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Scott is joined by Ted Postol of MIT to discuss the danger of recent Ukrainian strikes on parts of Russia’s early warning system. Postol explains why satellite limitations make Russia dependent on ground radar systems to detect incoming nuclear-armed missiles. He and Scott then discuss the stupidity of helping Ukraine damage the one thing that can help the Russians confirm they are not under nuclear attack.

Discussed on the show:

• “Russia’s Antiquated Nuclear Warning System Jeopardizes Us All” (Washington Monthly)

Ted Postol is a professor emeritus of Science, Technology, and International Security at MIT. He has written about nuclear weapons issues and the chemical attacks in Syria.

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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Journalist Elijah Magnier joins the show for his analysis of President Trump’s pulling troops out of Syria. Although Trump has backed down from his original demands and acquiesced to a slower timeline for withdrawal, Magnier explains that it doesn’t matter much in terms of the overall war; ISIS really is all but defeated, and now the Kurds have made their own deal with Assad, getting protection from him in exchange for their support. Other insurgent forces are still active all over the region however, says Magnier, and there’s very little the U.S. and its allies can do about it. After all, if 100,000 troops couldn’t quell the insurgency in Iraq, maybe nothing can.

Discussed on the show:

• “Trump bows to domestic pressure by delaying his withdrawal from Syria; a storm is gathering in the Levant” (ejmagnier.com)
• Jamal Khashoggi

Elijah Magnier is a Senior Political Risk Analyst with over 32 years’ experience covering Europe & the Middle East. Find him at his website, ejmagnier.com or on Twitter @ejmalrai.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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Matthew Hoh talks about Trump’s move to withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan, something Hoh hoped President Obama would do instead of sending even more troops into Iraq. Hoh explains the difficulties of “winning” any kind of war in Afghanistan. The main problem is that most Afghans see Americans as an occupying force, and they’ll even support the Taliban over a foreign occupation. He thinks a war in Iran would go the same way, except probably even worse. Danny Sjursen also joins the call, and he and Hoh discuss the fallout from America’s wars, especially the physical and psychological damage so many veterans suffer when they come home from war. Both agree that the best way to support veterans is to “create fewer of them.”

Discussed on the show:

• Zalmay Khalilzad
• “Life under the Taliban shadow government” (Overseas Development Institute (ODI))
• “C.I.A.’s Afghan Forces Leave a Trail of Abuse and Anger” (The New York Times)
• Civilian Deaths in Iraq and Syria – Airwars
• CODEPINK
• Iran Air Flight 655
• National Security Act of 1947
• Give an Hour
• Semper Fi Fund

Matthew Hoh is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and formerly worked for the U.S. State Department. Hoh received the Ridenhour Prize Recipient for Truth Telling in 2010. Hoh is a member of the Board of Directors for Council for a Livable World and is an Advisory Board Member for Expose Facts. He writes on issues of war, peace and post-traumatic stress disorder recovery at matthewhoh.com.

Danny Sjursen is a major in the U.S. army and former history instructor at West Point. He writes regularly for TomDispatch.com and he’s the author of Ghost Riders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge. Follow him on Twitter @SkepticalVet.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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Neta Crawford discusses her work on the Costs of War project, which tries to assess the costs, in both lives and dollars, of America’s wars in the Middle East. The project has estimated the 500 thousand have been killed due to combat, which includes American soldiers, enemy combatants, and civilians. It doesn’t include what’s known as “excess deaths,” meaning civilians who die from deprivation, lack of medical care, and destroyed or degraded infrastructure as a result of the war. These deaths are even harder to measure because they rely on survey data, which Crawford’s project does not use. The project also does not include Syria, Yemen, or Lybia. As a result these numbers are extremely conservative. Her work has also estimated the cost of these wars at over 5 trillion dollars, which includes money already spent, money that’s been promised to programs for veterans, and estimates for interest payments on the money the government has borrowed to finance the wars.

Discussed on the show:

• “Costs of War Project: The $5.6 Trillion Price Tag of the Post-9/11 Wars” (Watson Institute)
• Iraq Body Count
• Frontier Corps
• “PRESS RELEASE: Yemen War death toll now exceeds 60,000 according to latest ACLED data” (Acled Data)
• “11/11/18 Andrea Carboni on an Accurate Estimate of the Death Toll in Yemen” (The Libertarian Institute)

Neta Crawford is chair of the Political Science Department at Boston University. She is the author of Accountability for Killing: Moral Responsibility for Collateral Damage in America’s Post-9/11 Wars. Follow her project on Twitter @CostsOfWar.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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Alex Kane joins the show to talk about his latest article, which explores how the Leahy Law might be applied to U.S. assistance to the Israeli military. The Leahy Law is supposed to prevent American support to any military units that have committed human rights violations, which seems probable in the case of Israel given the number of Palestinian protestors that have been killed. The Leahy Law does not apply to American support for Israel in general, which is just as well since it seems unlikely that there is political will to end that. But certain humanitarian groups are interested in using the law to bring attention to specific violations by specific military units—this type of awareness may make Americans less likely to support military aid to Israel in general in the future.

