Jason Ditz discusses the latest on Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities. Although Iran has talked about abandoning their obligations under both the JCPOA and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Ditz says they are still so far from having nukes that withdrawing from these agreements doesn’t mean they would actually get nukes. More importantly, Iran is well aware of how quickly the U.S. and its allies would come down on them if they really did try to start producing weapons. In fact the only...

Dave DeCamp talks about the scandalous apparent cover-up of the OPCW’s real findings on the alleged chemical attack in Douma in 2018. In 2019 the organization issued a final report affirming the likelihood of a real chemical attack. But now Ian Henderson, one of the engineers on the ground in Douma, has come forward to claim that his team was convinced the attack had been staged, contrary to the OPCW’s report. Henderson is quick to defend the organization’s integrity, but believes that in this...

Dan Caldwell of Concerned Veterans for America talks to Scott about his organization’s latest efforts to change the conversation about support for America’s wars in the Middle East. Their new ad campaign emphasizes the fact that even most veterans simply want to end the wars. Caldwell hopes to remind Americans that a truly conservative foreign policy would be much more restrained than the current neoconservative status quo. Discussed on the show: “End Endless Wars” (Concerned Veterans for...

Jim Bovard talks about the federal pressure for states to comply with their “REAL ID” laws, which place higher standards on proving one’s identity and may require the submission of fingerprints or even DNA samples. Bovard reminds us that even if the requirements aren’t so onerous at first, these laws could easily be used as a precedent to ram through more Orwellian standards in the future. Bovard also comments on the recent rallies in Virginia against the state’s proposed gun control measures....

Stephen Zunes discusses the catastrophic mistake of the U.S. plan to invade Iraq, then “divide and rule” along sectarian lines. Zunes says that although the relationship between Iran and the Iraqi Shiite government is a problem for those who worry about Iranian influence in the Middle East, the irony that everyone seems to have forgotten is that it was the Bush Administration that overthrew the Sunni government there in the first place, essentially fighting against Saddam Hussein on behalf of...

Scott talks to Ramzy Baroud about the Israeli occupation of Gaza, where Palestinian civilians continue to be killed and otherwise oppressed by Israeli forces. Baroud describes the many ways in which Israel has twisted the mainstream narrative and manipulated their supporters in the U.S., who are mostly ignorant of just how oppressive the regime is. Baroud says the outlook is bleak: only through continued resistance and international solidarity do Palestinians have any hope of changing the...

Doug Bandow talks about the legacy of the war in Libya, which many Americans seem already to have forgotten. Bandow says Qaddafi was supposed to be the test case for a dictator agreeing to U.S. terms of peaceful nuclear disarmament. Instead, as soon as he disarmed America sent troops in to overthrow him, creating an obvious chilling effect on any country of whom we make similar demands in the future. Bandow also reminds us of the blowback caused by the war there, and fears for the possibility...

Trita Parsi explains why he thinks that President Trump's clear signal that he doesn't want to go to war with Iran has sent a message to American allies like Saudi Arabia that they should now pursue diplomacy instead of war. Some assume that without a strong U.S. military presence in the Middle East, the region will fall apart. Parsi says it is quite the opposite, and that these countries are perfectly capable of getting along with each other without our involvement. Most recently, the Iraqi...

Ryan McMaken discusses his recent articles for the Mises Institute about the future of U.S. dollar hegemony. He walks us through the dollar’s history as global reserve currency, which began in the mid 20th century as an alternative to a direct gold standard. Still, the dollar was redeemable for gold in theory, until Nixon suspended the policy altogether and unchained debt and inflation to bring about the system we have today. McMaken describes the importance of keeping the dollar as the...

Scott talks to Andy Worthington about Guantanamo Bay, where dozens of prisoners are still detained without charges under suspicion of involvement in terrorism. Worthington reminds us that President Obama campaigned on closing the prison, but quickly gave up after resistance from republicans. Trump, meanwhile, has kept his campaign promise not to release any more prisoners. Worthington fears that the plight of these men being detained with no hope of justice is simply not a cause most Americans...

Grant Smith discusses his new book, The Israel Lobby Enters State Government, which tells the scandalous story of the Virginia Israel Advisory Board, a branch of the Virginia state legislature tasked with promoting Israeli business interests in the state. Unlike a chamber of commerce, says Smith, VIAB is quite literally a part of Virginia’s government, so its members can use political power to obtain contracts for businesses that they choose, with special provisions that businesses in the free...

Gareth Porter joins Scott once again to discuss what he calls Mike Pompeo’s “Gulf of Tonkin incident.” In the real Gulf of Tonkin incident, McNamara intentionally misled President Johnson in order to incite war between the U.S. and North Vietnam. Porter says that Pompeo pulled a similar maneuver in deceiving President Trump about the extent to which Soleimani and the Iranians were behind the recent embassy attacks in Iraq in order to persuade him to carry out Soleimani’s assassination. For the...