[CLOSER LOOK] LtCOL. Bill Astore : Running Low: America’s War Readiness Questioned

0:00When you really need care, you need 24-7 access to a care team, not a maze of paperwork from a third party. Every day, America's hospitals and health systems show up for you. Navigating healthcare can fuel overwhelming, but you can count on real doctors, real nurses, real people, providing quality around the clock care when you need it most. They're in your corner, in communities across America, your neighbors, your lifelines, right beside you holding your hand and helping find answers. That's what putting patients first actually means. Learn more at strengthinhealthcare.org Brought to you by the Coalition to Strength in America's Health Care. Undeclared wars are commonplace. Gradually, 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,

1:01you 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 Thursday, March 19th, 2000, and 26. Colonel Bill's story joins us now. Colonel, always a pleasure. Before we get to the military topics about which you have expertise, I just have to mention the latest news this morning. And ask you if you want to comment on it. Brent Crude is now above $120 a barrel.

2:02And this morning, the United States federal government's debt crossed $39 trillion. This was a debt that President Trump at one point said he would eradicate down to zero after eight years in office. How dangerous are these trends, Colonel? Yeah, very dangerous because we're spending more to service our debt now than we are on even our colossal trillion dollar defense budget. So we're turning over a trillion dollars just to float our $39 trillion debt. And what that means, of course, is that we don't have that money for all the things we'd like to see as a country, whether it be infrastructure improvements, better healthcare, education, and so on. Well, this morning, the Secretary of Defense who calls himself the Secretary of War asked for another $200 billion.

3:03What the hell do they do with the trillion they have that they need another $200 billion to fund the war? Or am I jumping the gun here? Is this $200 billion to replace the munitions that they have used last wasted in the war on Iran? Right. I think it's to fix the laundry service on the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier. But we know how bad that is, unfortunately, for those poor men and women. Right. No, I think there's just no end to the demands of those in the Pentagon asking for more and more money. And as we all know, the Pentagon has failed eight audits in a row. And so basically, we're just throwing more money at a wasteful corrupt system. What we need to find a way, although currently it's impossible under so-called war conditions,

4:04we need to find a way to cut the Pentagon budget, which is, of course, very unlikely. This is why we keep having wars, because wars are a guaranteed way to drive up that budget. You know, instead of articulating what the $200 billion would be used for in his own inimitable, thuggish way, he said, it costs a lot of money to kill bad guys. Yeah, yeah, I can't imagine any of his predecessors speaking that way. But, of course, he mimics the style of the president. Right. Right. And I think, but what that points to is, is headsets bankruptcy, as far as any kind of strategic ideas. You know, all he sees war is, as basically, you know, what he's most qualified for, perhaps, is like, maybe leading the platoon out on a patrol. He's not qualified to be

5:07the secretary of defense, and he has no conception of military policy, other than, as you said, going out and killing bad guys. Well, can you explain the repeated lust that American presidents have to kill people? Right. Right. Well, we are a violent country, that is for sure. And it's very tempting for American presidents, sadly, to, you know, even to see, to seek, to seek solutions using violence. Right. It's that old idea, was it Madeline Albright said to Colin Powell, that what is it? You know, why do we have this splendid military if you're not prepared to use it? And so we Americans, when we look across our history, you know, 250 years, just about every year of our history, we've been involved in a war in one place or another.

6:07So there's always that temptation. You know, even the so-called peace president there, the Nobel Peace Prize winning Barack Obama, boasted about how he became very good at killing people using drones. So it certainly isn't Trump, who has this predilection for violence and seeking solutions simply by using the military. No, it's not, it's not President Trump. It seems to be all modern presidents. I don't know if it started with Harry Truman and Hiroshima and Nabisaki or how this attitude of, I'll just kill whoever, whoever gets in the way of American hadgemony, rather than using diplomacy. I mean, what remains, again, I know this is not your field, but your very smart guy. What remains of American diplomacy? Who would trust American diplomats after these two real estate agents with Kofan and a Kushner duped the Iranians and refused

7:10negotiating with Iran as a cover for the Israeli and American preparation and attack? Yeah, no, that's absolutely right. And in fact, I wrote an article more than a decade ago, I think, where I said, the State Department has just become a tiny branch of the Pentagon. When you look at the State Department's budget versus the Pentagon, it spends about the Pentagon's 20 times, the budget's 20 times as large as the State Department's. And some of State Department's functions is basically to sell weapons overseas made by Lockheed Martin and Boeing and RTX and all the rest. So we don't dedicate much in the way of resources to diplomacy. And now when we do diplomacy, it's duplicitous. So no one trusts us. Right. Here's Pistol Pete about half an hour ago. That is overwhelming force applied with precision. And again, today will be the largest strike

8:10package yet, just like yesterday was. As I've said, from day one, our capabilities continue to build Iran's continued to degrade. We're hunting and striking death and destruction from above. I like his little American pocket square there, American flag pocket square on his suit. That's how you can tell a true patriot. Right. Apparently, if he opened, I don't know if he has it in every jacket, but I want some open up his jacket like this. And the lining of the jacket was the inside lining was an American flag. That is all legal. It's a little garrish, but it's legal. How does the average American Joe six pack to use an analogy from Trump's campaign in 2016 gain from this US Israeli attack on Iran? We don't gain at all. Joe six pack is paying more money.

