Professor Jeffrey Sachs

VTforeignpolicy.com has shared a shortened version of American economist and public-policy analyst, Jeffrey Sachs’, explosive address to the EU Parliament on February 19, 2025. This is a must-see video for anyone wanting a no-holds-barred TRUE civics lesson on how America REALLY operates. (Hint: It’s embarrassing.)

Notably, Mr. Sachs is not a part of EITHER political party and truly tells it like it is — like it REALLY is.

He covers US propaganda, the CIA’s actual role in the world, our media, the ridiculous — and embarrassing — behavior of our senators, how AIPAC owns our congress (and Israel/Netanyahu, our foreign policy), and so much more I had never heard before.

Here’s the link: https://vtforeignpolicy.com/2025/03/jeffrey-sachs-explosive-address-at-the-eu-parliament-sends-shockwaves-across-europe/

Here’s a transcript of this edited (15-minute) video.

“So the NATO enlargement, as you know, started in 1999. with Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. And Russia was unhappy about it. But these were still countries far from the border. And Russia protested but, of course, to no avail.

Then George Bush, Jr. came in, when 9/11 occurred, President Putin pledged all support, and then the US decided [on] SEPTEMBER 20, 2001, that it would launch SEVEN WARS IN FIVE YEARS. And you can listen to General Wesley Clark, online, talk about that. He was NATO’s Supreme Commander in 1999. He went to the Pentagon on September 20, 2001, he was handed the paper explaining “Seven Wars.”

These, by the way, were Netanyahu’s wars.

The idea was, partly, to clean up old Soviet allies and partly to take out supporters of Hamas and Hezbollah because Netanyahu’s idea was: “There will be ONE state, thank you, only one state. It will be Israel. (1:22) Israel will control ALL of the territory. And anyone that objects, we will overthrow — not “we” exactly, our friend, the United States. That’s US policy until this morning. We don’t know whether it will change.

The only wrinkle is that maybe the US will own Gaza instead of Israel owning Gaza. But the idea has been around, at least, for 25 years. It actually goes back to a document called “Clean Break” that Netanyahu and his American political team put together, in 1996 to END the idea of the two-state solution. You can also find it online: https://www.dougfeith.com/docs/Clean_Break.pdf

So these are projects; these are LONG-TERM events. This isn’t “Is it Clinton, is it Bush, is it Obama?” That’s the boring way to look at American politics as the day-to-day game. But that’s not what American politics is.

(2:31) As you know, Viktor Yanukovych was elected in 2010 on a platform of neutrality. Russia has NO territorial interest or designs in Ukraine AT ALL. I know; I was there during these years. What Russia was negotiating was a 25-year lease, until 2042, for Sevastopol Naval Base. That’s it!

Not for Crimea, not for the Donbas, nothing like that. This idea that Putin’s reconstructing the Russian Empire — this is CHILDISH PROPAGANDA. If anyone knows the day-to-day, and year-to-year history . . . This is childish stuff. Childish stuff seems to work better than adult stuff. So no designs at all.

The United States decided this man must be overthrown. It’s called a regime-change operation. There have been about a hundred of them by the United States, many in your countries and many all over the world. That’s what the CIA does for a living. Please know it. It’s a very unusual kind of foreign policy. But in America, if you don’t like the other side, you don’t negotiate with them, you try to overthrow them, preferably covertly. If it doesn’t work covertly, you do it overtly. They always say “it’s not our fault, they’re the aggressor. they’re the other side, they’re Hitler.” That comes up every two or three years whether it’s Saddam Hussein, whether it’s Assad, whether it’s Putin. That’s very convenient. That’s the only foreign policy explanation American people are ever given anywhere.

“Well we’re facing Munich 1938. Well we’re facing Munich 1938. Can’t talk to the other side. They’re evil. Implacable folks. That’s the ONLY model of foreign policy we ever heard from our mass media, and the mass media repeats it entirely because it’s completely subborned by the US government.

(5:11) I begged the Ukrainians and I had a track record with the Ukrainians — I’d advised the Ukrainians, I’m not anti-Ukrainian, I’m pro-Ukrainian completely. I said “Save your lives, save your sovereignty, save your territory. Be neutral. Don’t listen to the Americans.” I repeated the famous adage of Henry Kissinger: “To be an enemy of the United States is dangerous but to be a friend is fatal.” Let me repeat that for Europe . . .

Trump does not want the losing hand. This is why it is more likely than not this war will end. Because Trump and President Putin will agree to end the war. If Europe does all it’s great war mongering, it doesn’t matter. The war is ending. So get it out of your system. Please tell your colleagues. It’s over. And it’s over because Trump doesn’t want to carry a loser. That’s it. It’s not some great morality [stance]. He doesn’t want to carry a loser. This is a loser.

