Kyle Anzalone joins the show again to go over all the latest developments related to Gaza. They start with the aid ships in the Mediterranean en route to Gaza that appear to have been attacked by a drone. They then take a broader look at the state of things in the strip, take stock of the ongoing level of US support for Israel’s campaign, piece together Israel’s plans for the people of Gaza, reflect on what happened to the ceasefire deal and more.

Discussed on the show:

“Smotrich: Israel Will Stop Fighting Once ‘Hundreds of Thousands’ of Palestinians Are Removed from Gaza” (Antiwar.com)
“Israeli Soldiers in Gaza Used 80-Year-Old as Human Shield Before Killing Him and His Wife” (Antiwar.com)

Kyle Anzalone is news editor of the Libertarian Institute, opinion editor of Antiwar.com, co-host of Conflicts of Interest and host of The Kyle Anzalone Show. Follow him on Twitter @KyleAnzalone_

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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1/21/22 Annelle Sheline on Why Yemen Matters

Scott is joined by Annelle Sheline of the Quincy Institute to discuss Yemen. Sheline wrote an article recently about the shifting balance of the war. One year after Biden announced an end to U.S. support for offensive Saudi operations, the bombing campaign remains as brutal as ever. Sheline argues that, while all sides have committed atrocities, the scale of the Saudi coalition’s brutality has outshone all others. Further, the war can only happen with continued U.S. support, which puts it on Americans themselves to stop this tragedy.

Discussed on the show:

“Did Biden help the Saudis turn the tide in their favor in Yemen?” (Responsible Statecraft)
“In Strategic Shift, U.S. Draws Closer to Yemeni Rebels” (Wall Street Journal)

Annelle Sheline is a Research Fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute and an expert on religious and political authority in the Middle East and North Africa. Follow her on Twitter @AnnelleSheline.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Free Range Feeder; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt and Listen and Think Audio.

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1/21/22 Richard Hanania on American Power, Public Choice Theory and the Rise of China

Scott interviews Richard Hanania of Defense Priorities. They discuss the reality of how the American military’s presence impacts global events. Hanania argues that, if it were true that the U.S. was out there defending its allies, you’d expect those countries to want U.S. troops present more than the U.S. wants to have troops stationed there. But in reality, we often find the opposite. Hanania also gives the reasons he thinks China is all but certain to become the dominant power in East Asia but that right-wing fears over a global Chinese takeover are overblown.

Discussed on the show:

“Phantom Empire” (Defense Priorities)
“The Inevitable Rise Of China” (Defense Priorities)
“Nord Stream II Sanctions Are Not About Security” (The American Conservative)
Public Choice Theory and the Illusion of Grand Strategy by Richard Hanania
“China has been a failure at hegemony, so let’s just chill” (Responsible Statecraft)

Richard Hanania is a research fellow at Defense Priorities and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University. His work focuses on political psychology, the causes of civil war, and the effects of interest groups on U.S. foreign policy. Follow him on Twitter @RichardHanania

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1/20/22 Clint Ehrlich on Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan

Scott is joined by Clint Ehrlich who recently went viral after his appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show struck the nerve of a handful of foreign policy “experts.” So Scott invited him on the show to dive deeper into his arguments. They discuss why Ehrlich is nervous about the situation in Eastern Europe and how it came to this. He also gives his take on what happened in Kazakhstan.

Discussed on the show:

“A Stark Nuclear Warning” (New York Review of Books)
“The US Must Prepare for War Against Russia Over Ukraine” (Defense One)

Clint Ehrlich is a foreign-policy analyst, lawyer and former visiting researcher at MGIMO University. Follow him on Twitter @ClintEhrlich.

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1/19/22 Zaher Wahab: Afghanistan is Starving and Nobody Cares

Scott interviews Zaher Wahab of the Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education about the economic catastrophe taking place in Afghanistan. Although the U.S. Government claimed it was working to develop Afghanistan, Wahab explains that what it really did was prop the country’s economy up until it left. Now, in the midst of the collapse, the people of Afghanistan are starving. And the American hawks and pundits, who only four months ago were screaming about the wellbeing of Afghan civilians, now don’t seem to have a care in the world for them. Wahab fills us in on this situation, its causes and what needs to change.

Discussed on the show:

“The Afghanistan Papers” (Washington Post)

Zaher Wahab is a Professor Emeritus at Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education. He was a senior advisor to the education ministry in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2006. He then taught at the American University of Afghanistan until 2019.

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1/14/22 Ken Bensinger on the Whitmer Kidnapping Plot and January 6th

Ken Bensinger of Buzzfeed News returns to the show to follow up about the 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Although the plot made national headlines when 14 militia members were arrested, Bensinger and fellow journalists dug deeper to find a large presence of FBI agents and informants involved than had gone reported. Further, some informants had apparently played a role in instigating the entire scheme. Bensinger explains the details and developments in that case, and he gives his thoughts and observations about the riot at the National Capitol on January 6th.

Discussed on the show:

Ken Bensinger is an investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News and the author of Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World’s Biggest Sports Scandal. Follow him on Twitter @kenbensinger.

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1/14/22 Ray McGovern on the US-Russia Talks

Ray McGovern is back to discuss the recent talks between Putin and the Biden Administration. McGovern observes that the talks, framed as a tense battle over Ukrainian sovereignty, appear to have actually steered towards a discussion about arms control in the region. A discussion that’s grown in necessity since the Trump Administration abruptly left a nuclear treaty with Russia. Scott and McGovern also talk about the collapsing narrative that the Russians are set to invade Ukraine any day now.

Discussed on the show:

“Peeking Past the Pall Put Over Arms Talks With Russia” (Antiwar.com)

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.

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1/13/22 Daniel Ellsberg: Humans Are Not to Be Entrusted With Nuclear Weapons

Scott is joined by the heroic whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg to talk about a recent press release he helped put out calling for the abolition of land-based nuclear missiles in the United States. Before getting to that, Scott and Ellsberg discuss how his Pentagon Papers leak contributed to the end of the Vietnam War. Ellsberg then draws on his experience as a nuclear war planner to explain the crazy and perilous thinking behind post-WWII nuclear deterrence plans. They also discuss his most recent leak of classified documents that show how close the U.S. came to starting a nuclear war over Taiwan in the late 1950s.

Discussed on the show:

“Organizations Call for Elimination of ‘Launch on Warning’ Land-Based Nuclear Missiles in the United States” (Common Deams)
Uncommon Cause – Volume II by General George Lee Butler
“Risk of Nuclear War Over Taiwan in 1958 Said to Be Greater Than Publicly Known” (New York Times)
“The Drone Papers” (The Intercept)
The Spoils of War by Andrew Cockburn

Daniel Ellsberg is a former Marine Corps company commander and nuclear expert for the Rand Corporation. He is the leaker behind the Pentagon Papers, which revealed the truth behind the Vietnam War. He is the author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers and The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner.

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1/13/22 Andy Worthington on the Twenty Years of Abuse at Guantanamo Bay

Scott is joined by Andy Worthington, author of Guantanamo Files to discuss the status of the prison two decades after it opened. Worthington explains who remains detained at the prison, where detainees stand regarding trials and the developments that have happened under Biden so far. Scott and Worthington also discuss the shameful history of the illegal prison.

Discussed on the show: