Haroon Siddiqui, editorial writer for the Toronto Star, discusses Canada’s military role in Afghanistan that is due to end in 2011, why ending foreign wars will stop domestic terrorism, how the U.S. has lost the capacity to do good, the bogus argument of 'we’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here,' and why the Afghanistan War is a failure by any measure yet continues unabated.
08/31/10 – Robert Naiman – The Scott Horton Show
Robert Naiman, Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy, discusses Obama's commendable follow-through on reducing troop levels in Iraq and (at least rhetorically) standing by the 2011 withdrawal date, the huge increase in troop numbers and casualties in Afghanistan since the Bush administration, the end of finite wars as U.S. foreign policy remains on a permanent war footing and the much-exaggerated death of the antiwar movement.
08/31/10 – Lew Rockwell – The Scott Horton Show
Lew Rockwell, founder and Chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, discusses how central banks print fiat money to pay for world wars that would otherwise be impossible to finance, the enormous resources at the U.S. government's disposal to delay an economic reckoning, why WalMart is a net gain to society, the division between those who live off the state and those who support it (albeit unwillingly) and why more super-rich dynastic families are needed to compete for power with the...
08/30/10 – Phyllis Bennis – The Scott Horton Show
Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, discusses the mosque hysteria ginned up to bolster Iraq and Afghan War support, Ground Zero's rhetorical conversion into hallowed ground — encouraging religious fervor and holy war, what Bush should have said and done after 9/11, why the only uncertainty of new Israel/Palestine peace talks is what Obama will do when they fail and how the negotiations are grounded in juvenile conflict resolution...
08/30/10 – Fred Branfman – The Scott Horton Show
Fred Branfman, author of the Alternet article 'Mass Assassinations Lie at the Heart of America’s Military Strategy in the Muslim World,' discusses several common-sense reasons 'why they hate us' (it isn’t our freedom), how the 'McChrystal ratio' exposes the bankruptcy of COIN strategy, the incredibly broad scope — both in number of forces employed and geographic space — of U.S. assassination policy, why (unlike CIA ops) these killings don’t require Presidential approval or reports to Congress,...
08/27/10 – Alexander Abdo – The Scott Horton Show
Alexander Abdo, a Fellow in the ACLU’s National Security Project, discusses the 'new normal' of institutionalized Bush administration lawlessness, why we should expect other countries to mimic U.S. assertions of authority to commit international extrajudicial killings, the government’s failure to cite a legal justification for killing U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, the media disclosures from Leon Panetta and John Brennan about a government hit list of American citizens and why cops now have the...
08/27/10 – Robert Higgs – The Scott Horton Show
Robert Higgs, senior fellow at the Independent Institute, discusses the widening gap between public and private sector pay, an increase in affluent military towns, the disappearance of traditional checks on state power and predation and the incremental 'ratchet effect' of governmental authority that increases 'temporarily' during wartime but never fully recedes.
08/27/10 – Gareth Porter – The Scott Horton Show
Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses Obama’s refusal to declare a 'red line' on Iran’s nuclear program, Robert Gates’s insistence that Iran’s low enriched uranium is tantamount to a nuclear weapon, the abundance of evidence that Obama is not a secret dove and how Gates’s bipartisan tenure allows him to contradict Obama without consequence.
08/27/10 – Rep. Ron Paul – The Scott Horton Show
Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) discusses his article 'Mosque Demagoguery Is Bipartisan' and the linkage between property rights and First Amendment rights, why the abandonment of the dollar will lead to an inflationary depression and why Dennis Kucinich’s anti-assassination bill is a redundancy (but deserving of support nonetheless).
08/26/10 – Cindy Sheehan – The Scott Horton Show
This interview is excerpted from the KPFK broadcast of August 26. The entire show can be heard here. Peace activist Cindy Sheehan discusses the Iraq War’s continuation even after the withdrawal of all 'combat' troops, the antiwar movement mesmerized by 'hopenosis' and the 75th anniversary edition of Major General Smedley Butler’s War is a Racket with a forward by Sheehan.
08/25/10 – Anand Gopal – The Scott Horton Show
Independent journalist Anand Gopal discusses the Taliban’s lucrative protection racket on U.S. supply convoys, Pakistan’s refusal to allow a bilateral peace deal between Hamid Karzai and the Taliban, Colin Powell’s disinterest in regime change in Afghanistan (in September 2001), the Afghan army’s inability to secure the country or fight the Taliban, how the Marjah screw-up has made the military cautious on the Kandahar offensive and why Gen. Petraeus’s 'success' in Iraq was easy: allow...
08/25/10 – Patrick Cockburn – The Scott Horton Show
Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for The Independent, discusses the revival of al-Qaeda in Iraq (and its minimal relation to bin Laden's group), how the Sadrists are the only grass roots political movement in Iraq, how Prime Minister Maliki's grip on power is an impediment to a coalition government and why the decisive outcome of Iraq's civil war greatly decreases the chance of another major conflict
08/25/10 – Philip Giraldi – The Scott Horton Show
Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi discusses recent Mossad intelligence operations in America based out of the Israel mission to the U.N. in New York , the one-way street intelligence sharing between the CIA and Israel, why FBI and DOJ espionage investigations never go anywhere and the evidence that Israeli agents in America had foreknowledge of 9/11.
08/25/10 – Hannah Gurman – The Scott Horton Show
Hannah Gurman, author of the Salon.com article 'The Iraq withdrawal: An Orwellian success,' discusses the U.S. deliberations on Iraq’s future that fail to ask what Iraqis want, measuring the outcome of war in terms of 'success' rather than victory or defeat, how Iraq’s inability to form a parliament is delaying the approval of lucrative oil contracts and why the Sons of Iraq who were never integrated into the army are returning to the insurgency.
08/24/10 – Juan Cole – The Scott Horton Show
Juan Cole, Professor of History and author of Engaging the Muslim World, discusses Rafic Hariri's rise to power and prominence in Lebanon before his 2005 assassination, initial suspicions cast on Syria due to its efforts in maintaining political dominance in Lebanon, how Hezbollah filled the political vacuum created by Syria's withdrawal — much to the chagrin of Israel and the Bush administration and why the current investigation's focus on Hezbollah could destabilize the fragile Lebanese...
