Crashing the War Party: Recent Episodes
Kelley Vlahos
From the team of Kelley Vlahos, Daniel Larison, and Barbara Boland, subscribe today for straight talk about the latest headlines and politics, under-the-radar news, and interviews with newsmakers, politicians, journalists, and activists.
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According to journalist Matthew Petti's number crunching, 31% of English-speaking media have been using the phrase "Hamas-led Health Ministry" since Oct. 17. Before that day, only 7% were using such a phrase. What happened? Petti points to the Oct. 17 explosion at the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza, the perpetrator of which has not been independently confirmed. He said civilian casualty counts were not only second-guessed by the Biden administration but questioned because the ministry was "Hamas run." Repeating this led to the Western media pick-up of the phrase. Not only does linking the ministry and its data to the militant group delegitimize both, it serves a broader insidious narrative that Gazans and Palestinians are Hamas, which serves Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's interests in justifying the relentless bombing of civilians. Petti talks to Kelley and Daniel about this and the broader responsibility of the Western media in the coverage and interpretation of these complex issues on the ground today.
More from Matt Petti:
Media amplified US, Israeli narrative on Palestinian deaths, Responsible Statecraft, 11/20/23
The international pressure on Israel that really matters comes from the Middle East, Analyst News, 10/19/23
Why does Egypt fear evacuating Gaza? Responsible Statecraft, 10/13/23
America's Broken, Lurid View of Foreign Wars, Reason magazine, 10/12/23
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Experts are now speculating that America's reputation in the world, particularly in the Middle East, is taking a hit worse than when it invaded and occupied Iraq in 2003. Giorgio Cafiero, head of Gulf State Analytics and a keen observer of politics in the region, tells the podcast this week that President Biden is becoming more hated than George W. Bush during that era. This threatens to get even worse each day that the Israeli bombardments continue and more Palestinian civilians are killed (as of this writing, it is well over 11,000, nearly half of them children). Meanwhile, Arab leaders, especially those in the Gulf States with ties to both the U.S. and Israel, are coming under increasing pressure by the Arab Street to do more than just rhetorically signal their anger and displeasure with Tel Aviv and Washington.
In the first segment, Kelley & Dan talk about the big Biden-Xi Jinping meeting in San Francisco this week: a nothingburger or a real step forward for diplomacy?
More from Giorgio Cafiero:
Consequences Of The Israeli War On Gaza, News Looks, 11/14/23
Will Turkey-Israel ties reach breaking point amid Gaza war?, The New Arab, 11/14/23
Will UAE hurt Russia with export controls to please the US amid Israel war? Al Jazeera, 11/7/23
China and Israel have enjoyed serious ties. What happens now? Responsible Statecraft, 11/3/23
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A popular narrative after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and ensuing retaliation by Israel has been that the U.S. had dropped the ball because it had 'pivoted away' from the Middle East over the last three administrations. That is simply not true. According to our guests this week, CATO researchers Jon Hoffman and Jordan Cohen, Washington has maintained a status quo in the Middle East that had become untenable. It has been fueling the region with weapons; making deals with dictators in Saudi Arabia and Israel at the expense of the Palestinian issue, and ignoring the growing violence and tensions in the occupied territories. We talk about this and more as the violence threatens to spill over to other parts of the region, which will embolden those in Washington who want us to have a bigger, not a smaller footprint there.
More from Jon Hoffman and Jordan Cohen:
Emergency Aid or Budget Trick? Assessing Biden’s $100 Billion Spending Request, Jordan Cohen w/ Dominik Lett, CATO, 10/20/23
Biden's Middle East Deal is a Disaster, Jon Hoffman, Responsible Statecraft, 9/27/23
Many Arms and Little Influence in the Middle East, Hoffman and Cohen, War on the Rocks, 8/23/23
Counter-revolutionary? A deeper look at Israel’s relationships with Arab autocrats, Responsible Statecraft
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There are currently 2,500 American troops in Iraq and another 900 in Syria. Their bases have come under repeated fire in both countries since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel. According to Pentagon officials, Iranian-backed militias are to blame, and they expect more as fighting ramps up in Gaza and the West Bank. Adam Weinstein, a senior fellow on Middle East issues at the Quincy Institute and an Afghanistan War veteran, spoke with Dan and Kelley this week about how vulnerable these troops are today. He also talked about the risks of the war expanding to Lebanon and the possibility of Iran and neighboring Arab nations, along with the U.S., getting dragged into the conflagration.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about the reaction of the Global South and Arab state leaders to the events in Israel and how the international community seems to be fracturing, once again, against U.S. desires for consensus.
More from Adam Weinstein:
Iraq as it Is, with Steven Simon, Foreign Affairs, 9/27/23
‘The Return of the Taliban’ Makes Sense of Afghanistan’s Misery, Foreign Policy, 7/19/23
How to Withdraw From Iraq Within Five Years, with Steven Simon, Quincy Institute, 5/9/23
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In this special episode, Kelley and Dan update the headlines from the Gaza strip and talk about how U.S. policy in the region has become increasingly effective in terms of pushing for a two-state solution and helping to restrain the more extreme impulses of the Israeli government ahead of the Hamas attacks on Israel and retaliatory strikes in Gaza over the last week.
In the first segment, we talk to Mark Hannah, senior fellow of the Eurasia Group Foundation about the organization's recent polling, Views of US Foreign Policy in a Fragmented World, which finds strong public opinion in favor of diplomacy with Iran and Russia, declining interest in fighting a forever war in Ukraine, and an interesting uptick in support for military intervention against China in defense of Taiwan.
More from Mark Hannah:
The Real Reason Ukraine Isn’t Ready to Join NATO, Politico, 9/18/23
Washington Should Divide, Not Unite, Russia and China, The National Interest, 9/14/23
Straight Talk on the Country’s War Addiction, New York Times, 2/18/23
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It took the Ukraine war to show how broken the U.S. war machine really is. President Eisenhower warned about the military-industrial complex in 1961 and we know that it is ten times as worse as he even imagined. But after almost two years of war in Ukraine and tens of billions of American weapons transfers, we now know how limited -- if not dysfunctional -- the MIC really is. Yale scholar and lecturer Michael Brenes joins us to discuss how this happened historically, and what Washington might do to claw the industry back from the five mega-corporations that now dominate and control U.S. defense manufacturing and supply.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about the latest events in Gaza and Israel and bemoan the exploitation of the conflict by outside warmongers who want to drag the U.S. into a wider conflict with Iran.
More from Michael Brenes:
How America Broke its War Machine, Foreign Affairs, 7/3/23
The future of restraint after Ukraine, Foreign Exchanges, 12/19/22
Great-Power Competition Is Bad for Democracy, with Van Jackson, 7/14/22
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The Ukraine War has exposed a lot when it comes to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — otherwise known as NATO. Aside from the "renewed mission" and "unity" that has emerged to help Ukraine confront the Russian invasion, there are downsides. NATO has a limited capacity of weapons stores and manpower and the US is taking on a disproportionate share of the leadership and resource sharing. Dr. Maitra Sumantra, a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America, says it's past time for Americans to rethink further expansion and scaling back the US dominance of this organization. We talk about where the support exists for this kind of dramatic shift, and how resistant the political establishment here and in European capitals would be toward such change.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about the new UN-approved, Kenyan-led security mission in Haiti.
More from Sumantra Maitra:
Europe’s Revealed Preferences, The American Conservative, 10/423
Britain's Military Enlightenment, The American Conservative, 8/14/23
Pivoting the U.S. Away from Europe to a Dormant NATO, Center for Renewing America, 2/16/23
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit crashingthewarparty.substack.com
We welcomed back to the show this week the co-hosts of Conflicts of Interest podcast, Kyle Anzalone & Connor Freeman, who both write and edit and support the Libertarian Institute. We ask them about the rancorous split among libertarians over Ukraine, a fissure not seen in the Global War on Terror. We also talked about signs of fraying support for a forever war situation in Ukraine, on Capitol Hill and outside the Beltway, increasing tensions between the U.S. and China, and the GOP presidential field.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan chewed over the demise of Senator Bob Menendez, Egypt's man in D.C.
More from Kyle and Connor:
US-Backed SDF Militia Shells Positions Taken By Arab Fighters in Eastern Syria (Freeman), The Libertarian Institute, 9/27/23
White House Close To Providing Kiev With Cluster-Armed ATACMS (Freeman), The Libertarian Institute, 9/25/23
US Deploys F-16s to Romania for Patrols Over Black Sea (Anzalone), Libertarian Institute, 9/25/23
Ukraine Claims Sabotage Attack on Critical Russian Airbase, Provides Questionable Evidence (Anzalone), Libertarian Institute, 9/20/23
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Ask anyone in Washington and they'll tell you, in varying levels of panic, that China is a threat to the United States. Some will say it's the greatest threat ever or, in military-speak, the "pacing threat." So who is right? And if China is a challenge or even a threat, to its neighbors if not America directly, then how does the Biden Administration rationally deal with that?
We asked longtime China security studies expert Michael Swaine to join us this week to talk about current U.S. policy and whether or not it is going in the wrong direction. He tells us that the saber-rattling on both sides of the political aisle is risking a "radical deterrence" effect — in other words, there is a way to do positive deterrence that avoids war, not "radical deterrence," which drives you closer to real conflict.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan hash out their favorite headlines of the week, including Zelensky's visit to Washington, Biden's signing of defense security assurances for Bahrain (and possibly for Saudi soon, too), and Canadian accusations that the Indian government is linked to the assassination of a Sikh independence activist in British Columbia in June.
