You're watching...
Judge Napolitano discusses the previous year in liberty issues and looks ahead to what may be the future of freedom in the United States
Also in this playlist...
Auto-advance: ON
Auto-advance
This transcript is automatically generated
Barack Obama first garnered national attention for his fiery anti war speeches.
He famously called the war in Iraq this before was president a dumb war.
But once in office he doubled down on Afghanistan tried to delay the Iraq -- draw down.
Negotiated by President Bush.
And they each morning eleven the year of the Obama wars when American military involvement in Libya in you've -- -- in Pakistan in Somalia.
And -- the possibility of a Covert war already under way in Iran.
We're back -- our panel -- -- Leno Hawkins -- joining us now freedom watch regular retired united states army colonel Douglas Macgregor.
Panel welcome here -- colonel McGregor to you first big picture.
Is the average American.
At christmastime 2011.
Safer in our freedoms and in our property rights and in our homes because of all the military adventurism.
Going on around the world in the past three -- -- the past ten years.
Oh absolutely not.
In fact we've not only cultivated.
Billions of new enemies overseas as a result of our.
-- considered interventions in -- policies but we've also undermined our.
National security by spending ourselves into oblivion losing trillions of dollars on these interventions.
Do we need 900.
Permanent military installations around the world on which the sun never sets and the location -- name of which no single person could possibly ever name.
No we airplane to highest price in blood we are paying too high priced in treasure we can't afford it we are -- money from the Chinese.
To find our military ventures.
-- it's very dangerous borrowing money from the Chinese to fund our military adventurism overseas aren't the Chinese.
Arguably.
Someone who low levels in their military cross hairs and what we would have in the military -- -- Well given that we're one of Arab.
Biggest customers they wouldn't behoove them to harm us too much but there's more than one way to take over -- country and certainly by holding the majority of the debt of a country you have an awful lot of power.
I'm not comfortable with what they can -- and here we get tear it apart how -- -- the United States is responsible for half of all the military spending in the entire world.
How did we get to this point colonel McGregor words almost deemed unpatriotic.
If you vote to to cut the defense spending.
Well it's it's not a new phenomenon but I think you've got to go back to the end of the Second World War.
We ended up effectively the last man standing everyone else was very weak we emerged almost -- -- -- compared to everyone else.
Our GNP dominated the world at it at one point it was almost half the the gross national product to the world today.
We've fallen down to less than 20% -- our economic position is far weaker.
But in the meantime we've retained all of these spaces -- -- this.
The equivalent to overseas empire because there's a consensus inside the beltway.
That keeping American soldiers and other peoples countries is the way to promote peace and prosperity right and that may have been true during the Cold War.
Well we had a -- -- substantial threat to the United States in the west but it hasn't been true for over twenty years and it needs to -- Why wasn't there more of an outrage.
When the president started a war in Libya on his own remember this scenario congress is on spring break.
Congress gets spring break congress is on a spring break the president was embers Brazil.
-- he announced that he was bombing in Libya supposedly to save lives it was humanitarian nation.
It was the warm -- boots weren't on the ground they were in the planes in the sky and by the way was.
Under the supervision of NATO anyway.
Why did congress act like a potted plant that the president arguably stole their power under the constitution their power to declare war.
You said it wasn't a war war there wasn't you know where funding -- sending -- were striking where pain from missiles that -- is using to what's on the war war but.
Actually congress is -- -- all of their powers and in -- it it is unbelievable -- it is.
Antithetical to what our republic was founded as to allow the president unlimited authority that was -- -- -- Caution.
What what will it take before we realize that we have to pull back financially we have to reassess even our involvement with -- That it is not unpatriotic to say that pentagon can operate on 600 billion instead of 800 billion.
I I think our debt level is probably going to -- and fortunately for the -- being.
Where the least ugly dog the ugly dog contest all the problems in Europe and eventually in Japan are giving us a little bit of -- a break there.
Colonel is it likely that we've started war or ready in Iran using Covert -- whether they're Americans are not.
May need military out of uniform can you tell us what you're allowed to tell us what you know about what the American military is doing in Iran as.
As we speak.
Well actually I can't say very much except to point out to -- you know we maintain surveillance across the the region.
We're very interest in what happens in -- Iran.
-- we're engaged with your audience in ways that are similar to -- how we were engaged with the Soviets during the Cold War when.
Our nuclear submarines were engaged with their submarines and a cat and mouse game.
There's a lot of that happening now in the region but it's not fundamentally changing anything and it really isn't helping Arab position or the position of our friends.
Are you surprised that so many are Republican candidates for president of said bring home the troops have started by Ron Paul but even Gingrich and and and Romney jumped on the bandwagon about two months ago.
I'm relieved to see it because my Brothers one of those soldiers and I don't want him going up to die for a war without -- But -- -- it's been interesting to look at the generation gap on how people feel about war issues on millennial.
They 66% on a recent pew poll feel that we don't need to expand our.
Doing so actually invites more trouble I think as you know as people start to get older and as the silent generations are skewed to Texans I have we're gonna they're gonna have to colonel Douglas Macgregor Nicole Neal -- -- our -- guys thank you very much.
