Scott interviews Doug Bandow about the U.S. relationship to Ukraine, perhaps the perfect case study in America’s foreign policy arrogance. Ukraine, of course, has very little direct strategic relevance to daily life in America—and yet the U.S. government considers Ukraine one of its closest allies. In practice, what this means is that the United States would have to be prepared to go to war with Russia on Ukraine’s behalf, if there were a sufficiently severe provocation. But as Bandow points out, this is an absolutely crazy policy: Russia, remember, has nuclear weapons, and any war between nuclear-armed countries would at some point be liable to go nuclear. And so when it comes down to it, the American government is potentially risking human life on planet earth over a single alliance with a small country halfway around the world.

Discussed on the show:

• “US Should Close the Door to Ukrainian Membership in NATO” (Cato Institute)
• “Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call” (BBC News)
• “Nyet Means Nyet” (WikiLeaks)
• “12/4/20 Gilbert Doctorow: Will Antony Blinken’s Past Catch Up With Him?” (The Libertarian Institute)
• The Putin Interviews
• “Opinion | The Strange Death of Liberal Russophobia” (The New York Times)

Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a regular contributor at Forbes Magazine, the National Interest, and elsewhere. He’s on Twitter @Doug_Bandow.

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.

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