More from Michael Swaine:
How to Break the Impasse in U.S.-China Crisis Communication, United States Institute of Peace,7/26/23
A Restraint Approach to U.S.–China Relations: Reversing the Slide Toward Crisis and Conflict, with Andrew Bacevich, the Quincy Institute, 4/18/23
The Worrisome Erosion of the One China Policy, The National Interest, 2/27/23
A Restraint Recipe for America’s Asian Alliances and Security Partnerships, with Sarang Shidore, Quincy Institute, 11/18/22
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This week, President Joe Biden announced that he was unfreezing $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds as part of a broader deal that involves an important prisoner swap. The deal has drawn howling from the usual suspects, those who believe any diplomatic course with Iran spells weakness and blunder. Sina Toossi, an expert in U.S.-Iran relations and senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, joined us this week to talk about the deal and how attempts by hawks to coerce regime change in Iran has actually made things worse, for all involved, including the people of Iran. We also talk about the legacy of Masha Amini, whose detention and death in jail a year ago sparked nationwide protests and societal turmoil, reaching the highest levels of the country's repressive theocracy.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about Ukraine and the latest 'red line' the White House has threatened to cross: giving long-range ATACM missiles to Ukraine.
More from Sina Toossi:
The US-Iran Prisoner Swap: A Breakthrough or a Band-Aid? Jacobin, 8/13/23
Iran's Supreme Leader opens space for possible nuclear deal, Responsible Statecraft, 6/14/23
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We are excited to sit down (metaphorically) with veteran, whistleblower, peace activist, and foreign policy dissident Matthew Hoh. He has spent the last few years helping to build the Eisenhower Media Network, which is designed to promote and give voice to veterans with a critical point of view of U.S. wars, foreign policy, and the military-industrial complex. Hoh has been at the forefront of the anti-war movement since serving as a Marine in Iraq and as a State Department officer in Afghanistan during the post-9/11 wars. In this episode, we talk about the challenges of the current peace movement in regard to the Ukraine War and how folks who may have initially supported the one-track Washington policy may be seeing the benefits of pushing for more diplomacy and fewer weapons or else prolonging a conflict that is ultimately more destructive for Ukrainians.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan discuss the absolute chaos in Syria, with U.S. troops and a befuddled Washington policy right at the center.
More from Matthew Hoh:
Red Meat to the Ravenous Dogs, substack, 7/27/23
Destroying Ukraine to Save it, Counterpunch, 6/30/23
A Long War Wanted: Diplomatic Malpractice in Ukraine, 6/9/23
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For the last two decades, the U.S. military has been heavily invested in Africa — in training, weapons sharing, and basing — per its "war on terrorism." Unfortunately, the places in Africa that have had the most U.S. investment in this regard are now among the most unstable on the planet. Somalia continues to be wracked by militia violence and a fragile (at best) government, while the Sahel in West Africa has experienced no less than 20 government coups since 2010. Elizabeth Shackelford and Emma Sanderson of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs join us this week to talk about their latest report (with Ethan Kessler), "Less is More: A New Strategy for US Security Assistance to Africa," which argues that not only have these counter-terror operations failed to make life in these countries better, they have actually increased security threats for the people who live there, and to American interests.
In the first segment, Kelley & Dan discuss the old-school hawks making a big — and cringeworthy — return on the GOP debate stage, with Ron Desantis and Vivek Ramaswamy taking their body blows on Ukraine.
More from Shackelford and Sanderson:
Less is More: A New Strategy for US Security Assistance to Africa, Elizabeth Shackelford, Emma Sanderson, Ethan Kessler, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 8/21/23
What's tragic about the coup in Niger, Elizabeth Shackelford, Chicago Tribune (paywall), 8/11/23
The Dissent Channel, Elizabeth Shackelford, PublicAffairs, May 2020.
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Eighteen months into the war in Ukraine and the picture is grim. After so many US officials — including former military — pumped up the prospects of the Ukraine counteroffensive — it looks like the conflict is headed into a bloody stalemate if not a Russian rout. Lyle Goldstein, Director of the Asia Engagement program at Defense Priorities, has been one of the more sober voices calling for a diplomatic pathway rather than a commitment to endless war, because, as a military historian and strategist he could see that the Russians had the advantage from the beginning of the year. He returns to the show to talk about what went wrong and where things can go from here.
In the first segment, Kelley & Dan discuss this week's Human Rights Watch report that charges Saudi Arabia of systematically killing hundreds — perhaps even thousands — of Ethiopian migrants at the Saudi border. If true, how can Biden continue to justify reported plans to deliver goodies for Riyadh — including a security pact and sophisticated US weaponry — in exchange for Saudi-Israel normalization?
More from Lyle Goldstein:
China Studies Nuclear Risk in the Context of the Ukraine War, with Nathan Waecher, The Diplomat, 7/21/23
Is the Ukraine War moving toward a ‘Korea solution’?, Responsible Statecraft, 1/30/23
Seeking Alternatives to Military Escalation in the Ukraine War, Inkstick, 11/16/22
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Last week, the Biden administration announced a deal with the Iranian regime that would free five Iranian-American prisoners in Tehran in exchange for several Iranian prisoners here in the U.S. The deal would also free up $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds to be used solely for humanitarian purposes in Iran. Brussels-based foreign policy analyst Eldar Mamedov joins us this week to talk about the Republican-hawk backlash against the deal and what the agreement might mean for future diplomatic efforts between the U.S. and Iran. We also get him to talk about Biden's apparent moves to get Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel, and at what cost.
In the first segment Kelley and Dan discuss the New York Times' latest attempt to diminish non-interventionists and restrainers on the Ukraine war issue — this time on the Left.
More Eldar Mamedov:
Hawks hurl lies over Iran prisoner swap but can’t hide this truth, Responsible Statecraft, 8/11/23
Fresh hysteria over detail-less Bolivia-Iran security deal, Responsible Statecraft, 8/1/23
Qatar emerges as go-between on frozen US-Venezuela front, Responsible Statecraft, 7/6/23
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Does Washington have a plan B if the Ukrainian counteroffensive doesn't work out? Kelley and Daniel talk to foreign policy and politics writer James Carden about continued maximalist talk in the Beltway, setting up the Ukraine war for another forever war. He also talks about the "peace conference" in Saudi Arabia last weekend and his disappointment that there is no real diplomatic push on behalf of the major powers. Moreover, how politics in Washington are precluding actual debate on Ukraine, whether it be over the new aid package that the Biden administration now seeks or the lack of a real strategy to end the war.
Kelley and Dan also discuss an emerging plan in the White House to apparently offer security guarantees to Saudi Arabia, along with other goodies, in return for its normalization with Israel.
More from James Carden:
The Coming Battle: Who Lost Ukraine? The American Conservative magazine, 8/7/23
When facts cut through the fog of war, w/ Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Responsible Statecraft, 7/25/23
Now is not the time for Ukraine to Join NATO, w/ Katrina Vanden Heuvel, The Guardian, 7/6/23
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The Senate just passed a defense spending bill with a top line of $886 billion. Added to other national security-related funds like nuclear weapons modernization and homeland security, the U.S. is poised to spend more than one trillionon defense in 2024, with more than half going to military contractors. Julia Gledhill, a Pentagon spending expert with the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), joins us this week to bring us up to speed on the Congressional shenanigans involving the budget, including "emergency spending" that will allow the government to blow past spending limits, Ukraine and Taiwan aid that is expected to be slipped into a supplemental aid package, and how contractors are benefiting from the war in Ukraine, and will continue to do so, long after the conflict ends.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about the heartbreaking conditions on the ground in Haiti and whether a multinational peacekeeping force would help or hurt the situation. We also discuss the coup in Sudan and how US military assistance has actually made things worse in the African "coup belt."
More from Julia Gledhill:
1) The ultimate All-American slush fund, with William Hartung, Tom Dispatch, 7/22/23
2) Defense Industry Crying Wolf on Its Finances, POGO, 5/22/23
3) Lawmakers quietly gave weapons firms bailout for unproven inflation burden, Responsible Statecraft, 3/3/23
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In lieu of promising Ukraine President Zelensky NATO membership, the alliance has promised 300,000 high-alert troops and a ton of new assistance and security guarantees. What kind of hole is the West digging here, for itself, and Ukraine? The CATO Institute's Justin Logan joins us again to talk about the quandary of dangling NATO and long-term security guarantees in front of NATO. He also talks about how the American people seem totally oblivious to the fact that none of this is in the national interest.
In the first segment, Dan & Kelley talk about Israeli President Herzog's visit to Washington and the rush on Capitol Hill to embrace the "ironclad" relationship.
More from Justin Logan:
Don't let Ukraine join NATO, with Josh Shifrinson, Foreign Affairs, 7/7/23
No to Ukraine in NATO, DC Journal, 6/7/23
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The media distortion field and the fog of war. We hear these terms quite often but it's been a long time since we saw them both so fully in action. As a result, there is little known on the real casualty figures in the war in Ukraine, how much of American/Western weapons and equipment has been destroyed, and most importantly, whether Ukraine is "winning" as it contends to be. We talk to (Ret.) Col. Doug Macgregor this week and his prognosis is dim: the war is going much worse for the Ukrainians than we are being told. Without a ceasefire and real negotiations, the country is on its way to being destroyed.
