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Dave DeCamp was back on Antiwar Radio this week to talk about the latest news coming out of the Middle East and war in Ukraine. They discuss the Jihadist advance toward Syria’s capital city of Demascus, the ongoing slaughter and ethnic cleansing happening in Gaza and the pressure the US is putting on Ukraine to lower the conscription age.

Discussed on the show:

• “Al-Qaeda Linked Militants Seize Major Syrian City of Hama” (Antiwar.com)
• “Report: US Offered To Withdraw Troops From Syria in Exchange for Assad Cutting Ties With Iran” (Antiwar.com)
• “US Frames Syria Airstrikes as ‘Self-Defense’ Despite Happening Amid an Ongoing US-Backed Offensive” (Antiwar.com)
• Scott’s Thread on Syria from Enough Already
• “Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza” (Amnesty International)
• “Ben Gvir Says Netanyahu Is ‘Open’ To Expelling Palestinians From Gaza” (Antiwar.com)

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com and the host of Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp. Follow him on Twitter @decampdave

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Roberts and Robers Brokerage Incorporated; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; Libertas Bella; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott.

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Kevin Gosztola discusses the abominable record of some of Joe Biden’s key transition team officials, people who are likely to become high-level members of Biden’s eventual cabinet. This list includes the usual war hawks and D.C. insiders, who are sure to return the country to the bipartisan foreign policy consensus of the last few decades, including increased sanctions on Iran and Russia, regime change in Venezuela and Syria, and increased troop levels in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Gosztola fears that the new cold war with Russia will become even more intense under a Biden administration, as the Democratic Party continues to conveniently blame Russia for all of America’s problems.

Discussed on the show:

• “Biden’s transition team is filled with war profiteers, Beltway chickenhawks, and corporate consultants” (The Grayzone)
• “Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call” (BBC News)
• Rage
• “‘We Think the Price Is Worth It’” (FAIR)
• A Promised Land
  
• The Management of Savagery: How America’s National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump
  
• “02/17/16 – Charlotte Silver” (The Scott Horton Show)

Kevin Gosztola is managing editor of Shadowproof. He also produces and co-hosts the weekly podcast, “Unauthorized Disclosure.” Follow him on Twitter @kgosztola.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; and Listen and Think Audio.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

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Gareth Porter is back for a retrospective on Trump’s foreign policy. Despite campaigning on a relatively non-interventionist platform, and indeed despite explicitly denouncing the policies of the Bush and Clinton families along the way, Trump has not been especially effective in delivering on his promises to bring American troops home from the forever-wars. Porter lays the blame for this failure primarily on the fact that Trump surrounded himself with terrible people who worked to actively undermine his wishes. Moreover, he lacks the knowledge and personal conviction to see his policies through in the face of serious opposition. Judging by recent standards, says Porter, Trump’s foreign policy hasn’t been so bad, except on Israel and Palestine, where he has been quite possibly the worst president of all time. Sadly, when it comes to Israel, a Biden administration is likely to continue along similar lines.

Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist on the national security state. He is the author of Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare and, with John Kiriakou, The CIA Insider’s Guide to the Iran Crisis. Follow him on Twitter @GarethPorter and listen to Gareth’s previous appearances on the Scott Horton Show.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; and Listen and Think Audio.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

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Ray McGovern discusses the recent personnel changes in the Trump administration and what they could mean for his final months in office. McGovern thinks that John Brennan and his allies are getting nervous that as a lame duck, Trump might decide to simply release documents that incriminate these deep-state officials for their roles in the “Russiagate” plot, and potentially even worse things. Brennan is trying to make it seem like Trump could be endangering national security with these moves—really the only thing in danger is Brennan’s own skin.

Discussed on the show:

• “RAY McGOVERN: What is John Brennan So Worried About?” (Consortium News)
• “Our Work with the DNC: Setting the record straight” (CrowdStrike)
• “My Resignation From The Intercept” (Glenn Greenwald)
• “JFK (1991)” (IMDb)
• JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters
  
• Mary’s Mosaic: The CIA Conspiracy to Murder John F. Kennedy, Mary Pinchot Meyer, and Their Vision for World Peace
  
• “Tucker investigates why ‘DOJ is pursuing Julian Assange aggressively’” (YouTube)
• “UN expert says “collective persecution” of Julian Assange must end now” (OHCHR)

Ray McGovern is the co-creator of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and the former chief of the CIA’s Soviet analysts division. Read all of his work at his website: raymcgovern.com.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; and Listen and Think Audio.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

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Scott interviews Doug Bandow about the missed foreign policy opportunities of the Trump administration. Bandow laments that Trump didn’t push harder to get U.S. troops out of our wars in the Middle East, theorizing that he was worried the political cost in the eyes of wealthy donors like Sheldon Adelson would outweigh the benefits in terms of popularity with voters. Bandow hopes that Trump’s policy toward North Korea, at least, will be preserved in the next administration—a policy that recognizes that North Korea is no threat to America so long as America doesn’t first threaten Korea. The South Korea-led peace talks that Trump participated in nearly led to an official end to the Korean War, says Bandow, and were only sabotaged because Trump had surrounded himself with bad advisors who didn’t really want things to work out. Sadly this has been the story of Trump’s whole four years in office.

