Transcription
Undeclared wars are commonplace. Tragically, our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression, with no complaints from the American people. Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government. To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected.
What if sometimes to love your country you had to alter or abolish the government? What if Jefferson was right? What if that government is best which governs least? What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong? What if it is better to perish fighting for freedom than to live as a slave? What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now?
Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Wednesday, May 27, 2026. Professor Jeffrey Sachs joins us now. Professor Sachs, thank you very much, uh, for your time.
Uh, before we get to uh Iran and the mess and the corner into which Trump has painted himself, how uh dastardly and geopolitically catastrophic was the Ukrainian uh attack on a girl's dormitory on a college inside of Russia that killed 25 young women?
Well, uh, Ukraine has been attacking civilian sites, including this school, uh, which is a a human tragedy, uh, but also an extraordinarily, uh, dangerous provocation. And in response to a number of these attacks on civilian sites, Foreign Minister Lavrov uh contacted US Secretary of State Rubio and said in very clear terms, Russia is going to escalate uh in its attacks on operations uh centers and government centers in Ukraine, including in Kyiv, and that personnel from the West should be aware and should clear out. This was a a very direct statement. It wasn't a threat. It wasn't an if you do this, then we'll do this. It was a statement of fact of what Russia will do. It means a rather dramatic escalation following a number of very, very serious provocations by the Ukrainian side, including the attack on the school, including massive drone attacks on Moscow, and including uh using uh Baltic country airspace to send drones to attack northwest Russia.
Uh, Ukraine does not have its own break uh because Ukraine wants an expanded war. It's trying to draw the United States and Europe uh into an escalation on its side. It is trying to use the United States in the way that Israel uses the United States. Consider the fact that whenever the US tries diplomacy in the Middle East, Israel thwarts it. Israel makes some provocation. Uh, Israel intensifies its own bombing. And you say, why would they do that? Well, they do that deliberately uh to twist the United States out of shape and uh use the influence that they have in the US to bring the US into a military escalation on Israel's side. Ukraine is doing the same thing. It's extraordinary uh that we are being pulled into this. It's extraordinary that Europe is taking Ukraine's bait rather than telling the Ukrainians, "What the hell are you doing? Stop this before we're all killed." Uh, they're telling the Ukrainians, "We support you. Uh, we're behind you 100%. We're going to help arm you." Uh, what they expect to come out of that other than a a regional war, I can't imagine. But this is why Ukraine is behaving in such an utterly reckless way.
Is it um likely that MI6 provided intel to uh uh target the school? And if so, wouldn't the CIA have known about it? And if so, don't the Russians know what intel's agencies were involved in an attack like this?
It is probably the case that in almost all of Ukraine's attacks, the CIA and MI6 play an active role. That's especially true with the uh missiles that Ukraine uses, the Storm Shadows and others. These absolutely need to be targeted by uh US or US and British and French personnel. Um, this has been known for years. It seems that despite Trump's claims to want to wind down the war, he may not have real control or decides not to have effective control over the US intelligence agencies in their role in continuing to support and facilitate Ukraine's actions. This, I think, is likely to be the case when it comes to Britain. Britain, of course, is the number one warmonger of all. Uh, Britain still lives in the dreamland of the British Empire. Uh, and it wants to escalate at all times. I would advise Britain, why don't you focus on keeping your National Health Service from collapsing rather than going to war with Russia? But they're not asking me. They're not listening. But that's the advice I would give.
Wow. Um, last question about Russia and Ukraine. How significant is it that the Russians used an Iskander three or four days ago to level some buildings uh in on the outskirts of Kyiv?
>> Well, I think Russia is signaling that it's going to destroy the government apparatus in uh in Kyiv if this continues. And maybe it's already reached the point that this is imminent. That is essentially what Secretary, what Foreign Minister Lavrov has said. So the Iskander is a powerful uh hypersonic weapon system. Uh, it can do grave damage. This was a both a signal and a uh a target together. But what uh the Russian uh government has said unequivocally to the United States is that more is coming. Uh, I would be very surprised uh if we don't see some direct attacks uh in the center of the Ukraine capital as uh forewarned by uh Foreign Minister Lavrov.