In the first segment, Dan and Kelley talk about an amazing long-form report by Sarah A. Topol in the New York Times illustrating the current state of Guam, a U.S. territory that has been completely taken over by the U.S. military. In fact, it has had little identity of its own beyond a giant military base, since WWII.
More from Doug Macgregor:
After Bakhmut, The American Conservative, 5/23/23
The Gathering Storm, The American Conservative, 5/15/23
Americans Must Choose, The American Conservative, 4/14/23
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Despite all of his assurances to the contrary — that Washington would return to its role as a steward of global democratic reform — Biden has mostly continued what every previous American president has done: prop up autocrats to keep "stability" in the Middle East. Cato Institute policy analyst Jon Hoffman came on the show this week to point out one of the most blatant of Biden's contradictions: his support for Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. We also talk about Washington's obsession with getting Arabs to sign onto normalization agreements with Israel, and what a common sense foreign policy in the Middle East would really look like.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about the administration's change of heart over sending cluster bombs to the Ukrainian military.
More from Jon Hoffman:
Ten Years After Coup, the U.S. Still Supports Tyranny in Egypt, Lawfare, 7/3/23
The US Will Not Gain from Israel-Saudi Normalization, The Hill, 6/19/23
Middle East Autocrats, Islamophobia, and “Reverse Orientalism,” Bridge Initiative, 6/15/23
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On Thursday, India's prime minister, Narendra Modi comes to Washington and will address a joint session of Congress. There are a lot of expectations for this visit, as Washington really wants India to be a strategic partner in its China containment strategy. But India has its own interests, and while it is more than happy to work with the U.S. on trade, economic development, and even military tech and industrial capabilities, it has taken its own course on China and as we know, Ukraine. So what, if anything, will both sides get out of this week's visit? Quincy Institute scholar Sarang Shidore sets the table for us, on the relationship that the U.S. wants with India, and the relationship that actually exists.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about the building pressure on NATO members to come up with a blueprint for Ukraine membership — or a non-NATO arrangement that is the next best thing to Article 5.
More by Sarang Shidore:
1) Indonesia’s audacious Ukraine play is a message from the Global South, Responsible Statecraft, 6/5/23
2) Climate Security and Instability in the Bay of Bengal Region, Council on Foreign Relations, 4/19/23
3) Is the US Going Too Far in Its Alliance With the Philippines? The Diplomat, 4/11/23
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There is no better time than now for the United States to start shifting responsibility for European security to where it belongs: Europe. While European states don't necessarily disagree, there's a lot of trepidation for change, given the war in Ukraine, the predominance of U.S. weapons and leadership, and the long-unused European defense muscle. But one thing is certain, the U.S. can't necessarily keep its focus on Europe while saber-rattling for conflict with China.
To talk about these dynamics and more, Stephen Wertheim, a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace scholar, joins us this week. He explains why the major European powers have the wherewithal to do it, they just have to muster the will — and Washington has to be marshaled to let go, too.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about Israel's latest moves to finally annex the West Bank for good.
More from Stephen Wertheim:
Europe Must Step up, Foreign Affairs, with Emma Ashford, Joshua Shifrinson, 5/22/23
Iraq and the Pathologies of Primacy: The Flawed Logic That Produced the War Is Alive and Well, Foreign Affairs, 3/17/23
WWII Begins with Forgetting, New York Times, 12/22/22
Tomorrow the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy, Harvard University Press, 2020.
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In the latest issue of Harper's magazine, longtime foreign policy analysts and authors Christopher Layne and Benjamin Schwarz make the argument that the United States basically set up the war in Ukraine through a series of its own foreign interventions and geopolitical meddling in pursuit of global hegemony and dominance that went well beyond NATO expansion. They build this case that Russia had not only been the target of American hubris but had been watching the U.S. with growing uneasiness in other actions — the invasion of Panama in 1989, the bombing of Serbia in 1999, its regime change wars in Iraq and Libya. We talk to them about why they chose to write this essay, risking criticism as Russian apologists, and their fears about where this war is going.
In the first segment, Kelley & Dan talk about a new Costs of War report that finds that upwards of 4.6 million deaths worldwide can be attributed directly or indirectly to America's post-9/11 wars.
More from Christopher Layne & Benjamin Schwarz:
Why are we in Ukraine: on the dangers of American Hubris, Harper's, May 2023.
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The United States has over 750 military bases, installations, and outposts across 80 countries in the world. For decades, Americans have been told that the bases were necessary to protect U.S. interests, defend our allies, and keep the liberal world order safe. After World War II and throughout the Cold War, those arguments resonated. But the Iron Curtain is gone and technology today makes it unnecessary to stage massive amounts of ordnance, planes, and servicemembers everywhere, all the time, to respond to potential security crises.
This week we talk to Lawfare managing editor Tyler McBrien about his recent article on how there seems to be a slow shift in thinking on this score, and the efforts by some to get the U.S. military out of their countries for good.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about last week's G7 meeting and the Biden administration's continued attempts to coerce and cajole Asian countries to get on board with its anti-China agenda.
More from Tyler McBrien:
Unsealed Surveillance Court Document Reveals 702 Misuse, Lawfare, 5/19
Why the U.S. Should Close Its Overseas Military Bases, Foreign Policy, 5/16
Biden Administration Issues Revised Conventional Arms Transfer Policy, Lawfare, 2/23
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For a month now, the so-called Discord leaks have shown us a whole new dimension of the war in Ukraine — how Washington really feels about the much-anticipated Ukraine counter-offensive, how Zelensky has been trapped between hardliners and his Western patrons, and how not all of our partners and allies are on board equally in the US policy in Ukraine. This week we talk to Jacobin reporter and analyst Branko Marcetic on what he is reading between the lines, as well as the difficulty in covering the war with a persistent lack of clarity regarding battlefield numbers and data. He also discusses his recent article on the futility of economic sanctions on American "adversaries" — how they more often than not, don't work, and end up being a form of "collective punishment."
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about those surprise high-level U.S. talks with China, Zelenksy's outburst against the Washington Post, Trump's Town Hall, and Washington accusing South Africa of sending weapons to Russia.
More from Marcetic:
Mainstream Media Doesn’t Care That the CIA May Have Helped Cause 9/11, Jacobin, 5/13
US Sanctions Are Brutal and Inhumane. And They Don’t Work. Jacobin, 5/9
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The US has hoped and wished and in the last 12 years backed armed opposition efforts to depose Syrian President Bashar Assad. After a bloody war that has left the country in virtual ruins, Assad remains in power. Not only that, but Arab leaders are now bringing him back into the regional fold. The U.S. isn't happy, but what can it do? Joshua Landis, University of Oklahoma professor and Director of the school's Center of Middle East Studies, joins Dan and Kelley this week to talk about one thing that should happen, and that's the lifting of crippling sanctions on the Syrian people. Josh talks about that and Middle East regional dynamics, including China's growing influence and Washington's reaction.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about more Washington disappointment, as India just isn't playing ball, at least not the game the Biden Administration wants to play.
Recently from Joshua Landis:
US should encourage Arab, Turkish normalization with Syria, Responsible Statecraft, 4/7/23
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Washington is obsessed with reading tea leaves — on politics, policy, social cues, and diplomatic dances. And so is the case with the much anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive this spring. Will it happen? If so, would it change the course of the war? Does Russia have the juice not only to repel it but to launch its own successful bid for more territory? We talk again to Anatol Lieven, former war correspondent, author, and Eurasia expert at the Quincy Institute about what he thinks, given his recent travels to Ukraine just a month ago.
In the first segment, Kelley and Daniel talk about Biden's diplomatic strong-arming of our Asian allies in South Korea and the Philippines, as the leaders of both countries came to Washington in the last week to forge military ties amid the administration's continuing effort to "confront" the Chinese "threat" in the South China Sea.
More from Anatol Lieven:
The Rise and Role of Ukrainian Ethnic Nationalism, The Nation, 4/17/23
Crimea Has Become a Frankenstein’s Monster, Foreign Policy, 4/11/23
Pentagon leak reinforces what we already know: US-NATO in it to win, Responsible Statecraft, 4/10/23
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The political and security situation in Sudan is melting down. In Burkino Faso this week, the military dictatorship has been blamed for the massacre of 60 people. Security vacuums in Chad and Mali are attracting business from the Wagner Group, the notorious Russian private military contractor. It seems all over Africa, especially in places where the West and the U.S. have their fingerprints, things are boiling over. Why?
Our guest this week, Stephanie Savell, co-director of The Costs of War Project, just returned from Niger and has plenty of thoughts about how Washington security programs throughout the region have set the stage for the kind of problems we have now and what should be the focus of our attention — and isn't.
In the first segment, Dan & Kelley talk about the Biden Administration's weak sauce on Sudan, and the China select committee in the House hosting a war game run by the ultimate military-industrial think tank, the Center for a New American Security.
More from Stephanie Savell:
The 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force: a Comprehensive Look at Where and How it's been Used, Costs of War Project
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The New York Times recently declared that the Ukraine War had brought NATO back from the virtual dead. In other words, the alliance has new purpose, which means more troops, more weapons, and more U.S. leadership for the unforeseeable future. This week, Kelley and Dan talk to CATO's Justin Logan about why this is folly, and that there is no reason why Europe needs the U.S. or even an "emboldened NATO" to take on the burden of its own security. In fact, the security situation would remain volatile — or worse — if NATO continues to serve as an expanding, agitating presence vis-a-vis Russia in the region today.