9:13Every time he pulls up at a gas station, probably, as we all know, gas prices are anywhere from 30 to 50% higher this week than they were a couple of weeks ago. And everything, our heating oil, our natural gas for our homes, all the products and services that are made with petroleum. And so many things we don't even think of come from plastics and oil and gas and all the rest. Our cost of living is going to continue to increase. So we're all losing, even as a few people, as Trump says, well, America produces a lot of oil and gas now. So we're making money. Well, yeah, a few of his friends in the oil and gas industry and making money as the rest of Americans pay more and more money for all of the things, even fertilizer and our food prices are going to go up as a result of this war. You know, I don't get it. This is going to crest

10:18right before the midterms. I mean, you think it's bad now. It's going to be worse a couple of months from now, particularly when the summer driving season is on. I mean, look at the destruction of the oil and gas fields yesterday. That has yet to be calculated into the international calculus of how oil prices are going to go up. If it's $120 a barrel today, it could easily be $200 a barrel in two weeks. Right. Right. And then we tend to forget, because we live so far away from it all, is all of the nasty contaminants in pollution that's released when you attack oil fields and oil refineries. And I remember that a few days ago, I know you remember Judge the attack on Iran and that black cloud of soot and oil and fire and all the rest. You know, I think, you know, I come from a family of firefighters. Now, you know, I remember my dad being treated for

11:23smoke inhalation. Right. And, you know, this is just where even as we pursue this war, if it continues in intensity, intensity, we're basically poisoning our air and poisoning the earth. Wow. We have an Iranian spokesperson, he's speaking farcey, so they speak very fast, and the translation is very, very into English is very fast. We'll play it in a moment, but he's basically contradicting Hegseth. He's basically saying we still have substantial defense apparatus, which are able to intercept American missiles and drones. So with the respect, with deference to the fact that you really got to pay attention to this guy, here he is, Chris. The Islamic Republic of Iran did not intend to expand the scope of the war to oil facilities, and did not want to cause any harm to the economies of friendly and neighboring countries. However, with the enemy's attack on energy infrastructure, we have effectively entered a new phase

12:28of the war, and the necessity of defending Iran's infrastructure has compelled us to strike energy facilities connected to the United States and American stakeholders. Honorable people of Iran, your brave sons in the armed forces immediately launched offensive actions after the enemy's malicious act, and through a heavy and retaliatory operation, set fire to a number of oil facilities considered to be American interests in the region until the inflicted damage reached the level of the blow we had received. Once again, we warned the enemy that you made a grave mistake by attacking the energy infrastructure of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and our response is underway and not yet finished. The brave men of the IRGC aerospace force continuing the 63rd wave also struck the military positions of the child-killing Zionist occupying regime in the south of the occupied territories with a multi-war-head Kader missile, which resulted in various images of the impact. Additionally, a few hours earlier, two hostile drones were destroyed over Tehran by the Army Air Defense Force systems. Throughout this war, the advanced drones of the hostile

13:33aggressor were often intercepted by the integrated air defense network systems before they could carry out offensive operations. The offensive and defensive operations of Iran's armed forces continue with full strength, and victory is only from Allah, the Almighty, the Wise. All right, this side from the religious comments at the end. I mean, how do we know who to believe? Hegseth says they have no... We've totally degraded their defenses. This fellow says they still have enough defenses to shoot down American missiles and drones, and those from the Zionist child killers, I guess he's talking about the attack on that school. Right, right. I think part of what is so disconcerting to us as Americans is we used to, even though we know all governments lie, and we know that in the past, whether it be the Vietnam War, the non-existent weapons of mass destruction and the Iraq war and so on, we usually could bank on the idea that American leaders

14:39were a little bit more truthful than the lies coming up from some other country. Right. I think part of what we've learned, or we're learning now, is that someone like Pete Hegseth, for example, is more likely to be lying than the Iranian, the Iranian spokesperson. And I think I think the Iranian spokesman, in this case, is correct. I think Iran is held back, and I think they still have a considerable force that they can use to strike back against Israel or the other American bases in the Middle East. Yeah, you know, I might have mis-spoken when he said Zionist child killers, he might have been referencing Gaza. I don't think there's any dispute but that school where the 170 little girls and their teachers who were incinerated was attacked by the US, not by Israel. What is this significance, Colonel, in your view of the resignation of the head of American counterterrorism? Yeah, this fellow Joe Cantu and his resignation letter

