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Ted Snider joins the show and provides an update on where things stand with the negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. Snider argues that the Trump administration’s effort to help forge a permanent peace deal is being hampered by unrealistic expectations from both sides and Western European governments pushing to keep the war going. 

Discussed on the show:

• “US Change in Tone May Not be to Ukraine’s Benefit” (Antiwar.com)

Ted Snider is a Fellow at The Libertarian Institute. He has a graduate degree in philosophy and writes on analyzing patterns in U.S. foreign policy and history. He is a regular writer for Truthout, MondoWeiss and antiwar.com. To support Ted’s work, you can make a PayPal contribution at tedsnider14@gmail.com.

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

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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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Scott interviews author and peace activist David Swanson in honor of Veterans’ Day, or Armistice Day, as it was originally known. Swanson begins by describing the way World War II has become the justification for just about every use of military force by the United States since then. This particular part of American history has made an impression on many people that war can be necessary and good, and that America can be the world’s police force. In a new book, Swanson tries to shift that conversation, both taking his readers back to the circumstances that gave rise to World War II, and also dispelling many of the myths about the war. In particular, he tells the little-known history of U.S. indifference toward—and, even worse, cooperation with—the worst of the Nazi regime, arguing that the real reasons for fighting the war were much less noble. Finally, even if the unique evil of Hitler and the Nazis could justify World War II (an argument Swanson doesn’t buy), that still wouldn’t validate the arguments for why America has to join in any other wars, which clearly fall short of the unique circumstances of Nazi Germany.

Discussed on the show:

• Leaving World War II Behind
  
• Wilson’s War: How Woodrow Wilson’s Great Blunder Led to Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, and World War II
  
• Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy
  
• Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
• Day Of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor
  
• Catch-22
• The Sovereign State of ITT
• IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation-Expanded Edition
  
• Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler
  
• American Swastika: The Shocking Story of Nazi Collaborators in Our Midst from 1933 to the Present Day
  
• Trading With the Enemy
• Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization
• The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government
  
• I Paid Hitler
  

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, radio host, and Nobel Peace Prize Nominee. He is the author of War is a Lie, When the World Outlawed War and Leaving World War II Behind. Find him on Twitter @davidcnswanson.

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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With Joe Biden apparently poised to be America’s next president, Scott talks to Dave DeCamp about some possible foreign policy changes under the new administration. To begin with, DeCamp worries that Biden will use a recent uptick in violence as an excuse to keep American troops in Afghanistan indefinitely, basically the strategy he advocated as Vice President. On Israel, DeCamp says that Biden was known as one of the strongest zionists in Washington until Trump showed up, and so we can expect very little positive change on that front either. Finally, Scott and DeCamp discuss the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh and its implications for the rest of the world.

Discussed on the show:

• “Biden says US must maintain small force in Middle East, has no plans for major Defense cuts” (Stars and Stripes)
• “The US is secretly helping the Taliban fight ISIS in Afghanistan” (Washington Post)

Dave DeCamp is the assistant news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.

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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Jeff Deist discusses the idea that the best path forward for America may be some kind of peaceful breakup. He reminds us that America has never truly been one country, the way that, for instance, many small European nations are—and indeed the United States was never really supposed to be a single unified monolith. With such a diversity of culture over such a huge geographical area, a federal government was meant to serve a very limited purpose while leaving most decisions up to the individual states. Deist and Scott see today’s culture war as a symptom of an unhealthy and unconstitutional growth of executive and federal power, which turns every national political debate into a fight for absolute control. Deist hopes that we can find an answer to America’s division in the form of decentralization or peaceful secession before it comes to any kind of open ciil war—an outcome that nobody wants to see.

Discussed on the show:

• “When Will Americans Realize They Aren’t ‘One Nation’?” (The Libertarian Institute)
• Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century

Jeff Deist is president of the Mises Institute, where he serves as a writer, public speaker, and advocate for property, markets, and civil society. He previously worked as a longtime advisor and chief of staff to Congressman Ron Paul, for whom he wrote hundreds of articles and speeches. Follow him on Twitter @jeffdeist.

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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