“Judging Freedom”: edition of 17 October 2024

Today’s discussion with Judge Andrew Napolitano focused on the present battle conditions in Kursk, where autumnal fog and rain have worsened the prospects for survival among those remaining Ukrainian and foreign troops. The Russians have re-captured one half of the territory in Kursk initially seized by the Ukrainians. They have also taken possession or have 24-hour monitoring of all the roads in the territory, forcing Ukrainian motorized units, such as remain, to travel off road. However, the rains are rendering off-road impassable for most NATO vehicles like personnel carriers. Their wheels get stuck in mud and the soldiers must abandon them lest they be blown to bits when their stationary vehicles are hit by the enemy.  Meanwhile, fog is grounding drones. The net result has been to restore the artillery to its position as weaponry of choice and this is precisely where the Russian advantage is massive.  So far, the Russians claim to have killed 23,000 Ukrainian and foreign troops in Kursk.

Otherwise, we touched briefly on Zelensky’s delirious 5-point Peace Plan. We moved on to the Middle East, where the issue of Russia’s backpedaling on a defense alliance with Iran took most of the time. What was left was largely used to examine why and how the Israeli attacks on Lebanon have split the EU, with a number of countries outraged by the indiscriminate killing by Israel of the Christian population and other countries moved to denounce Israel for its attacks on the Unifil detachments in Southern Lebanon.