Discussed on the show:

• “The Lost Opportunities of the Trump Administration” (Antiwar.com Original)
• “Donald Trump’s North Korea Strategy Must Survive” (Cato Institute)
• “Is Mike Pompeo the Worst Secretary of State in History?” (Cato Institute)
• “Outgoing Syria Envoy Admits Hiding US Troop Numbers; Praises Trump’s Mideast Record” (Defense One)
• “Exclusive: Esper, on his way out, says he was no yes man” (Military Times)
• “Citigroup chose Obama’s 2008 cabinet, WikiLeaks document reveals” (World Socialist Web Site)
• Rage
  
• “‘We Think the Price Is Worth It’” (FAIR)
• The Downing Street Memo
• “Nixon (1995)” (IMDb)

Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a regular contributor at Forbes Magazine, the National Interest, and elsewhere. He’s on Twitter @Doug_Bandow.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; and Listen and Think Audio.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

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Scott talks to Mike Maharrey of the Tenth Amendment Center about the shameful state of U.S. foreign policy. In particular, Maharrey explains the way that congress has completely abdicated its role of declaring wars—instead, they have ceded that power fully to the president. Maharrey reminds us that all empires collapse eventually, and indeed that empire is often the final stage in a civilization’s existence. If we want to preserve our republic, he says, we must do so at the cost of abandoning our empire. Scott and Maharrey share the hope that Colonel Douglas Macgregor, recently appointed to a senior advisory role in the Pentagon, will be able to help us do so.

Discussed on the show:

• “The Unconstitutional War in Yemen Grinds Life and Liberty Under Its Wheels” (Tenth Amendment Center)
• Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time
  
• bringourtroopshome.us

Mike Maharrey is National Communications Coordinator for the Tenth Amendment Center. He is the author of three books on nullification and hosts the Thoughts from Maharrey Head podcast. Find him on Twitter @mmaharrey10th.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; and Listen and Think Audio.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

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Pentagon reporter Mark Perry discusses the recent appointment of retired Colonel Douglas Macgregor to a senior advisory position under President Trump’s new secretary of defense. Perry calls Macgregor one of the greatest military minds in America; after a distinguished Army career that included one ofAmerica’s swiftest and most lopsided victories in the Persian Gulf War’s Battle of 73 Easting, Macgregor became a military historian and scholar. He continues to openly share his sometimes unconventional views of the U.S. military, including the need to get out of our forever-wars as quickly as possible. Perry and Scott both suspect that this is why Trump has appointed him, and fervently hope that he will be able to deliver on his plans for peace.

Discussed on the show:

• “The revenge of Col. Douglas Macgregor” (Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft)
• Battle of 73 Easting
• Eleventh Hour in 2020 America

Mark Perry is the author of Talking to Terrorists: Why America Must Engage with its Enemies, The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur, and The Pentagon’s Wars. Read his work at The American Conservative Magazine and follow him on Twitter @MarkPerryDC.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; and Listen and Think Audio.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

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Grant Smith discusses the concept of “QME”, or “Qualitative Military Edge,” and how Israel and their lobby in the U.S. use it to get billions of dollars from the American taxpayers. Smith explains that during the Cold War, the doctrine of QME was used to keep the U.S. ahead of the Soviet Union and its allies—today, the same doctrine is being advocated by those who see Israel as a beacon of freedom and goodness amid a sea of enemies. And they use this concept to justify billions of dollars worth of arms “sales” to the Israeli government, which really, says Smith, amount to taxpayer-funded giveaways.

Discussed on the show:

• “The Israel Lobby’s ‘QME’ Scam” (Antiwar.com Original)
• “How Four U.S. Presidents, including Obama and Trump, Helped Protect Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal” (The New Yorker)
• “Neoconservativism in a Nutshell” (LobeLog)

Grant F. Smith is the author of a number of books including Big Israel: How Israel’s Lobby Moves America, Divert!, and most recently The Israel Lobby Enters State Government: Rise of the Virginia Israel Advisory Board. He is director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy in Washington, D.C.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; and Listen and Think Audio.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

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Scott interviews Danny Sjursen about where his former commanders from Afghanistan have ended up in the years since the surge. Sjursen goes through a handful of these men: almost without fail, his former generals have ended up with profitable jobs in the arms industry or at hawkish think tanks, and his colonels have been promoted to take the place of those retired generals—and will surely join them in the private sector soon enough. The fact that none of this surprises us should be a reminder of just how corrupt America’s military-industrial complex is. A path to a six- or seven-figure salary in the defense industry is virtually guaranteed for any senior military officer after retirement. On a more positive note, Scott and Sjursen discuss President Trump’s recent appointment of Colonel Macgregor to the Pentagon, a move that may signal his intent to push troop withdrawals during what may be his final months in office.

Discussed on the show:

• “Where Are They Now? Leaders From My Afghan Tour Are on to Bigger and Bankable Things” (Antiwar.com Original)
• Why We Lost: A General’s Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars
  
• “War Machine (2017)” (IMDb)
• The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan
• “Afghan Futility and the Not-So-Curious Case Of Lieutenant Jordan Rich” (The American Conservative)

Danny Sjursen is a retired U.S. army major and former history instructor at West Point. He is the author of Ghost Riders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge and Patriotic Dissent: America in the Age of Endless War. Follow him on Twitter @SkepticalVet.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; and Listen and Think Audio.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

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