The one that will be saved by the negotiations taking place right now is Ukraine. (6:49) Second, is Europe. Their stock market’s rising in recent days, by the “horrible” news of negotiations. I know this has been met with sheer horror in these chambers. But this is the best news that you could get. Now I encourage — they don’t listen to me, but I tried to reach out to some of the European leaders, most don’t want to hear anything from me at all, but I said, “Don’t go to Kiev, go to Moscow, discuss with your counterparts. Are you kidding? You’re Europe, you’re 450 million people, you’re a trillion-dollar economy. You should be the main economic trading partner of Russia, its natural links.”

By the way, if anyone would like to discuss HOW the US blew up Nord Stream, I’d be happy to talk about that.

(8:05) On the Middle East, by the way, the US completely handed over foreign policy to Netanyahu 30 years ago. The Israel lobby (AIPAC) DOMINATES American politics. Just have no doubt about it. I could explain, for hours, how it works. It’s very dangerous.

I am hoping that Trump will not destroy his administration and, worse, the Palestinian people, because of Netanyahu who I regard as a war criminal, properly indicted by the ICC (International Criminal Court) and [who] needs to be told “No More!” — that there will be a state of Palestine on the orders of the 4th of June 1967, according to international law, as the only way for peace. It’s the only way for Europe to have peace on your borders with the Middle East, is the two-state solution.

There is only one obstacle to it, by the way, and that is the veto of the United States and the UN Security Council.

So if you want to have some influence, tell the United States “Drop the veto.” You are together with 180 countries in the world. The ONLY ones that oppose a Palestinian state are: the United States; Israel; Micronesia; Nauru; Palau; Papua, New Guinea, Mr. Milei (Argentina) and Paraguay.

(9:51) So this is a place where Europe could have a big influence.

Europe has gone silent about the JCPOA and Iran. Netanyahu’s greatest dream in life is a war between the United States and Iran. He’s not given up — and it’s not impossible that that would come, also. And that’s because the US, in this regard, does not have an independent foreign policy. It is run by Israel. It’s tragic.

It’s amazing, by the way. And it COULD end. Trump may say that he wants foreign policy back, maybe. I’m hoping that it’s the case.

Finally let me just say, with respect to China: China is not an enemy. China is just a success story. That is why it is viewed by the United States as an enemy — because China is a bigger economy than the United States.

(11:02) Russia is not going to invade Europe — this is the fundamental point. It may get up to the Nibur (??) River. It’s not going to invade Europe, but there are REAL issues. The main issue for Russia was the United states because Russia as a major power and the largest nuclear power in the world was profoundly concerned about US unipolarity from the beginning. Now that this is seemingly possibly ending, Europe has to open negotiations directly with Russia, as well, because the United States will quickly lose interest and you’re going to be living with Russia for the next thousands of years.

So what do you want? You want to make sure that the Baltic states are secure. (12:00) The best thing for the Baltic states is to STOP their Russophobia. This is the most important thing: Estonia has about 25% Russian-speaking citizens, ethnic Russians. Latvia, the same.

Don’t provoke the neighbor. That’s all. This is not hard. It really isn’t hard. And, again, I want to explain my point of view: I have helped these countries, the ones I’m talking about, trying to advise I’m not their enemy, I’m not Putin’s puppet, I’m not Putin’s apologist. I worked in Estonia, they gave me the second highest civilian honor that a president of Estonia can bestow on a non-national because I designed their currency system for them in 1992. So I’m giving them advice. Do not stand there, Estonia, and say “We want to break up Russia.” Are you kidding? Don’t. This is not how to survive in this world. You survive with mutual respect, actual. You survive in negotiation. You survive in discussion. You don’t outlaw the Russian language — not a good idea when 25% of your population has a first language of Russian. It’s not right even if there weren’t a giant on the border. It wouldn’t be the right thing to do. You’d have it as an official language. You have it as a language in lower (?) school. You wouldn’t antagonize the Russian Orthodox Church. So basically we need to behave like grown-ups and when I constantly say that they are acting like children, Sonya always says to me, “That’s unfair to children” because this is worse than children.

We have a six year old granddaughter and a three-year-old grandson and they actually make up with their friends. And we don’t tell them “Go, just ridicule them tomorrow, and every day.” We say, “Go give them a hug and go play.” And they do.

This is not hard. By the way . . . Anyway, I won’t belabor the point, thank you.”

All I should say is: change policy!”

If you’d like to see the entire video, go here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAWk1tY3oFk