In the first segment, Dan & Kelley talk about how French President Emmanuel Macron has been lambasted by Europeans and Americans alike for having the temerity to suggest that Europe has its own interests apart from America when it comes to China and security.
MORE from Justin Logan:
Uncle Sucker: Why U.S. Efforts at Defense Burden Sharing Fail, Cato Institute, 3/7/23
NATO will live forever, until it doesn’t, Responsible Statecraft, 2/22/23
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Washington's impulse to do something has created a foreign policy consensus that relies on the American military being everywhere, all at once, and all things to everyone in the world. Looking at today's headlines, it would be easy to see how the long arm of U.S. primacy is totally stretched — and becoming more ineffective every day. Syndicated columnist Daniel DePetris talks to us this week about a number of hotspots across the world — from Haiti to the Taiwan Strait — applying some common sense and restraint and talking a bit about what it's like to be on the "wrong side" of today's critical debates.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan discuss the massive Pentagon leaks and muse over who could be behind them, given that their revelations are highly embarrassing to all sides — U.S., Russia, and Ukrainian included.
More from Daniel DePetris:
Biden was right to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, Chicago Tribune (paywall), 4/10/23
Don't Press the Panic Button on Saudi-Chinese Ties, Newsweek, 4/7/2023
What to do about Haiti? Newsweek, 3/23/23
Ron DeSantis's nonexistent isolationism, The Washington Examiner, 3/19/23
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Last week the Biden Administration authorized airstrikes on reported Iranian strongholds in eastern Syria in retaliation for an earlier drone attack that left one American contractor and several others — including U.S. servicemembers — wounded. There have been at least 80 attacks on U.S. military personnel there since 2021 and they don't seem to be stopping. We talk to (Ret.) Army Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, who has been raising the same alarms and questions for several years now: why are we keeping our troops in harm's way in Syria? What is the strategy? Why hasn't the Biden Administration been called on the carpet to explain it?
In the first segment, Dan & Kelley talk about VP Harris's trip to Africa and Kim Jong Un's dangerous cries for attention.
More from Daniel Davis:
What is Ukraine Getting for $100 Billion? Business Insider, 1/10/23
Biden’s Endgame Shouldn’t Be Victory for Ukraine, Foreign Policy, w/ Tulsi Gabbard, 6/27/22
Our troops are targets in Syria. Why is Biden keeping them there? Responsible Statecraft, 10/28/21
Eleventh Hour in 2020 America: How America's foreign policy got jacked up — and how the next Administration can fix it (September 2020)
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In recent days and weeks, we've seen what appears to be serious examples of Arab countries opening up geopolitical avenues — as well as relations — with rivals and even adversaries. This would include Iran and Saudi Arabia's announcement that they were not only talking but reopening embassies in each other's countries for the first time in over a decade, Arab normalization with Israel, and even bringing Bashar Assad of Syria back into the fold. This is all being done irrespective of U.S. help or intervention. If anything, outside powers like China are playing a role, much to Washington's chagrin. Here to talk about the implications of this on U.S. foreign policy and ongoing crises like the war in Yemen, is Annelle Sheline, Middle East research fellow at the Quincy Institute.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about the recent AUKUS nuclear sub-agreement and how the U.S. continues to build blocs against China in the Pacific.
More from Annelle Sheline:
Exit Yemen Now to Assist a Fragile Peace -- American Prospect, 3/8/23
What Congress Needs to Know about the Truce in Yemen, w/ Hassan El-Tayyab -- Inkstick Media, 12/5/22
It’s Time to Cut Off Arms Sales to the Saudi Regime, w/ William Hartung -- The Nation, 11/15/22
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In this special episode, we talk to veteran, author, and professor emeritus Andrew Bacevich, who was an early critic of the Bush Administration's folly in Iraq. As a Vietnam veteran, he easily recognized the crusader path of contemporary military officials and the deployment of the American missionary ethos that kept us entrenched in that war for a decade (we still have troops there today). We share some recollections on this 20-year anniversary of the war, and some thoughts on America's continuing foreign policy follies, this week.
More from Andrew Bacevich:
The self-deceived deceivers of war, Boston Globe, 3/13/23
The Reckoning that Wasn't, Foreign Affairs, 2/28/23
In the Virtues of Whataboutism, Tom Dispatch, 2/14/23
Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak out Against America's Misguided Wars (Macmillan Press, 2022)
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Professor Chris Fettweis has spent the better part of his career studying and teaching about how great powers remain great powers and how hard they work to stay on top. He talks to Kelley and Dan this week about how dominant powers and empires get paranoid and worry about their reputations and credibility, and sometimes that skews their decision making skills. He discusses, too, his thoughts on the foreign policy blob and why we can't seem to have rational conversations over U.S. national interests.
In the first segment, Dan & Kelley talk about the ongoing Nord Stream sabotage mystery and a new theory by the New York Times about who did it this week.
More from Chris Fettweis:
The Beliefs of the Blob — Orbis, Volume 67, Issue 1, 2023
The Pursuit of Dominance: 2000 Years of Superpower Grand Strategy, Oxford University Press, December 2022.
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Author and columnist Bonnie Kristian joins us this week to talk about the prospects of a Ron DeSantis policy, and more specifically, what a Ron DeSantis foreign policy might look like. She did a deep dive on this for the New York Times, and addresses the Florida governor's recent comments on Ukraine, his set up as a potential "restraint" rival of Trump, and his questionable positions on other hot-button issues, like Iran.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about the Biden Administration's accusations that China is "considering" giving lethal weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine, and at the same time China issues its own "peace plan" for Ukraine.
More from Bonnie Kristian:
Ron DeSantis Could Decide Republicans’ Foreign Policy, New York Times, 1/9/23
The War in Ukraine Has No End in Sight, Reason, 2/24/23
Why Washington must tread carefully with Taiwan, Asia Times, 8/30/22
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Over a year ago, Lyle Goldstein, director of Asian engagement at Defense Priorities, came on Crashing the War Party and was one of the few foreign policy analysts warning that Russia was likely to invade Ukraine, pointing out that the seeming US-NATO resistance to a more diplomatic path could lead to what we are seeing today. He talks to Kelley and Dan on the anniversary of the Feb. 24 Russian invasion about the current battlefield conditions — which are not good for either side — and where we could be headed in 2023. We also talk to Lyle about Washington's increasingly dangerous approach to China and Taiwan.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about the Israelis' latest push for a US war with Iran. Considering that Washington's energy and attention are stretched over a potential two-front war in Ukraine and China, what are the Israelis thinking?
More from Lyle Goldstein:
Is the Ukraine War Moving Toward a Korean Solution? Responsible Statecraft, 1/30/23
A Taiwan Conflict Would Look Nothing Like Ukraine, Unherd, 12/27/22
Cuban missile crisis holds lessons for U.S. and China, Nikkei Asia, 11/6/22
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In his recent book, Pain Is Weakness Leaving the Body: A Marine's Unbecoming, U.S. Marine Corps veteran Lyle J. Rubin threads his five-year experience — as a candidate in Marine officer school and serving in Afghanistan, as well as his shift in thinking about the Global War on Terror, the U.S. military as an institution, and his opposition to militarized U.S. foreign policy today — into a poignant memoir. He shares this and more with us in a special conversation this week. In the first segment, Kelley & Dan talk about Nikki Haley's prospects for president and the hawkish baggage she brings to the table from the Trump administration.
Lyle J. Rubin bio
Reviews of Pain Is Weakness Leaving the Body: A Marine's Unbecoming in The Nation, The Washington Post, and Current Affairs.
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A protracted war could end up destroying Ukraine. A wider confrontation between two nuclear powers — U.S. and Russia — could lead to World War III. So what to do to stop it? We talk to Rand Corp. grand strategist Miranda Priebe, who just co-authored a powerful new paper promoting concrete measures for bringing both Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table in order to end the madness before the worst can happen. In the first segment, Dan & Kelley talk about China Balloon-gate and how the Washington frenzy could very well blow us into a war, if cooler heads don't prevail. But where are they?
More from Miranda Priebe:
Avoiding a Long War: U.S. Policy and the Trajectory of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict, with Sam Charap, Rand Corporation, 1/25/23
Don’t Rule Out Diplomacy in Ukraine, with Sam Charap, Foreign Affairs, 10/28/22
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Journalist Ethan Paul answers his own question with an affirmative "yes!" on our show this week as we discuss the fever swamp of saber-rattling and chicken-littling in Washington today. What does it all mean? Where will it lead us? On the former, we talk about invested interests in ballooning the defense industry and Pentagon budgets, the political advantage of looking "tough on China," and the conflation of economic and military "threats." On the former, Paul warns that the threat inflation could lead to actual war.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan serve up some tasty headlines: Israel drone strikes in Iran, the new call for F-16s for Ukraine, the impact of Russian sanctions on Mongolia, and Saudi executions.
More from Ethan Paul:
Biden chooses to keep Trump China tariffs right where they are, Responsible Statecraft, 10/5/21
What Biden’s Top China Theorist Gets Wrong -- Lawfare, 10/7/21
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The last two months have seen the U.S. cross what appeared to be its own lines against giving advanced weapons to Ukraine. First, the announcement to send a Patriot Missile battery to the embattled country; then this week, news that within a week, the administration seemingly changed its mind about sending its most sophisticated tanks — the M-1 Abrams — into the battlefield. Suzanne Loftus, author of the forthcoming book, "Russia, China, and the West in the Post-Cold War Era: The Limits of Liberal Universalism," joins us to talk about whether this is a slow escalation to direct conflict with Russia, and what might be a better alternative to bringing about an end to the war.
