have been promulgated by Poland and the Baltic Nations about Russian aggression and the notion that
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because Russia went into Ukraine Russia intends to go into Poland and the baltics and this is why we’ve sent the
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troops uh into Europe to beef up the presence in the Eastern areas so that we
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can tell our NATO allies that if Russia were to make this incursion we would be
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there for them under article 5. wow um 100
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000 troops uh in Europe 40 000 uh in Romania I guess the other
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sixty thousand were at Ramstein I don’t know uh what what do these numbers tell you is it what we traditionally
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typically have kept there uh in the post Cold War era or is Old Joe sending more
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uh troops there in dribs and drabs so that when he decides we have to go to war he has the bodies with which to do
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it well let’s be clear during the Cold War in order to fight a Soviet military
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presence of 400 to 500 000 troops in East Germany we had three hundred thousand troops permanently stationed in
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West Germany and we were prepared to immediately rotate 250 000 more uh using
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an exercise called reforger prior to this conflict we had around 60 000 troops in Europe no tanks by the way
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they were all Striker units artillery units Etc um now we’ve beefed it up to a hundred
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thousand this is through a rotation of heavy armored brigades and other other engagements like the 101st Airborne
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Division that’s in Romania right now the total number of troops is a hundred thousand I told you to fight a half a
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million Russians we needed to have over 550 000. this hundred thousand is a joke
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literally a joke it’s zero combat capability you try to project a hundred
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thousand Americans into Ukraine against not just the 700 000 Russians that they
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have now but Russia just said they’re expanding their military by 1.5 million I mean
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gay good job NATO because of what we did in Ukraine Russians literally building
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up a stronger Army a more capable Army than they had prior to this conflict I was great early psychological it has
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nothing to do with reality I was going to ask you if Putin is uh depleting the
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strength of his army but you’ve already put your finger on that pulse and your argument is that no he’s not depleting
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and he’s making it bigger and stronger yeah the I mean the fact is Russia’s taking casualties let’s not pretend it
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hasn’t but what Russia has done is transition from a peacetime military which it was when it went in on the
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special military operation to this new military that is full of combat veterans who know how to fight Russia has fixed
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its mobilization problems Russia has fixed its defense industry problems you know we can’t we promise tanks that we
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can’t build and it’s going to take us months to get our defense industry to build a handful of Tanks Russia’s
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building between 20 and 40 uh t-90 modern battle tanks every month it’s
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um in a land War to tanks I thought that uh trying to remember my days from basic
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training the Infantry is the queen of battle you remember that line what what
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what is the significant significance of Tanks well today tanks have actually been
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diminished because uh the the proliferation of um you know guided
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anti-tank missiles amongst infantry means that if a tank goes out and tries to bum rush a uh a unit that’s dug in uh
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you’re going to lose your tanks the tanks have to operate as part of a combined arms team with sufficient artillery support uh dismounted and
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mounted infantry and then the tank has some utility but the tank has to keep moving and the tank has to be supported
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um Russia is trained to do this we’re trained to do this you know who’s not trained to do it with this new equipment
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they’re getting in the ukrainians we are literally feeding them suicide pills every time we give them this equipment
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one of the points you make in your uh recent article that starts out about Rammstein and it’s a brilliant article
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by the way Scott and and it brings us down to the uh ground uh in Ukraine is
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how and I can’t use the adjective because it’s a military adjective it’s a four-letter word turned into a gerund
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how blankety blank miserable the Abrams and Bradley tanks are how they break
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down all the time how nearly impossible it is to keep them operating for Americans that have been trained for
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years on maintaining these things is this right no it’s 100 right um look in in the best
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of conditions in Abram’s tank for every one hour of operation in the field needs three hours of Maintenance Ah that’s the
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best because now we put in combat conditions where you’re not getting the proper you know continuous maintenance
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things get breaking down you’re probably looking at five to six hours of maintenance for every one hour of combat time
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um this requires full-time highly trained maintenance Crews that the ukrainians don’t have so the ukrainians
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now when a tank breaks are gonna have to take that tank and remove it out of Ukraine back to Poland or Germany to be
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repaired this is an impossibly complicated logistical support mechanism
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it’s Doom to fail Before I Let You Go uh what is the name
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of your friend who’s gotten as much sound in this as you have
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that is Maverick and I apologize for him he um I I scheduled the reason why I
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picked the three o’clock time table for you is that this was supposed to be a window where nobody was coming in and
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out of my house but in the middle of the interview somebody came in the house and the dog has just gone Bonkers so I
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apologize but he nips at my hands and feet I’m not
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sure which is worse Scott no matter what we’re talking about uh I know that our audience genuinely
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appreciates you and you know how much I do thanks very much for joining us thanks for having me and thanks for
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tolerating Maverick oh of course give Maverick our best judgment
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judgmental for judging freedom [Music]