15:47said Iran poses no imminent threat to our nation. Right. Right. I think it's very significant in the sense that Joe Cantu is strongly, well, he's a strong Trump supporter. He's also a former green beret, extensive combat experience. You know, he lost his wife to a suicide bomber in Syria. I mean, this is a man who most definitely has sacrificed for his country. So in that sense, I think his resignation and the fact that he didn't just quietly go away, but he stood up and said, look, I think this war is wrong. You know, we're not fighting this war for America. This is not MAGA that this is a war that's being driven by Israeli imperatives rather than national security. I think that resonates very powerfully among the Trump base. And I think this is why the Trump

16:50Trump administration is striking back against him. So I heard that the FBI is investigating Joe Cantu now for allegedly leaking national security information. You know, Trump himself says he's weak on security. And I'm sure there'll be, there'll probably more smears coming. Right. One of this, one of this smears is because some of us have been saying, well, wait a minute, Joe Cantu sees the same saw of the same classified documents that the president, secretary Hegseth, secretary Rubio, director Ratcliffe, director Gabbard saw. And then the White House said not in response to me, but a bunch of us have been saying this. Oh, no, he didn't have a classified security clearance. Well, isn't it inconceivable that the head of counterterrorism would not have classified security clearance. That's like a blind surgeon for God's sakes.

17:53Right. It is, it is inconceivable. That's, that's right. And this is, this is part of the problem with, with, we, we simply cannot trust what our leaders are telling us. You know, I, I watched some of Tulsi Gabbard's testimony yesterday, yesterday before the Senate. And it was so discouraging because I was, I, you know, I supported Tulsi for president in 2020. It was just so discouraging to see her evasiveness in her lack of, of, of honesty, in answering many of those questions. Chris, play the, I'm not sure what the number is, Chris, the, the edited version of Senator Ossoff questioning secretary Gabbard. Quote, Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated and, quote, correct? That's right. And is that, in fact, the assessment of the intelligence community? Yes. So the assessment of the intelligence community is that Iran's nuclear enrichment

18:55program was obliterated by last summer's air strikes? Yes. Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that there was an imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime? The intelligence community assessed that Iran maintained the intention to rebuild and to continue to grow their nuclear enrichment capability. Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that there was a, quote, imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime? Yes or no? Senator, the only person who can determine in what is and is not an imminent threat is the president. False. This is the worldwide, this is the worldwide threat searing where you present to Congress, national intelligence, timely objective and independent of political considerations. Was it the intelligence community's assessment that nevertheless, despite this obliteration, there was a, quote, imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime? Yes or no? It is not the intelligence community's responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat. It is precisely your responsibility to determine what constitutes a threat to the United

19:58States. This is the worldwide threats hearing. Well, she did not want to give those answers. Even her one-word answers were mumbled out of a tight-lipped mouth. No, it's so disappointing to see that because, you know, I supported Tulsi and many other people because, you know, we thought we saw before us a person of integrity. She was, she actually, as you know, Judge, she said a war against Iran would be a mistake. It would be unwise. She ran against regime change wars and now, you know, she goes before Congress and you can just tell that she's not being forthright. She's not being honest. She's tight-lipped and she's, I don't know. I don't know if it's a corruption of power, intimidation from Trump and the

21:01totes that are around her, maybe future ambitions. I don't know how they got to her, but they got to her. Yeah. Can you get a handle around the volume or quantity of munitions consumed by this war? I mean, stated differently is the United States running dangerously low and dangerous. Out of these munitions? I think the supply of the, you know, the PGM, the precision guided munitions. Those stocks, I would imagine, are fairly low at this moment. You know, these are weapons that there's long lead times to produce them. They are expensive weapons. I think what we have a lot of are so-called dumb bombs. You know, the unguided bombs or the old laser-guided ones, which are not necessarily as precise and need to be dropped by airplanes that are actually

22:07either in Iranian airspace or very close to it, putting the pilots at a greater risk of danger. So, you know, the way in which we've been using munitions, there has to be some shortages, definitely. Wow. Do you think that the Pentagon grossly misplanned and is mismanaging all this? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if I place all the blame on the Pentagon, but certainly, within the Trump Hegseth and their circle, I think there was a lot of overconfidence as usual that the war was going to be fairly short and that, therefore, we really didn't have to worry that much about stocks of weapons and so on. I think what this war is showing us is that Iran has a lot more say over the pace of the war,

23:09the intensity of the war than the Trump administration, or even Israel expected. Wow. Colonel Billa's story. Thank you. Thank you for letting me go all over the place. I have such respect for your intellect and the academic side of you and you allowed me to explain to thank you, Colonel, all the best to you, my friend. All right. Thank you, Judge. Sure. We'll see you again soon. And coming up later today at 1 o'clock this afternoon, Command Sergeant Major Dennis Fritz at 2 o'clock this afternoon, Colonel Lawrence Wilgerson, batting clean up at 3 o'clock this afternoon, Max Blumenthal, Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. With verbal care, help is always ready.

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