In the first segment, Dan and Kelley talk about the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies’ plan for regime change in Iran, and this week's US-Israel military drills to "show force" in the Middle East.
More from Suzanne Loftus:
Russia, China and the West in the Post-Cold War Era: The Limits of Liberal Universalism (forthcoming April 2023)
No one will win a protracted war in Ukraine, Responsible Statecraft, 1/21/23
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There is no doubt that the war in Ukraine — as brutally destructive it has been for the Ukrainian people — is a boon to America's top defense contractors: think Lockheed, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics. As our guest Bill Hartung, author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military Industrial Complex, points out, the U.S. weapons pipeline to Ukraine has not only allowed these companies to amp up production lines, but they are getting all sorts of regulatory short-cuts and allowances from Congress to do it. This includes budgets and favorable measures they had been asking for long before the start of the war. The expected result: more potential for corruption, waste, and even less competition in the defense space than before, says Hartung.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about the newly announced security alliance between NATO and the EU, all but guaranteeing that the US and its guns aren't going anywhere.
More from Bill Hartung:
Hawks blow a lot of hot air over proposed budget cuts, Responsible Statecraft, 1/10/23
Don't use the war in Ukraine to permanently expand the war industry, Forbes, 12/2/22
How the arms industry scams the taxpayer, with Julia Gledhill, Tom Dispatch, 9/11/22
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The war in Ukraine will end with a negotiated settlement (no one knows how
or when) but whatever it will be will likely forge the basis of a new European security order if not an international one, says Yale historian Michael Brenes. What would that order look like? He suggests it should be one in which the U.S. and other great powers play a role in eventually bringing the Global South into a multilateral embrace of shared national interests and around 'progressive' values beyond security — like economic development, health care, social justice, and climate change. Can this work, or is it just pie in the sky? Dan and Kelley ask him to explain. In the first segment, they discuss whether the Republicans have what it takes to tackle the bloat and corruption of escalating defense budgets.
More Michael Brenes:
Wealth for All Nations: The war in Ukraine and the making of a new global order, Warfare and Welfare, 1/4/23
The Future of Restraint after Ukraine, Foreign Exchanges, 12/19/22
For Might and Right: Cold War Defense Spending and the Remaking of American Democracy, University of Massachusetts Press (2020)
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The U.S. military has over 270,000 troops currently deployed across the globe, including in 17 countries that the public up until now didn't even know about. Our guest this week, Ben Friedman, a senior analyst with Defense Priorities, takes on the Washington shibboleth that we couldn't possibly start bringing any of those troops home — particularly the thousands in the Middle East and Europe — because they would leave "power vacuums." He argues that even if there is a "security gap" left in our place, there are regional powers that can step into the breach. In the first segment, Daniel and Kelley talk about the demise of 'interim president' Juan Guaido of Venezuela.
More from Ben Friedman:
When courting quasi-allies like Ukraine becomes a moral hazard, with Natalie Armbruster, Responsible Statecraft, 12/28/22
Don't fear vacuum: it's safe to go home, Defense Priorities, 12/7/22
The case for getting rid of the National Security Strategy, with Justin Logan, War on the Rocks, 11/4/22
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Congress had a chance to assert its war powers and end U.S. assistance to Saudi Arabia in the Yemen War. But President Biden helped to strangle the effort in the cradle and a vote in December was never held. Quincy Institute Middle East expert Annelle Sheline joins us this week to talk about what happened, and Senator Bernie Sanders' pledge to bring the issue back in early 2023. Kelley and Dan also take stock of the two major issues in 2022 foreign policy — Russia/Ukraine and China — and how the Washington establishment is failing us on both fronts, pushing us dangerously towards a Great Power conflict we cannot win.
More from Annelle Sheline:
Delayed war powers vote risks further suffering in Yemen, Responsible Statecraft, Dec. 14, 2022
Biden blesses MBS immunity for Khashoggi murder, Responsible Statecraft, Nov. 18, 2022
The Yemen War in Numbers: Saudi Escalation and U.S. Complicity, Quincy Institute, March 22, 2022.
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On this episode, Kelley interviews the great podcast host, author, and anti-war activist Scott Horton. The two engage in a wide-ranging discussion about Ukraine, the war party in Washington, and why right-leaning combat veterans are increasingly joining efforts to hold the government Constitutionally responsible for sending men and women off to war. Always funny, but deadly serious, Scott uses his encyclopedic knowledge of U.S. foreign policy to indict the players, poseurs, and profit-makers who made 2022 another dangerous year.
More from Scott Horton:
Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan (2017)
Enough Already : Time to End the War on Terrorism (2017)
Hotter than the Sun: Time to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (2022)
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The Ukrainian people -- all of the Ukrainian people -- need catharsis and reconciliation before healing. When they can begin, in the face of ongoing war with Russia, is the question we put to Ukraine scholar Nicolai Petro, whose book, "The Tragedy of Ukraine: What Classical Greek Tragedy Can Teach Us About Conflict Resolution" is released next week. We talk about the history, the competing identities, and the institutional barriers within Ukraine that have made the East-West conflict what it is today. Dan and Kelley also discuss Russia's decision to ditch nuclear talks and how the one nuclear treaty left between Washington and Moscow could be on its way out forever.
More from Nicolai Petro:
The tragedy of Crimea -- Responsible Statecraft, 11/24/22
Prospects for Peace in Ukraine: The Non-Military Aspect (VIDEO), Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, April 7, 2022.
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Ever wonder what it takes to build an American empire? George Mason University professor and Chris Coyne, who just released his new Monsters to Destroy: The Folly of American Empire and the Paths to Peace, talks to Kelley and Dan about the building blocks of the so-called US liberal world order, which he argues is powered by a leviathan of good soldiers — autocratic, authoritarian, conformist stewards of imperialism and American primacy — the very opposite of the 'liberal' face they want the world, and fellow Americans, to see. In the first segment, our hosts talk about Israel's constant push for a US war with Iran and calls for a multinational peacekeeping force in Haiti.
More from Chris Coyne:
Manufacturing Militarism: U.S. Government Propaganda in the War on Terror, with Abigail Hall, 2021
Reagan Was Right: Big Government Corrupts the Military Too -- The National Interest, 9/9/2022
Tyranny Comes Home: The Domestic Fate of U.S. Militarism, with Abigail Hall, 2018
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We can finally say that Republicans will take the majority in the House of Representatives in January. So what does this mean for foreign policy — especially the new $37 billion package President Biden wants to push through the lame duck session this December? The Washington Examiner’s politics editor Jim Antle joins us to break down how this super-slim majority will actually give an edge to Republicans who have been critical of the aid and in favor of a more restrained foreign policy. He discusses the different flavors of these GOP critics, and how this may be setting up a real fight for who defines a “conservative foreign policy.” In the first segment Kelley & Dan talk (optimistically!) about that big face-to-face between China’s Xi-Jinping and President Biden at the G20.
More from Jim Antle:
Biden survives midterm elections, though his agenda's fate is unclear —The Washington Examiner, 11/15/22
Are Republicans really poised to put brakes on Ukraine aid? — Responsible Statecraft, 11/7/22
Are Republicans losing their appetite for the war effort against Russia? — The Week, 5/22/22
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What a week! As of right now it’s still not clear which party will be running the Congress after Tuesday’s competitive midterm elections. We talk to Just Foreign Policy’s Erik Sperling about the foreign policy implications of a new potential Republican majority in the House and/or Senate — and which issues might be affected by the change, including the hottest one of the moment, Ukraine. We also discuss the White House’s new “diplomacy talk” with Russia. In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about Bush-era interventionists and neocons trying get into the act by refashioning themselves under the rubric of “conservative statecraft.”
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Over 200 years ago, then-U.S. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams warned how overseas militarism, even in the name of liberty, could change the very nature of the republic: "She (America) well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force." So how was JQA so prescient? We talk to author and president of the John Quincy Adams Society David Hendrickson about his new book and how these "maxims" have gone so far off the rails in today's foreign policy. In our first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about U.S.-trained commandos fighting for Russia, the dead JCPOA deal, B-52s in Australia, and more under-the-radar headlines.
More from Hendrickson:
Freedom, Independence, Peace: John Quincy Adams and American Foreign Policy (2022)
Europe's energy disaster -- The American Conservative, 9/13/22
Why this economic war on Russia breaks all the rules of the game -- Responsible Statecraft, 3/23/22
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This week, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman reiterated the U.S. Nuclear Posture Review, which states that "the United States would only consider the employment of nuclear weapons in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States, its allies, and partners. Extreme circumstances could include significant non-nuclear strategic attacks." Natalie Armbruster of Defense Priorities joins us this week to talk about who is formally a US ally — and not — and how over the years Washington has built a web of entangling alliances of different formalities and caliber, drawing the US into fights and causing others that have no real basis in the U.S. national interest. In the second segment, Kelley & Dan talk about the U.S. 101st Airborne Division on the border with Ukraine, and the progressives going wobbly on diplomacy.
