Bamboozle Putin? Forget It
On 13 March 2025, I appeared on “Judging Freedom” with Judge Napolitano. We talked about Putin’s deft handling of the US-Ukrainian ceasefire proposal. He did not dismiss it out of hand, but instead diplomatically said that he liked the idea in principle, but that the devil is in the details. His discussion of some of the key details made it clear that Russia would only accept a ceasefire on its terms, which means there is not going to be a ceasefire until Russia deems that the time is right and the details are to its liking. The Judge and I also talked about Israel and free speech in the United States. I made the argument that Israel and its lobby are the greatest threat to free speech in the United States, one of our core liberal values.
Prof. John J. Mearsheimer
Thu.13.Mar.2025
“The truth is, Judge [Judge Napolitano, retired U.S. Federal Judge], the single greatest threat to Freedom of Speech in the United States at this point in time, is Israel and its supporters, here, in the United States. It is truly amazing the extent to which Israel’s supporters are going to enormous lengths to shut down Free Speech, not only on university campuses, but all across the country.”
“What could be done is very simple. People could speak up about this. They could stand on the rooftops and scream about what’s happening and making it very clear that this is a threat to basic American values, this is a threat to liberal democracy.
But the fact is we live in a country where most people would prefer to stay down in the foxhole and not get up and actually fight this battle.”
Putin spoke in Russian and is translated as “A ceasefire is *nuanced*…” etc. Russians will have immediately recognised his meaning : the word “nuanced” in Russian is a crude sexual inuendo used in a well known Russian joke with a double entendre which boils down to “Shove it up your ass”.
You’re right, if there’s any bamboozling to be done it’s from Putin, not to him.