Do you think that uh President Putin has uh sort of fallen into the groove that LBJ did in the Vietnam War? Remember those black and white pictures of him and McNamara uh moving pieces around on an enormous map. I mean, LBJ was a masterful politician. So was Putin, but neither of them was a military strategist. And we know the outcome of Vietnam.
I don't think it's exactly the same. Remember uh what Russia uh invaded about was uh the US and European uh uh clear deliberation to build Ukraine into the largest army in Europe and to incorporate it in the US military alliance in NATO.
>> Right. Uh, and that's uh was uh the reason why this war broke out in February 2014 and why it dramatically escalated in February 2022. Uh, and Russia, I believe, has achieved that goal. Uh, there will be no NATO enlargement to Ukraine. Although to this moment, the British and the European Union members of NATO say yes, there will be, but there won't be. This is uh absolutely the reality. And so in this sense, Russia uh achieved its main war aim. But war is a lose-lose proposition. And the longer this goes on, it hurts all sides. No question. And it should have ended a long time ago. It would have been prevented in December 2021 if Jake Sullivan and President Biden had followed the advice I gave at the time, which was uh tell President Putin that NATO will not enlarge. They refused to say that. The war would have ended in April 2022 when Ukraine agreed on neutrality. That means non-NATO membership. But then the United States and UK told the Ukrainians, do not sign that peace agreement.
That was four years ago. There have been four years until now. Uh, President Trump seems to have understood that NATO should not expand. Uh, the US has in some way or another murmured this at times, although unfortunately for us, President Trump can't seem to give a a direct speech or explanation. True Social is not a mechanism for serious governance, but it's the one that we have. But the Europeans have become even more delusional. Uh, today I published in uh the Berliner Zeitung an open letter to Chancellor Merz, the German Chancellor, to say that Germany has the key responsibility right now for preventing a European-wide war. Germany, incidentally, promised the Soviet Union and Russia in 1990 that NATO would not enlarge. Germany cheated on its promise. Germany promised in February 21st, 2014 that Yanukovych would stay in office.
>> The next day he was overthrown in a violent coup, and Germany did not bat an eyelash. It just supported the coup. In February 2015, Germany said that it would be the guarantor of a peace agreement that Chancellor Merkel and French President Hollande negotiated with the Ukrainians called the Minsk 2 agreement. Then they failed to push Ukraine to honor its side of the agreement. So I wrote an open letter to Chancellor Merz uh in the Berliner Zeitung saying, "You, Chancellor, Mr. Chancellor, have a major responsibility. Germany has cheated a number of times to bring Europe to this situation. Germany is the largest country, the most powerful country of the European Union. It has historical responsibility. It made clear commitments that it did not fulfill. It's time, Chancellor Merz, you call your counterpart, President Putin, and negotiate, discuss, sit down, have a face-to-face, stop the warmongering, stop the escalation, stop the uh Russophobic uh hatred speech, talk to your counterpart." And uh I hope that they do that because this is uh the only real exit ramp from disaster.
>> You know, Jeff, you're you're educating them. I'm I'm wondering if Merz himself, who in all those years was making a fortune or was even a student, even knows of the uh commitments of his predecessors and the historic role that Germany has played.
But >> I doubt it, by the way, just to say. >> And I don't know the man. You you may know him. I don't know him. >> I I don't know him personally, but I doubt that they really know the truth because uh our governments lie so much that uh what they know is the narrative. They don't know the truth. And just to to tell you, this commitment uh that NATO would not enlarge eastward was a solemn commitment made to the Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in the context of crucial negotiations called the 2+4 agreement to allow for German reunification.
