Scott talks to Dave DeCamp about what's going on in the various corners of America's would-be empire. In Afghanistan, as predicted, the Taliban have been making gains against the Afghan government as the U.S. military withdraws—but the Biden administration's withdrawal is still tepid, as they plan to keep a small number of troops to protect the embassy and to keep funding the Afghan military until at least 2022. In Iraq, things might be even worse, since DeCamp thinks the recent announcement...

Scott interviews journalist Mark Curtis about his investigations into the UK role in the wars in Syria and Yemen. Regarding Yemen, Britain has long denied any involvement in that war, says Curtis, but it's now been revealed that they, like the U.S., have been helping the Saudi coalition for years. The precise nature of the help the British government is giving isn't exactly clear, but it likely involves the same things the Americans have been doing all along: training Saudi troops, assisting...

Peter McCormack discusses the latest developments in the world of Bitcoin. The most important news is that El Salvador moved to make Bitcoin legal tender, alongside the U.S. dollar, which McCormack says is huge for its viability as a mainstream currency. Bitcoin should help to solve several problems that have long plagued El Salvador's economy, and other Latin American countries may well follow suit. More and more people are also spending and accepting Bitcoin around the world, rather than...

Ron Enzweiler discusses the unlearned lessons of America's wasteful and doomed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. First of all, he says, we should have known that the only thing keeping Iraq together was Saddam Hussein's stranglehold on power, which prevented a civil war from breaking out. After the United States deposed him, explains Enzweiler, those tensions were going to bubble over no matter what. The best thing to do now would be to leave Iraq as soon as possible, but stubborn superstitions...

Scott talks to Doug Bandow about the recent assassination of Haiti's president and the ensuing calls for U.S. intervention. Bandow warns about the perils of interventions like this, even when they are seemingly justified by the noble cause of humanitarianism. In Haiti in particular, he says, a history of disastrous foreign intervention is fresh in people's minds, and any military response is likely to backfire. Luckily, Bandow doesn't think Biden is especially keen on responding to the calls...

Scott talks to Dave DeCamp about some of the latest stories at antiwar.com. Recently, says DeCamp, it's been reported that Iran was urging Iraqi militias not to retaliate against the U.S., after they'd been the target of airstrikes by the Biden administration. Needless to say, this doesn't exactly comport with the mainstream narrative about Iran, and you won't see stories like this widely covered. Dave and Scott go on to discuss a rumored American withdrawal from Iraq and wrap up with an...

Branko Marcetic discusses the stunning lack of mainstream media coverage of Julian Assange's case. Besides being the right thing to do, since Assange has heroically helped expose heinous crimes by many of the world's governments, journalists also have a selfish reason to care about Assange's plight: what he does at WikiLeaks is not categorically different from what any of them does when covering stories that originated from leaked documents. And yet nearly everyone in the press seems content...

Scott talks to Ted Snider about America's relationship with Iran and Syria. Iran has just elected a new president, Ibrahim Raisi, who Snider says is much more of a hardliner than his predecessor, Hassan Rouhani. Rouhani was the one who worked with the Obama administration on the JCPOA, so on the surface it seems that Raisi's more obstinate stance toward the U.S. will be to America's disadvantage. But Snider goes on to explain a bizarre dynamic that pervades American—and especially...

Jim Bovard discusses the recent rumblings about "domestic extremism," which the Biden administration and many Democrats have been warning is a rising problem in America. So far, Biden has only issued executive orders about so-called extremism, but some politicians are pushing for new laws that would give expanded powers to U.S. law enforcement to crack down on this alleged problem. In reality, of course, "domestic terrorism" is not a significant problem compared to the many other ills facing...

Kevin Gosztola is back with an update on Julian Assange and Daniel Hale, both of whom continue to languish in maximum security prisons for the "crime" of telling the people about the very real crimes of their own governments. Although a UK judge denied the U.S. extradition request in Assange's case, she also granted the Justice Department an appeal of the decision, and ordered that Assange continue to be held until the appeal. It's especially ironic that Assange and Hale are being held under...

Scott talks to Danny Sjursen about U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which at the moment the Biden administration appears poised to follow through with. Sjursen is concerned about the response from the mainstream media and both party establishments—Republicans claim pulling out of Afghanistan makes America look weak; Democrats fear that pulling out will make Biden look weak politically. With this kind of bipartisan consensus, it's extremely difficult to get things done that the establishment...

New advertiser Jared Wall joins the show to discuss his website, thchempspot.com, which offers cannabis products containing Delta-8 THC, a form of psychoactive THC that's perfectly legal almost everywhere in the United States. 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; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to...

Scott interviews Andrew Cockburn about his new book, Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy. Scott and Cockburn discuss Rumsfeld's ascent to power through various presidential administrations, with special focus on his role in the disastrous post-9/11 terror wars. In addition to the historical events, Cockburn shares many private anecdotes about Rumsfeld's character from those who knew him. Discussed on the show: Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy "A Letter to Paul...

Mark Perry discusses the bizarre case of the Stryker, a vehicle used by the U.S. army to transport infantry troops to the battlefield. The Stryker, Perry explains, is a deathtrap: it isn't heavily armored enough to stand up to real combat, it rolls over easily and it can't withstand IEDs or tank rounds. What's more, everyone seems to know this. And yet the Pentagon is spending nearly a billion dollars on a new contract, not to give the Stryker better armor, but to put machine guns on it. Perry...

Scott and Matthew Hoh have a wide-ranging conversation about America's war on terrorism. The latest news is that the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is essentially complete, with the exception of a small number of soldiers, contractors and CIA operatives ostensibly remaining behind for diplomatic purposes. Hoh is optimistic about the possibility of the American military really being finished with Afghanistan now, though he and Scott both fear that the resulting instability could be used...