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Scott interviews Gary Vogler about the book he published last year with the Libertarian Institute: Israel, Winner of the 2003 Iraq Oil War. Vogler explains his background managing oil in Iraq on behalf of the Pentagon. They then dive into Vogler’s insights about how the oil trade—especially the secret oil trade between Israel and its regional neighbors—lies at the heart of the geopolitical dynamic in the Middle East and all the American interventions there in recent decades.   

Discussed on the show:

• Israel, Winner of the 2003 Iraq Oil War: Undue Influence, Deceptions, and the Neocon Energy Agenda by Gary Vogler
• Iraq and the Politics of Oil: An Insider’s Perspective by Gary Vogler
• Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States by Trita Parsi
• Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy by Andrew Cockburn
• “Plan B” (The New Yorker)
• Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll

Gary Vogler is a 1973 West Point graduate, retired army reserve lieutenant colonel, retired ExxonMobil executive with 21 years, five months of Iraq oil planning at Pentagon followed by 75 months in Iraq under DOD – appointed Oil Minister during first 10 days in Baghdad in April 2003.

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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Scott interviews Trita Parsi about his paper concerning the intervention of Middle East powers over the last decade. Parsi and his coauthor Matthew Petti found that, contrary to the picture often painted of one malign actor driving all the instability, there are really six Middle Eastern countries engaging in a lot of foreign intervention. Iran, which is currently the U.S. foreign policy establishment’s favorite villain, is no more interventionist than the other five. And that most instability in the modern Middle East can be traced back to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Finally, Parsi talks about the Iran Nuclear Deal, which he says was gravely threatened when Biden dragged his feet at the beginning of his presidency. 

Discussed on the show:

• “No Clean Hands: The Interventions of Middle Eastern Powers, 2010-2020” (Quincy Institute)
• “How to Make Iran Trust a New Nuclear Deal” (Foreign Policy)

Trita Parsi is the president of the National Iranian American Council and the author of Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy. Parsi is the recipient of the 2010 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. Follow him on Twitter @tparsi.

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; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Scott talks with Daniel McAdams about his recent appearance on RT, where he challenged the Western Media’s narrative about China. McAdams says they have it backward, criticizing China for its best actions, such as economic engagement, while seemingly wanting to import the worst of China’s policies, like social credit scores. McAdams then speaks about how those in the Foreign Policy Establishment exist in an echo chamber. And that even when he had access to classified material, McAdams believes he was better informed by reading open-source websites like Antiwar.com.

Discussed on the show: 

• McAdams interviewed on RT
• Transcript of Biden’s Interview with George Stephanopoulos
• Jim Bovard’s article about DC’s Arrogance
• Jake Tapper interviews McMaster about Afghanistan Withdrawal 
• Dave Smith Talking about Afghanistan on Kennedy (August 19th)
• Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg
• “Washington Free Beacon’s Hilarious Meltdown Over Afghanistan” (Ron Paul Institute)
• “Responsible Statecraft Gets Its Moment” (Washington Free Beacon)
• “’Ron Paul Was Right’: Rep’s Decade-old Afghanistan Remarks Resurface Amid Crisis” (Newsweek)
• Justin Raimondo Columns starting in 1999

Daniel McAdams is the executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity and the co-host of the Ron Paul Liberty Report. Follow him on Twitter @DanielLMcAdams and read all of his work over at Antiwar.com.

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; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Dave DeCamp joins the show to give an update on the effort to evacuate Westerners and their allies from Kabul. He explains that the evacuations are moving at a good clip. So far, the Biden Administration has resisted pressure to send troops into Kabul as there has been no indication that the Taliban are stopping Americans from entering the airport. While there are unconfirmed reports of Taliban fighters committing violence, DeCamp warns that some skepticism is appropriate since many special interests want the war to continue. Finally, DeCamp talks about a possible anti-Taliban insurgency forming in the Panjshir Valley.

Discussed on the show:

•  “How to Contain the Taliban” (Wall Street Journal)
• “Planes, guns, night-vision goggles: The Taliban’s new U.S.-made war chest” (Reuters) 
• “Taliban Resistance Force Forming in Panjshir Valley” (Antiwar.com)
• “The mujahideen resistance to the Taliban begins now. But we need help.” (Washington Post)
• @Natsecjeff on Twitter
• “Ex-Trump official Chris Miller says Taliban deal was a ‘play’ never intended to pull troops” (New York 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 and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Eric Margolis talks with Scott about the situation in Afghanistan as American forces continue to withdraw. Of course, the last few days have seen nonstop headlines proclaiming an utter disaster in the country, many of them excoriating President Biden for having screwed things up so badly. But Scott and Margolis remind us just how much worse things could be. Margolis points out that for one thing, some Afghan government officials seem to have been quietly preparing for a transfer of power far in advance, such that when U.S. forces pulled out, they were prepared to more or less let the Taliban take over. You don’t have to be a fan of the Taliban to realize that this relatively peaceful transfer of power is far better than the alternative: months of bloody and destructive fighting followed by victory for the Taliban anyway. Even in areas like women’s rights, Margolis explains that the current generation of Taliban leadership isn’t as harsh as their fathers and grandfathers—Taliban spokesmen have been quick to reassure the West that they want women to play a bigger role in society. The last thing Americans should do is let war hawks use the chaos in Afghanistan as an excuse for us to go back into the country and stay forever.