More from Natalie:
Who is an ally and why does it matter? — w/ Ben Friedman, Defense Priorities, 10/12/22
The 2023 Defense Authorization risks more of the same — Instick Media, 8/4/22
Biden shouldn't put American lives on the line to defend the United Arab Emirates — Business Insider, 6/14/22
Apply the logic of the Afghanistan withdrawal to Syria — Defense Priorities, 3/7/2022
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While all eyes have been turned on Ukraine and China, a nuclear threat continues on the Korean peninsula and in the last few weeks, tensions have gotten a lot worse. The U.S. called North Korea's accusations that Washington and South Korea have been provoking the North "baloney." Meanwhile Pyongyang has been testing missiles and artillery closer to its border with the South, while Seoul and the U.S. have continued their biggest joint war games in four years. Prolific writer and Cato Institute fellow Doug Bandow joins us on the show today to talk about the potential of Kim Jong Un going nuclear and how the Biden administration has lost all juice for addressing what could be a real military conflagration on China's doorstep.
More from Doug Bandow:
Xi plays Mao without the Madness -- The American Conservative, 10/20/22
Who attacked Nord Stream 2? -- 19FortyFive, 10/14/22
Washington huffs and puffs — but its adversaries aren’t shaking -- Responsible Statecraft, 10/11/22
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Washington was all agog this week after the Biden Administration and Congressional Democrats came out swinging against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which refused to influence OPEC-Plus against cutting oil production last week. The move has the potential to roil already struggling energy markets and right before the November midterm elections. Biden is hopping mad — but is he surprised? And why did it seem to take him this long to get wise to MBS's venal machinations? We talk to Middle East expert Jon Hoffman about this and other dynamics that are making the Americans look like fools and sops in the region. In the first segment, we talk about those midterms and whether or not the Ukraine War will affect them — or be affected by them.
More from Jon Hoffman:
The Abraham Accords and the Imposed Middle East Order -- The National Interest, 10/3/22
The United States Doesn’t Need to Recommit to the Middle East -- Foreign Policy, 7/11/22
Counter-revolutionary? A deeper look at Israel’s relationships with Arab autocrats -- Responsible Statecraft, 1/28/22
Washington’s Blank Check for the United Arab Emirates Must End -- Foreign Policy, 11/3/21
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Ever feel like the Washington crowd doesn't talk your language when it comes to how the government solves its problems overseas? After 20 years of war, it seems Americans are much more circumspect about war powers, sending weapons to dictators, the US military footprint in Asia, even the current war in Ukraine, according to a new poll by the Eurasia Group Foundation. Senior researcher and podcast producer Caroline Gray joins us to break down the results, which show younger voters are perhaps the most resistant to the status quo of all. In the first segment, Dan and Kelley talk about the Biden Administration's latest efforts in cajoling the Pacific Island countries into its anti-China web.
Listen to the Eurasia Group Foundation podcast, "None of the Above"
See the full poll results, here
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In this episode, longtime US foreign policy author and critic Ted Carpenter talks about his new book cataloging the editorial crimes of the American press corps, starting with Yellow Journalism and the Spanish American War, through Vietnam, the Iraq War, and Ukraine today. Media bias in favor of American primacy and exceptionalism has allowed Washington to not only get the public behind their political wars of choice but stay in them long after they've been lost. In the second segment, Kelley and Dan talk about Russia's apparent plans to annex four areas of Ukraine and what that will mean for the U.S.-NATO proxy war moving forward.
More from Ted Carpenter:
Unreliable Watchdog: The News Media and U.S. Foreign Policy -- Scheduled for release Nov. 29, 2022
Uncle Sam’s Long Trail of Wreckage -- The American Conservative, 9/28/22
North Korea Is A Nuclear Weapons State. America Needs A New Strategy -- 19FortyFive, 9/27/22
Biden’s UN speech misreads global unity -- Responsible Statecraft, 9/24/22
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This week Dan and Kelley talk to Dave DeCamp, who has literally written thousands of news reports for AntiWar.com, the nearly 30-year-old independent news and views source for the non-interventionist, anti-imperialist community. Dave just started a new podcast there, and talks to us about how he landed at Antiwar, what motivates him to work 24/7 for the cause, and this week's headlines regarding U.S. policies toward China and the war in Ukraine. In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about Biden's strange "gaffe" in which he declared on 60 Minutes that he would send U.S. troops to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.
More Dave DeCamp:
State Department Stops Publishing Military Expenditures, Arms Transfer Report -- Antiwar.com, 9/19/22
China Lodges Complaint to US Over Biden’s Comments on Defending Taiwan -- Antiwar.com, 9/19/22
Senate Panel Advances Bill That Would Radically Change US Taiwan Policy -- Antiwar.com, 9/14/22
Liz Truss and the Future of British Imperialism -- Libertarian Institute, 9/6/22
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Is progressive foreign policy in crisis? Stephen Wertheim, author of Tomorrow the World: The Birth of U.S.Global Supremacydoesn't really think so, but he does recognize a serious debate between progressives who want to actively promote democracy and confront global authoritarianism, and those who believe such efforts could entangle the U.S. in conflicts that are averse to national interests. These divisions have been put into stark contrast during today's war in Ukraine. Dan and Kelley talk to Stephen about that, and a possible war with China over Taiwan. In the first segment, our hosts discuss a new Senate bill that could make a great power conflict in the Asia Pacific more of a reality.
More from Stephen Wertheim:
The Crisis in Progressive Foreign Policy -- Foreign Affairs, 8/24/22
Is America Overextending Itself? -- Q&A, Foreign Policy, 8/24/22
The Ukraine Temptation -- Foreign Affairs, 4/12/22
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The headlines are almost scary these days: China and Russia together engaging in massive military drills — including live-fire exercises in the Sea of Japan — the US sailing so-called 'freedom of navigation" operations through the Taiwan strait, Taiwan boosting its defense budget in anticipation of a Chinese attack. The tensions are high since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided to visit Taipei this summer in a sort of declaration of defiance against China. Is the US asking for something it can't readily finish? China military expert and author Lyle Goldstein thinks so. He talks to us this week about the strategic dynamics in the Pacific, and the potential consequences of American hubris. In the second segment, Kelley and Dan discuss "The Rise of the Liberal Hawks" — the latest attempt by the Atlantic magazine to smear anyone who doesn't agree with the company line.
More from Lyle Goldstein:
How Beijing Is Changing Its Rules Around Taiwan — Defense One, 8/16/22
The US should keep a cool head over China’s courting of the Solomon Islands — The Hill, 4/27/22
The new Indo-Pacific Strategy is too shallow — Defense News, 2/24/22
Stop counting warships. China's special-operations forces are Taiwan's real problem — Insider, 1/22/22
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For decades Americans have been conditioned to support the idea of American Exceptionalism and the nation's obligation to promote its liberal values globally, even if it means war. This is at the very root of the American Empire, author and podcaster Daniel Bessner tells us in this week's episode. Movements are afoot to expose the narrative and start adjusting to new realities on the world stage — if only the Washington blob would get out of the way. In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about the violence in Baghdad this week and how the U.S. screwed up its chance to make amends for breaking Iraq after the 2003 invasion.
More from Bessner:
Empire Burlesque — Harper's Magazine, July 2022
American Empire is headed into the sunset — can we handle it? Q&A w/ Tevah Gevelber — Responsible Statecraft, 7/25/22
Ending primacy to end U.S. wars — The Quincy Institute, 4/7/22
The case against humane war — New Republic, 9/8/21
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It's been a year since the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban took over, leaving Afghans behind with an uncertain future. The 20-year war had ended but instead of facing its mistakes and making sure Afghanistan doesn't become a festering wound, Washington has refused to work diplomatically with the Taliban or help ease the economic situation that is driving the country into a spiraling humanitarian crisis. U.S. Marine Corps veteran and Quincy Institute fellow Adam Weinstein breaks it down for us. In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about the establishment media's latest attempt to sell a coherent "Biden-Blinken doctrine," and why it's as shallow as the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
More from Adam Weinstein:
Mourning a Lost War: Why Nation Building Failed in Afghanistan — The National Interest, 8/22/22
Strategic Patience: Sustainable Engagement with a Changed Afghanistan, The Quincy Institute, 8/15/22
Why the Afghan government collapsed after US withdrawal, Responsible Statecraft, 5/20/22
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In this episode, Daniel talks to Ali Wyne, author of “America’s Great-Power Opportunity: Revitalizing U.S. Foreign Policy to Meet the Challenges of Strategic Competition.” They discuss the potential dangers of defining U.S. foreign policy simply in terms of countering Russia and China, the need for internal American renewal, and steps to be taken to avoid the Great Power war. In the first segment, Dan and Kelley talk about a compelling new report that shows the European people are actually tired of the US-led security umbrella. The question is, are their governments willing and able to start investing in their own defense?
More Wyne:
Ali Wyne on US Foreign Policy in the Era of Great Power Competition -- Q&A with Shannon Tiezzi, The Diplomat, 8/16/22
The problem with ‘great power competition’ — Q&A with Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 7/25/22
How the 'great power competition' model leads to costly entanglements — review by Daniel Larison, Responsible Statecraft, 7/15/22
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The U.S. has been locked in a delicate dance with its European partners and Iran over re-entry into the Iran nuclear deal for more than a year. Meanwhile, relations between the two countries are either frozen or dangerously hot — never in-between. How did it get this way? Is there anyone in the US government who doesn't view Tehran as the enemy? Will Iran's own mullahs dial down the rhetoric long enough to see their country through to a better way? Author and MIT researcher John Tirman shares his extensive research with Dan and Kelley this week. In the first segment, our hosts talk about Biden's "new" Africa strategy. Just more great power politics or an actual corner turned?
