Scott talks to Michael Klare about the incentives behind America’s involvement in wars in the Middle East. One common narrative says that Bush invaded Iraq simply because America needed the oil—the truth, says Klare, is somewhat more complicated. He explains that American war planners see a combined strategic interest in U.S. involvement in the Middle East that includes military positioning and the economic interest of exerting control over the oil trade. For one thing, America has essentially...

Brett Wilkins discusses the story about Hiroshima and Nagasaki that everyone learned in school: the U.S. was forced to drop the atomic bombs, because the alternative would have meant a ground invasion of Japan that would have cost a million American lives. In reality, Japan was already making moves toward negotiating a surrender, especially after the USSR declared war on Japan earlier that summer. What’s more, seven out of eight U.S. generals at the time, including Eisenhower and MacArthur,...

Kingston Reif talks about the imminent lapse of the New START treaty, one of the last remaining nuclear safeguard agreements between the U.S. and Russia. Russia has made some moves to renegotiate the treaty, but the Trump administration has refused to do so, ostensibly in the name of making it much more restrictive, and of including China in the negotiations. These efforts would be admirable, Reif notes, except that there is little reason to believe they are legitimate. Reif suspects that the...

Scott interviews Tom Woods about his new eBook, which provides a libertarian perspective on some of the national questions being raised these days about the future of policing. Scott and Woods focus in on the war on drugs in particular, which has been the culprit behind so many of the police abuses of the last few decades. They review the reasons why this policy has been completely ineffective, a staggering waste of resource and has led to vastly disproportionate outcomes between white and...

Scott talks to Stephen Zunes about Susan Rice, one of the leading candidates for Joe Biden’s VP pick. Rice fits Biden’s criteria in that she’s a black woman with political experience, but Zunes raises serious concerns about her track record. In particular, Rice turned out to be one of the most hawkish Democrats during her time in the Clinton and Obama administrations, and she played a role in pushing for America’s invasion of Iraq in 2003. Zunes points out that if “a black woman” is Biden’s...

Australian journalist Mark Willacy talks to Scott about his investigations into alleged war crimes by Australian special forces units in Afghanistan. Willacy has worked closely with former SAS operative Braden Chapman, the leading figure in blowing the whistle on what has become a spate of such allegations. The incidents include the killing of unarmed, compliant civilians and the fabrication of evidence to cover up wrongdoing. There is currently an investigation underway in Australia into...

Ray McGovern joins the show to talk about Colin Powell and Mike Pompeo: two credentialed, respected members of the foreign policy establishment that have both been hugely damaging to American interests. McGovern first responds to the claim that Powell unwaveringly and heroically stood against the Bush administration’s desire to invade Iraq, succumbing only at the last minute due to new, more persuasive intelligence and the pressures of being overwhelmingly outnumbered. In reality, says...

Branko Marcetic discusses a recent move by the Trump administration that will grant unprecedented powers to the CIA to conduct cyber attacks against foreign countries. This highlights a persistent trend throughout Trump’s precedency that has seen him become perhaps the most hawkish president toward Russia since the end of the Cold War. Scott and Marcetic talk about the stubborn persistence of the “Russiagate” narrative, which has lingered long after its underlying premises have been dispelled....

Scott interviews Greg Mitchell about The Beginning or the End, his new book that tells the story of the making of the 1947 film of the same name. The movie was conceived as an exposé on the horrors of America’s use of the nuclear bomb against Japan, partly at the urging of former Manhattan Project scientists. But it was quickly co-opted by the U.S. government, forcing many changes to the film’s structure, and eventually resulting in what amounted to a piece of pro-military propaganda....

Daniel Davis talks about the questionable Russian bounties story that is being used as an excuse to stop President Trump from pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. Never mind the fact that America’s intelligence agencies have come out to publicly disavow the story, the internal logic summoned by those opposed to withdrawal is inconsistent—if American troops really are in harm’s way in Afghanistan because of Russian bounties, wouldn’t the natural move be to pull them out even faster? Davis is...

Scott interviews Sheldon Richman about his new book, What Social Animals Owe to Each Other, a collection of essays exploring libertarian political philosophy, particularly as it relates to ancient Greek philosophy and the roots of liberalism. Libertarians sometimes think too narrowly, says Richman, giving in to the stereotype of libertarians as rugged individualists who reject cooperation and community altogether. In reality, of course, libertarianism not only allows for these things, but also...

Gareth Porter discusses the 1994 Buenos Aires Jewish community center bombing, and in particular the allegation that Hezbollah was behind the attack. Porter has written a piece based on testimony by an Argentinian undercover police officer that paints a different story. Porter’s theory—one that adheres much more closely to historical fact and personal testimony—is that it was really Argentinian neo-Nazis in the police force along with veterans of Argentina’s Dirty War that were responsible for...

Scott talks to Sheldon Richman about the dawning realization that a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians is never going to happen. Although Prime Minister Netanyahu recently backed down from his official plans for annexation of the West Bank, Richman says that for all practical purposes these territories were annexed years ago. And the current military occupation and subjugation of their Palestinian residents is unlikely to change in any meaningful way. Scott and Richman’s hope,...

Scott talks to Gareth Porter about the idea of a war with Iran. Certain hawkish figures in the U.S. government have been slowly and steadily pushing for such a war for a long time, and have gained even more prominence during the Trump presidency, as he has shown unprecedented support for the Israeli government. Israel’s prominence in the Middle East, says Porter, is of course what the tensions with Iran have always been about; Iran is in no way a threat to the actual interests and safety of...

Greg Shupak discusses America’s horrible “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign against Syria, and the media’s total willingness to cheer it along. Shupak reminds us that despite what policymakers claim, sanctions really only hurt the regular citizens of a country, particularly the poorest and most vulnerable, while leaving the wealthy and powerful more or less untouched. In theory, say the Madeleine Albright types, if the U.S. and its international allies can exert enough pressure on a...