>> Right? And incidentally, it's denied by liars in Washington and in uh in uh Berlin, but it's true. And we have documentary record. But just to tell you, another leader called me about a month ago, a former a former leader of Australia, and he called me and he said, "Mr. Sachs, just to tell you, I asked Chancellor Kohl more than 30 years ago when I was leader of Australia and he was leader of Germany, what was the quid pro quo for German reunification? What did you uh give to the Soviet Union?" And this leader of Australia said that Chancellor Kohl told him, "No NATO enlargement." That was the quid pro quo. So this is from another contemporary leader. It's just another piece of evidence. But it was interesting for me that I heard this uh directly from this leader who wanted to help set the historical record straight. Our governments lie and then they get us into these disasters and then they're supposedly worrying about how to save face in the meantime when we're experiencing war, which is disgusting.
>> Does Jim Baker admit to this? He said on February 7th, 1990 to President Gorbachev, "NATO will not move one inch eastward." And any viewer can look this up at what's called the National Security Archive that was prepared by George Washington University. It's online and it's in a website called "What Did Gorbachev Hear?" And it's got dozens of documents explaining exactly what I've just said.
>> Wow. All right. I have to get to uh Iran. Just for those who forget, Jim Baker was the Secretary of State of the United States at the time under President George H.W. Bush. Uh, I thought we had a ceasefire in Iran, and yet the US uh destroyed two speedboats and killed uh five um Iranian sailors the other day. How significant is that?
>> Of course, it's significant, but it is also consistent. The United States government is fundamentally dishonorable. What I mean by that is that what it negotiates is not taken seriously by its own government in its actions following negotiations. Ours is a government that twice has been in negotiations with Iranian negotiators and then bombed Iran in the midst of negotiations. Our government is a government that last month negotiated a ceasefire with Iran, only to have Israel flagrantly violate it immediately by continuing its brutal invasion of Lebanon. And then when the Iranians protested, the United States on the one side told Israel to stop the invasion, which it did not actually do. And on the other side, then the United States put on a blockade which was not part of the agreement. So the US idea, Trump's idea, Trump's art of the deal is there is no honor. You just do what you can. You slug the other side. You look for their weaknesses. You don't have to be held to your word. Uh, you don't negotiate in good faith. You just operate with maximum tactical uh decisions that may completely violate what you have said the hour before or the day before or the week before. This is somehow clever. This is somehow the art of the deal. It's of course nothing of the kind. In private business, you end up in multiple bankruptcies as Mr. Trump did. And in geopolitics, you end up in wars, as Trump has brought us into this absolutely useless, absurd war that will accomplish nothing. So maybe this is rhetorical. How can anybody negotiate with the US? The only worse entity to negotiate with is Israel because they murder the negotiators.
Yeah. I my my feeling is that uh we're in the following situation. Uh Trump and Netanyahu aim for a one-day overthrow of Iran. This was a kind of madness, a kind of delusion. They, according to the New York Times, that as we discussed, had a plot to put in a former president as leader of Iran. The whole thing was was crazy.
>> Anyway, it it failed within 24 hours. Since that time, the United States does not have military options because while yes, it can destroy Iran, and it really could, Iran can destroy American assets in the Gulf region and a lot of Israel. And so it's got retaliatory capacity. This has been clear basically since March 1. This is the situation that we have been in. What do you do when you've done some complete stupid blunder and it didn't work and escalation just risks global disaster? Well, you stop. The United States should go home. We don't even need an agreement. We just need to go home. And then one could say, well, what would Iran do if the United States just went home? I'll tell you what Iran would do. It would open the Strait of Hormuz. It would do nothing bad in its neighborhood because Iran wants the US to go home and it wants normality to resume. And just to be sure, ladies and gentlemen, China and Russia, which support Iran, want quiet. They do not want this war to continue. And as Iran's backers, they will also be sure to tell Iran, not that it will actually need to be told, the US has gone home. Now open the strait because that's all that will happen. What's my point? We don't need an agreement. We don't need a big treaty. There's not going to be a big treaty because what Trump is demanding, he can't get. And the Iranians aren't going to give. They're not going to unilaterally surrender to the United States because as uh as as uh Trump would say, Trump does not have the cards or as that famous cartoon says, Iran has a straight.