More from John Tirman:
Republics of Myth: National Narratives and the US-Iran Conflict, w/ Hussein Banai and Malcolm Byrne, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022.
How the war complicates Biden's Iran diplomacy, 4/6/22, Democracy in Exile (DAWN)
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After the fall of the Soviet Union, scholar (and former Army linguist) Monica Duffy Toft noticed something odd: the number of U.S. interventions overseas seemed to go up, not down, after the Cold War was supposedly over. Today, she is fully embroiled in a project that is collecting data on all of those interventions, their toll on the American taxpayer, and on peace across the globe, and is coming up with some disturbing conclusions about the nature of American exceptionalism and the military-industrial complex. In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about Nancy Pelosi's big trip to Taiwan this week and why Washington today appears to be completely inept at foreign policy and realpolitik.
More from Monica Duffy Toft:
America’s modern addiction to the big stick — Responsible Statecraft, 6/21/22
What the United States needs to own in Russia’s war on Ukraine, Responsible Statecraft, 5/16/22
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The U.S. seems determined to manage the world order, even if that means taking the current integrated global economic system and re-calibrating it based on shared national security concerns — like the West on the one side, China and Russia on the other, and the 'non-aligned' like India and the rest of the Global South pressured to pick a team. That seems to be afoot given recent statements by the U.S. Treasury Secretary and the State Department. Here to talk about it is the Quincy Institute's advocacy director and economic policy expert Marcus Stanley. In the first segment, Daniel and Kelley discuss the increased U.S. military presence in Somalia, which has gone all but unnoticed by official Washington and the media.
More from Marcus Stanley:
Stop using the China ‘threat’ to throw more money at the Pentagon (w/ Michael Swaine), Responsible Statecraft, 6/18/22
The US Has No Endgame in Ukraine, an interview with Jacobin Magazine, 6/22
Did Janet Yellen just signal a new world economic order? Responsible Statecraft, 4/28/22
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Nick Turse is the master of annoying the Pentagon with his pesky questions about their secret military deployments and how they're spending U.S. taxpayer dollars in places you've never heard of. He lives up to his reputation with a new Intercept piece, written with Alice Speri: "How the Pentagon uses a secretive program to wage proxy wars." This week, we discuss how their Freedom of Information requests resulted in a ton of new information about special operations missions across the Middle East and Africa, and how successive administrations and Congress have done nothing about it. In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about whether the Biden administration will declare Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman immune from a civil lawsuit alleging his role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi — or will his new desire to make nice with the Kingdom come between Khashoggi's loved ones and final justice?
More from Nick Turse:
How the Pentagon uses a secretive program to wage proxy wars — The Intercept (w/Alice Speri), 7/1/22
Civilian Victim of U.S. Drone Strike Starts a Go Fund Me to Save his Legs — and His Life, The Intercept, 5/218/22
The military isn’t tracking US-trained officers in Africa — Responsible Statecraft. 3/30/22
Are we training future coup leaders and creating new terrorists in West Africa? — Responsible Statecraft, 1/31/22
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After four months the war is grinding on with Russia gaining territory in the east, day by day. Scholar and author Rajan Menon joins the show this week to talk about the ways this could end: De facto partitioning? Neutrality with sweeteners? A new Russia? In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about the bullet that killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aklheh in May. A U.S. forensic investigation found this week that the bullet indeed came from an Israeli Defense Forces gun, but also determined it was "unintentional." How do they know? We'll discuss.
More from Rajan Menon:
How can the war in Ukraine end? Let’s count the ways — Responsible Statecraft, 6/28/22
The war in Ukraine has entered a new, and more difficult, phase — The Guardian (w/ Daniel DePetris), 6/23/22
The U.S. Can’t Force the Rest of the World to Support Ukraine. Here’s Why — Politico (w/ Daniel DePetris), 5/25/22
How to Make Peace With Putin:The West Must Move Quickly to End the War in Ukraine — Foreign Affairs (w/ Thomas Graham), 3/21/22
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As President Biden sets out to fit the world into a "democracies versus autocracies" frame and more importantly, firm up allies in his China containment policy, the countries in Southeast Asia — including Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia — have other ideas. We talk to Sebastian Strangio, Southeast Asia editor for The Diplomat, on how these countries are positioning on China, the war in Ukraine, and their complicated relationship with the United States. In the first segment, Kelley & Dan talk about reports of the CIA secretly operating in Kyiv and what this means for Biden's "no boots on the ground" strategy in Ukraine.
More from Strangio:
Australian FM Embarks on Trip to Vietnam, Malaysia, The Diplomat, 6/27/22
Philippines Nixes Joint Maritime Resource Exploration Talks With China, The Diplomat, 6/24/22
Indonesia’s President Jokowi to Visit Russia, Ukraine, The Diplomat, 6/21/22
Why Have Southeast Asian Governments Stayed Silent Over Ukraine? The Diplomat, 2/23/22
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The Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent oil and gas embargoes have triggered an energy crisis and sent the Biden Administration in search of the dreaded fossil fuels to increase world supplies and stave off price hikes. This is where Venezuela comes in. William Neuman, author of "Things Are Never So Bad That They Can't Get Worse: Inside the Collapse of Venezuela," gives us a clear-eyed view of the recent history of Venezuela's economic collapse, its broken relations with Washington, and America's regime change desires. He also talks about how Ukraine has upended all of that, opening a window for new relations. Maybe. In the first segment, Kelley & Dan talk about the assassination of Iranians in Tehran, and Israel's suspected links to them.
More on William Neuman:
Venezuela Sanctions Aren't Working. Don't Repeat the Mistakes of the Cuba Embargo — The Guardian, 6/2/22
The Disaster That Is Venezuela -- New York Times book review, 3/15/22
Venezuela's Train to Nowhere -- The Atlantic, 3/7/22
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Media and cultural analyst and podcaster Bob Wright talks to us this week about his recent look at the Institute for the Study of War and its predominant role in mainstream coverage of the War in Ukraine. This Washington think tank, founded during the height of the Iraq War by Kimberly Kagan, specializes in maps and rigorous regional analysis, but hidden in the attic is a string of defense industry, Pentagon, and neoconservative connections. Wright puts them, and ISW's shaded reports on Russia-Ukraine, under the microscope. In the first segment, we talk about how the toughest sanctions in history have so far not had a major effect on Russia. Why?
More from Bob Wright at this Nonzero Newsletter on Substack:
Propaganda, American Style, June 6
Biden's pan-American party faces RSVP problems, June 3
Ukraine speech code violated--McCarthyism ensues, April 29
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Black gold: Oil is responsible for making great powers, provoking endless military conflict, and splitting the world between dependents and power brokers. There is nothing like a petrostate, says Emma Ashford, who just released the book, "Oil, the State, and War: The Foreign Policies of Petrostates." Emma's book explores why this resource is the most powerful driver of not only global economics, but politics and foreign policy, and how its influence is a lead actor in today's headlines, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine and global inflation. In the first segment, Kelley & Dan discuss Ben Sasse's sassy foreign policy speech calling out American "defeatists" and "isolationists."
More from Emma Ashford:
Is Biden Being Machiavellian or Misguided on Taiwan? -- Foreign Policy, 5/27/22
NATO Should Think Twice Before Accepting Finland and Sweden -- Bloomberg, 5/30/22
How the War in Ukraine Could Get Much Worse, w/ Josh Shifrinson -- Foreign Affairs, 3/22/22
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Is Russia poised to invade Sweden or Finland? Likely not. So what problem does adding both countries to NATO solve? Furthermore, how much is the U.S. willing to defend these countries down the road? Kelley and Dan talk to Cato Institute's Justin Logan about why offering them membership is an "impetuous move" that will likely cost more than the immediate benefit. In the first segment, we explore the potential disaster that awaits the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles this month, as several Latin American leaders have threatened to boycott the annual event because Biden insists on playing the "democracies versus autocracies" game.
More from Justin Logan:
The Case against Finland Joining NATO --The National Interest, with Ben Friedman, 5/22/22
We’re Not All Ukrainians Now -- Politico Europe, 5/17/22
Ukraine Has a Right to Fight for Its Survival, but the US Can’t Take on Unlimited Risk to Help It Do So -- Business Insider, with Gil Barndollar, 4/28/22
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Iraq war veteran Dan Caldwell talks to Dan and Kelley this week about his work at Stand Together, Concerned Veterans of America, and about how he is trying to challenge Washington's hubristic war policies, including its current approach to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He says the American people have had no say in the $50 billion in weapons and aid pledged and fast-tracked to Kyiv, and senses that lawmakers, mostly Republicans, are starting to push back because their constituents are getting restive. In the intro segment, we talk about Tom Cotton's new turn as a Jacksonian-America First-interventionist.
More Dan Caldwell:
CSPAN Washington Journal: Dan Caldwell on Veterans and Military Issues -- 2/19/22
U.S. in Iraq: A Distinction Without A Difference -- The American Conservative -- 1/12/22
Congress Has a Chance to Reclaim Its War Powers -- Newsweek -- 6/1/21
Dan Larison on Tom Cotton:
Tom Cotton, Fanatical Militarist-- Antiwar.com -- 5/11/22
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Wondering why the Biden administration's Ukraine policy seems so scattershot? Who exactly is giving him advice and where did they come from? Asia Times columnist and longtime blob-watcher James Carden joins us to answer some of these million-dollar (or should we say $40 billion) questions. He finds that most of the tight inner circle are Obama holdovers — surprise! — toeing the status quo foreign policy consensus in Washington. In our first segment, Dan and Kelley chat about the third anniversary of Trump ripping the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal, and the window slowly closing ahead of the midterms for its renewal.