Discussed on the show:

• David Patraeus’ Counterinsurgency Manual
• “Against All Enemies: US trained Uighur terrorists” (Eric Margolis)
• “The U.S. is secretly helping the Taliban fight ISIS in Afghanistan” (The Washington Post)

Eric Margolis is a foreign affairs correspondent and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj. Follow him on Twitter @EricMargolis and visit his website, ericmargolis.com.

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; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Scott interviews Matthew Hoh, the Marine veteran who blew the whistle about the doomed Afghan Surge. Hoh lays out what led him to resign in protest and go to the press with the truth about how hopeless the military’s counterinsurgency mission really was. Hoh then explains that, while he is upset that few listened to him back then, he is more disappointed about how many of his colleagues agreed with him, but kept their agreement quiet. Scott and Hoh go through the history of the Obama surge and observe how the pundits and generals who were the most wrong tended to get rewarded with promotions and fame. Finally, Hoh talks about resources available to veterans who are struggling and opens up about how those resources have helped him. 

Discussed on the show:

• “US Official Resigns Over Afghan War” (Washington Post)
• About Face
• Obama’s Wars
• Carlotta Gall at the New York Times
• The Soldier’s Heart by Jacob George
• “What America Didn’t Understand About It’s Longest War” (Politico)
• “The Afghanistan Papers” (Washington Post)
• The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War
• Kelley Vlahos at Responsible Statecraft
• “Afghanistan Veterans Struggling with News of Taliban Takeover” (Defense One)
• VA.gov

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 https://matthewhoh.com/ .

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; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Scott talks to Andrew Cockburn about his 2014 article on Afghan-born neoconservative Zalmay Khalilzad. Cockburn explains how it was Khalilzad who selected new leaders for Afghanistan and Iraq after the old regimes had fallen to U.S. forces. Scott and Cockburn also touch on Khalilzad’s role in “the Redirection” when the U.S. began backing bin Ladenite groups in an attempt to counter Iran. In the end, Scott and Cockburn think Khalilzad deserves a lot of blame for the current problems in the middle east. However, he also deserves credit for following Trump’s order and negotiating a deal with the Taliban.

Discussed on the show:

• “The Long Shadow of a Neocon” (Harper’s Magazine)
• “How the US military got rich from Afghanistan” (The Spectator World)
• “The Redirection” (The New Yorker)

Andrew Cockburn is the Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine and the author of Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins. Follow him on Twitter @andrewmcockburn.

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; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Joseph Solis-Mullen discusses the claim that America must now turn its attention toward China as the new threat of global hegemony. War hawks will cite China’s growing economic supremacy, many alleged human rights abuses and supposed imperialistic designs on its neighbors. To some extent, this characterization is true: Solis-Mullen grants that China’s government can be extraordinarily abusive to its people, and says that he wouldn’t be surprised if it tried to take over Taiwan. But in general, there are simply way too many problems with the narrative that China is an imperialistic threat to the West. Most importantly, he explains, China’s economy is teetering on a knife’s edge—years of bad debt, bad monetary policy and misallocation of centrally-planned resources, combined with a catastrophically unbalanced population pyramid, make China’s future as an economic superpower anything but certain. Most of this fear mongering, Solis-Mullen concludes, is simply propaganda designed to give the American people another bogeyman to fear, and to help line the pockets of the arms manufacturers.

Discussed on the show:

• “China Won’t Be Taking Over the World” (Mises Institute)

Joseph Solis-Mullen is a political scientist and author. Follow all his work at his website.

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; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Scott talks to Ken Bensinger of Buzzfeed News about the role of FBI informants in the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Bensinger explains that informants played a heavy role in the militia group involved and helped motivate members to take violent action. Although none of the fifteen arrested was assisting the government, informants helped provide the group with training, were present for surveillance of Whitmer’s property and were present during the storming of the Michigan Capitol on April 30th. Overall, Bensinger has trouble seeing how these events would have happened without the presence of government informants. 

Discussed on the show:

• “Watching The Watchmen” (Buzzfeed News)
• “The Day Shall Come” (IMDb)

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.

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; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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