Scott talks with Jack Murphy about the piece he wrote detailing the surge in drone strikes that took place under President Trump. Murphy explains how the whole project started when a distraught drone operator approached him. It quickly became clear that that drone operator was not alone. Murphy details how Rules of Engagement (ROE) are formulated and how they evolved during the Obama and Trump presidencies. This leads to a discussion of the ruthless drone campaign that the U.S. carried out against the Taliban during negotiations. A campaign that killed numerous Afghan men for the crime of...
8/27/21 Ashraf Nubani on Why Sirhan Sirhan, the Man Convicted for Killing Robert Kennedy, Ought to Be Released
Scott interviews attorney and writer Ashraf Nubani about his recent piece making a case for releasing Robert Kennedy’s convicted assassin Sirhan Sirhan. Nubani explains that Sirhan meets all the stated requirements of the parole board and that the pressure to keep him in prison is mainly political. Note: This interview was recorded hours before the news broke that the California Parole Board recommended Sirhan’s release. Governor Newsom’s office will now review the case and can still block parole. Discussed on the show: “It’s time for Sirhan Sirhan to go free” (The Electronic Intifada)...
8/27/21 Daniel Davis on the Kabul Airport Bombing
Scott speaks with Daniel Davis about the suicide bombing at the entrance to the Kabul Airport. Davis considers this an especially devastating attack because the soldiers killed were only days away from being withdrawn from the country. He also believes that these withdrawal issues could have been prevented if U.S. troops had left a decade ago instead of flooding the country as they did under Obama’s surge. Davis goes on to explain why he has no respect for those who lie to the families of dead soldiers about what they died fighting for, all while sending new soldiers off to the same...
8/27/21 Peter Van Buren: There Will Be Another Afghanistan
Scott talks with Peter Van Buren about the situation in Afghanistan. Van Buren explains that many of the people tasked with working on the Afghanistan War were, in fact, working to cover up their own role in the war. And that these individual failures played off each other to create one massive failure. On top of that, Van Buren argues that policymakers were entirely removed from the costs of the war. And because of that, Van Buren predicts we will soon find ourselves in a similar conflict. Discussed on the show: We Meant Well by Peter Van Buren The Ghost of Tom Joad by Peter Van Buren...
8/27/21 Grant Smith on the Open Secret of Israel’s Nuclear Weapons
Scott interviews Grant Smith about his recent article, which makes the case that the $3.8 billion in foreign aid given to Israel is on questionable legal grounds. It all comes back to Israel’s nuclear weapons, which the U.S. government has not officially acknowledged even exist. Because Israel is not a part of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, it is illegal for the U.S. to give them aid without making a specific case for why it’s necessary. Smith explains that to avoid this, Israel puts a lot of pressure on incoming Presidents to stay silent and not acknowledge the program. Smith also gives some...
8/20/21 Trita Parsi on the True Drivers of Middle East Instability
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...
8/20/21 Daniel McAdams on Hubris of the Foreign Policy Establishment
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: ...
8/20/21 Dave DeCamp: An Update on the Afghanistan Evacuation
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...









