Kelley Vlahos, a Washington, D.C.-based freelance reporter and contributing editor for The American Conservative, discusses the wasted billions of dollars the US has spent training Afghanistan's security forces, and why they still aren't capable of fighting the Taliban on their own.

Gareth Porter, author of Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare, discusses Iran's fulfillment of its obligations under the nuclear agreement (JCPOA), and why it won't blunt the US's belligerent Middle East foreign policy.

Barry Lando, author of Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush, discusses the stupid decisions made before, during and after the first Gulf War (1991) and how they started the US on the path toward the current Global War on Terror.

Jason Leopold, author of News Junkie, discusses Italy's prosecution (in absentia) of CIA officers involved in the 2003 rendition of Abu Omar to Egypt where he was tortured; and why former CIA counter-terrorism officer Sabrina De Sousa is the only one to face imprisonment thus far.

Sarah Helm, a former Middle East Correspondent for The Independent, discusses her article "ISIS in Gaza," about the allure of radical Islam to disillusioned young Palestinians who are weary of Hamas's failure to achieve peace and an independent state.

Jacqui Shine, a Chicago-based writer and historian, discusses her article "Inside the Police-Industrial Complex," inspired by her visit to the 2015 convention of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.