Discussed on the show:

• “Inside Sources Say the State Dept Refuses To Trace Whether Israel Is Using U.S. Military Aid Illegally” (In These Times)
• “Leahy Fact Sheet” (State Department)
• Foreign Assistance Act Of 1961
• Ahed Tamimi
• “Bill to Expel Families of Palestinians Who Attack Israelis Pass 1st Reading in Knesset” (Al Bawaba)

Alex Kane is a freelance journalist who’s writing appears in Ha’aretz, the Intercept and elsewhere. He’s formerly an editor at Mondoweiss and Alternet. Read more of his work at his website and follow him on Twitter.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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Retired Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis joins the show to discuss President Trump’s announcements that he wants to pull troops out of both Syria and Afghanistan. Davis is pleased with this news, and addresses the common but unfounded concern that if America pulls out of certain countries, terrorist activity will rise up there. For one thing, he explains, terrorist planning and coordination still goes on under the nose of American troops even when they are occupying a country. More importantly, however, most of the major attacks were planned right here in the U.S., or in Europe, where the military clearly is not going to station troops on every corner or drone bomb neighborhoods. Finally, American occupation if anything only encourages more attacks, since the family members of civilian victims are often incited to radicalism when they would not otherwise have been.

Discussed on the show:

• 9/11 Report
• “60 Terrorist Plots Since 9/11: Continued Lessons in Domestic Counterterrorism” (The Heritage Foundation)
• Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Daniel Davis did multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan during his time in the army. He writes a weekly column for National Interest and is the author of the reports “Dereliction of Duty II: Senior Military Leaders’ Loss of Integrity Wounds Afghan War Effort” and “Go Big or Go Deep: An Analysis of Strategy Options on Afghanistan.” Find him on Twitter @DanielLDavis1.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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Doug Bandow joins the show to talk about all four of his recent articles, covering China, Cuba, Yemen, and Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan. The entire foreign policy establishment is melting down over the announcement, but Bandow says this is unequivocally the right move; American presence in the Middle East has accomplished basically nothing good and has only provoked more radicalism and unrest. Because everyone around Trump disagrees with him right now, Bandow thinks it’s vitally  important for people who do favor withdrawal to make themselves heard. Bandow and Scott also talk Yemen, Obama’s opening of relations with Cuba, and the recent arrest of Huawei’s finance chief.

Discussed on the show:

• “The Fateful Arrest That Could Poison America’s Relationship With China” (The American Conservative)
• “It’s Time for a Policy Change on Cuba” (The National Interest)
• “Why Trump Is Right to Withdraw Troops” (Cato Institute)
• “It’s Time to End U.S. Support for the Saudi War on Yemen” (Cato Institute)

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: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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Aaron Maté talks about the latest with the Russian collusion investigation, which he looks at skeptically. He observes that the aim of the investigation does not seem to be to get to the truth, but rather to scare people, which generates clicks and views for the media and helps justify the existence of the military-industrial complex. Maté also points out that factually the case doesn’t add up—certain incidents might seem plausible, like Russian hacking of the DNC email server, but each of the allegations of actual collusion between President Trump’s team and the Russians falls apart under close scrutiny. Indeed the whole investigation bears this quality: taken together, the large number of allegations looks very serious, but since each one is flimsy on its own, they don’t add up to much of anything at all. Not to mention the fact that Trump’s policies have been fairly hawkish toward Russia, so it’s hard to claim Putin has a “puppet” in the White House, as Trump’s detractors continually claim.

Discussed on the show:

• “Don’t Let Russophobia Warp the Facts on Russiagate” (The Nation)
• “Collateral Murder” (Wikileaks)
• “Russian propagandists targeted African Americans to influence 2016 US election | US news” (The Guardian)
• “Clinton’s ‘superpredators’ comment most damaging by either candidate” (TheHill)
• “The Death of Ricky Ray Rector” (Jacobin)
• “Bill Clinton’s Sister Souljah moment – JUNE 13, 1992” (YouTube)
• Logan Act

Aaron Maté is a former host and producer at The Real News and writes regularly at The Nation. Follow him on Twitter @AaronJMate.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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Sharon Tennison of the Center for Citizen Initiatives tells her incredible story of citizen diplomacy in the 1980s, when she made dozens of trips to the Soviet Union hoping to meet and befriend regular Russian civilians. She reminds us that over 90 percent of Russians were not Communist Party members—by and large they were just like the average American, and were eager to get along with American visitors. Although Tennison’s focus was not on Russian politicians, she did meet some, including a young Vladimir Putin long before he became President. Tennison says he was intellectual, introverted, and (unlike most of the politicians and bureaucrats she met) not at all corrupt. She believes he cares deeply about following the laws of the country, and advises us not to believe his portrayal in the American media.

Discussed on the show:

• “How one woman’s citizen diplomacy has strengthened US-Russia ties for decades” (The Christian Science Monitor)
• The Power of Impossible Ideas: Ordinary Citizens’ Extraordinary Efforts to Avert International Crises
• Mikhail Gorbachev

Sharon Tennison focuses on strengthening ties between America and Russia by traveling there and befriending Russians directly. She works with the Center for Citizen Initiatives.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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