>> What will Netanyahu do to prevent the United States from going home?
Well, he's already doing it. He's saying, "We're going to escalate in Lebanon. We're going to create massive war. We're going to create more terror." And his idea is that Iran won't settle for any of that because Israel is attacking Iran's allies and so forth. So Netanyahu uh will do what he can to escalate and he's surrounded or I shouldn't say surrounded. He's got plenty of uh basically Israeli agents in the US government, the US Congress to do his bidding with Trump. We have a a whole chorus telling Trump, "Oh, you can't back down. You must continue." All of the Zionist lobby in the United States. If these politicians are disgusting politicians that are uh part of this uh Zionist lobby would just listen to the American people instead of to this lobby that maybe pays them more than their constituents do, but their constituents are the ones they're supposed to represent. The American people overwhelmingly want this war to stop. They don't support it. They know that it is leading to disaster. They don't support Israel's maniacal behavior. It's extreme violence. They don't support it. So if our politicians would actually represent the American people, America First, it was once called. If they would represent the American people, Trump would say, "Oh, we had the greatest victory in the history of the world and I'm calling our troops home because we've won." That's all. And then things could go back to quasi-normal.
>> Tell me what you think of this from uh President Erdogan uh of Turkey yesterday. Chris, cut number 11.
>> With the help of God and by his divine will, I firmly believe that this oppressive tyrant known as Netanyahu will very soon be forced to learn the profound and necessary lesson that he so rightfully deserves from the collective strength and unity of the Muslims across the entire world. We are all looking forward with great anticipation to the moment which we hope will arrive very soon when we will finally be able to witness this new stance being put into practice for everyone to see.
>> I don't know what >> or is something happening be about to happen between Turkey and Israel?
>> I I don't know what he means by that. I know what the frustration is, certainly. But I I'd like to mention one related piece, which is that Trump suddenly said a couple days ago, "Well, all of the countries in the region as part of the agreement should sign the Abraham Accords." Okay, this is uh Netanyahu talk. It's Trump as a shill for the Israeli government. The idea that, "Oh yes, and we're all going to normalize relations with that murderous state which has invaded all of us and committed genocide in Gaza." That's Trump's latest plan. But I would want people to understand something very important, which is that since 2002, there has been an Arab peace proposal for precisely the Arab countries recognizing Israel as Trump wants. But the other side of it is that Israel will go back to its borders, which are the borders of the 4th of June 1967, and there will be a state of Palestine alongside Israel, and then indeed there can be normalization. Trump, of course, is utterly blind, deaf, dumb to all of this. Why is there this fundamental conflict? Because Israel claims Greater Israel. It claims all of Israel. It claims all of Palestine. It claims part of Syria. It claims part of Lebanon. And God knows where else. It claims, according to Mike Huckabee, it may claim part of Iraq. Who knows? All the way to the Euphrates because it's out of control and because the American political class doesn't know how to say no. Like every other country in the world, you live within your own borders. But the point I'm making is the Arab countries have said for 24 years, "Have a state of Palestine along the state of Israel, and then yes, we will normalize relations," but without the state of Palestine. Trump thinks that they're going to trample on the Palestinian people and on the Arab people more generally. I don't think so.
Professor Sachs, thank you very much, my dear friend. As always, terrific analysis across the board. Um, safe travels. All the best. We'll look forward to seeing you again soon.
>> See you next week.
>> Yes. Thank you.
>> Bye.
Coming up later today at 2:00 this afternoon, Aaron Mate. And at 3, the great Phil Geraldi. The Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Heat. Heat.