More from James Carden:
Brink delights foreign policy consensus, sails through confirmation hearing — Responsible Statecraft, 5/11/22
American progressives join the War Party — Asia Times, 5/6/22
The company men behind Biden’s foreign policy ‘Blob’ — Asia Times, 5/3/22
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The United States makes a lot of stupid mistakes and policy choices driven by the idea that not only are we the center of the universe, but by our obsession with maintaining "credibility." Tulane professor Chris Fettweis, author of Pathologies of Power, and Psychology of a Superpower, talks to Kelley and Dan about how it's comforting to think we are in control and can shape the way other leaders — like Vladimir Putin —behave. Can't we? In the first segment, we discuss the not-so-subtle shift in Washington rhetoric toward a direct, existential conflict with Moscow, with at least one lawmaker, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, calling for a new Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Russia.
More from Fettweis:
Psychology of a Superpower, 2018, Columbia University Press
The Pathologies of Power, 2014, Cambridge University Press
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It's our one-year anniversary at Crashing the War Party, and what better way to celebrate it than to interview one of our favorite voices on foreign policy restraint— Senator Rand Paul. Dan and Kelley talk to the Kentucky senator about that exchange with Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week, where he challenged the administration dangling NATO in front of Ukraine while agitating Putin before the March invasion. He discusses the perils of escalation, the possibility of Finland and Sweden joining NATO, Putin's miscalculations, as well as the ongoing war in Yemen, and his support for rejoining the Iran nuclear deal. What a perfect way to celebrate our birthday!
We'd also like to extend our absolute gratitude to our producer Remso W. Martinez who has been an integral part of putting together, setting up, and executing Crashing the War Party from the very beginning and weekly. Please check out his own podcast On the Run w/ Remso W. Martinez here!
More on Senator Paul:
Senator Rand Paul Argues U.S. Support for Ukraine NATO Membership Contributed to Russian Decision to Invade, CSPAN, 4/27/22
Sen. Rand Paul bucks party, says getting out of Iran deal was ‘a mistake’ — Responsible Statecraft, 3/23/22
Why I want to kill Biden's massive US-Egyptian arms deal, Responsible Statecraft, 2/10/22
Rand Paul: America Must Stop Enabling The Saudi War In Yemen, The American Conservative, 12/7/21
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Wheat, corn, and sunflower exports from Eastern Europe have been severely impacted by the war, and guess what, the countries most affected are those already reeling from Western-led/assisted wars and famine (Yemen), economic breakdown and instability (Lebanon), and systemic corruption and repression (Egypt). Bottom line, says energy and markets expert Amir Handjani: the poorest people of the Middle East. While everyone has been talking about skyrocketing energy prices due to the war in Ukraine, a more potentially catastrophic situation is just around the corner. In the first half, Dan & Kelley discuss Sweden and Finland and their sudden yearning to be in NATO — and what kind of havoc that might wreak in regards to an already NATO-phobic Russia.
More from Amir Handjani:
Amir Handjani – Ukraine war is causing a commodities ‘super cycle’ and likely global food crisis – Responsible Statecraft — 3/16/22
CNBC: Three ways the victory of the Taliban might reverberate around the world (Quoted) – 8/23/22
CNBC: Amir Handjani on Afghanistan Withdrawal – 8/17/2021
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This week we talk about time running out for Washington to seal the Iran deal and why the talks have seemingly stalled. George Washington University PhD candidate Sina Azodi discusses how lifting the IRGC terrorism designation has become a key sticking point in the debate, and how political pressures on Biden get worse as the midterm elections loom. In our first segment, Kelley and Daniel compare the "two Americas" as described by neoconservative and optimistic primacist Robert Kagan on one hand, and Daniel Bessner, a critic of empire on the other.
More from Sina Azodi:
I was once conscripted into the Iranian armed forces. Here’s why the IRGC designation is punishing conscripts — the Atlantic Council — 3/11/22
Also:
What Price Hegemony? — By Robert Kagan — Foreign Affairs — 4/6/22
Ending Primacy to End U.S. Wars -- By Daniel Bessner — The Quincy Institute — 4/7/22
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It usually takes a crisis to show who your real friends are. Writer Mitchell Plitnick joins us to talk about how Middle East despots are suddenly jockeying to make sure their own interests are protected if not enhanced in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Even Israel, which gets $3 billion in US taxpayer dollars each year, is threading needles to avoid hurting its own relationship with Moscow. We talk about that as well as Biden's attempt to square his "democracies versus autocracies" campaign with Washington's embrace of the Middle East despots. Dan and Kelley also speculate about Biden's "regime change" declaration last weekend: gaffe or trial balloon?
More from Mitchell Plitnick:
Why is Israel MIA on Ukraine-Russia crisis? -- Responsible Statecraft, 3/3/22
Ukraine shows we need a third option besides war and sanctions -- ReThinking Foreign Policy, 3/1/22
Top Israeli military officials say Trump’s Iran deal exit was a ‘mistake,’ bad for Israel -- Responsible Statecraft, 12/3/21
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As the mainstream media pumps out report after report on military developments in Ukraine, Washington lawmakers use those headlines to call for more weapons and assistance to Kyiv. Military technology journalist Kelsey Atherton breaks down some of the mythology surrounding no-fly zones, drones, and other popular "magic bullets" that people think could save the day in Ukraine. In the first segment, Kelley & Dan dish on the Top 4 Outrageous Hawk Talkers in the news this week.
More from Kelsey Atherton:
Everything to know about Switchblades, the attack drones the US is giving Ukraine -- Popular Science -- 3/22/22
What a no-fly zone over Ukraine would actually mean -- Popular Science -- 3/18/22
These are the weapons in the Ukrainian arsenal -- Popular Science -- 3/3/22
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This week Ben Friedman, policy director for Defense Priorities, joins Dan and Kelley to talk about the ongoing struggle of restraint amid the mainstream push for an aggressive response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He talks about recent decisions to send more U.S. weapons to Kiev, and efforts by hawks in the U.S. to do more, including imposing a no-fly zone and sending Polish fighter aircraft (MiG-29s) into Ukraine via Germany. We also talk about the effort to marginalize, even demonize voices who question the utility of such endeavors. In the first segment, Dan and Kelley talk about the Russians flinging a monkey wrench into the Iran nuclear deal talks and whether the JCPOA may possibly be doomed.
More from Ben Friedman here.
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Soldier, whistleblower, veteran, and peace advocate Matthew Hoh tells us what it was like to realize that the Afghanistan mission was a failure and that everyone around him knew it — but kept it going for 20 years anyway. Hoh resigned his post as a State Department official in 2009 making space for other dissenters inside the government to criticize the war policy, though the U.S. role in that war would go on for more than a decade longer. Matt talks to us about that, and how he fears the same forces for regime change and military aggression are present in today's crisis in Ukraine. In the first segment, Dan and Kelley talk about how our "friends" in the Middle East are hedging their bets with Russia and making us beg for oil.
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During his State of the Union address this week, President Biden announced that the global community of democracies was facing off against Russian President Vladimir Putin and that the international rules-based order is stronger than ever. We talk to Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of DAWN (which was founded by Jamal Khashoggi, murdered by killers tied to U.S. friends in the Saudi government) about some uncomfortable truths relating to this battle against evil — namely that many of our partners and friends around the world are not democracies, nor has Washington acted in a democratic fashion, waging its own wars of choice across the globe. In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about the Blob's maximalist vision on the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
More from Sarah Leah Whitson:
The human rights vs national security dilemma is a fallacy -- The Business Standard -- 1/12/22
Congress Must Halt Biden’s Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia -- Foreign Policy magazine -- 12/6/21
With weak response, US will pay price for Israel’s terror designations -- Responsible Statecraft -- 10/29/21
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In this special edition of the podcast, Kelley & Dan talk about Vladimir Putin's move to send 'peacekeepers' into Eastern Ukraine after he recognized the breakaway republics of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states in a fiery speech on Sunday. Will Washington and Kyiv hold back and not take the bait, or will pro-war hawks and humanitarian interventionists push us closer to war and global economic chaos? We also talk to longtime nuclear weapons expert and author Joe Cirincione about his frustration over Biden's status quo nuclear posture, which is all about Great Power Competition and kowtowing to industry interests. We also discuss how this plays into the Russian crisis today.
More from Joe Cirincione:
Biden promised nuclear-policy reform. He’s not delivering. -- Washington Post, 2/22/2022
Achieving a Safer U.S. Nuclear Posture -- The Quincy Institute, 2/9/2022
How the nuclear game is rigged to maintain the status quo -- Responsible Statecraft, 11/9/2021
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Longtime author and Cato Institute Ted Carpenter joins us this week to talk about how the US-Russia-Ukraine crisis is an illustration of Cold War American military primacy and hegemony. If there is a conflagration in upcoming days and months it will be in no small part because of poor decisions made by U.S policymakers, pushed by establishment thinking and interests, over the last two decades, says Carpenter. In the first segment, Dan and Kelley talk about Biden's decision to give half of the Afghans' frozen bank funds to a settlement for 9/11 families at a time when the country's economy is collapsing.
More from Ted Carpenter:
Gullible Superpower: U.S. Support for Bogus Foreign Democratic Movements (2019)
Hawks Smear War Opponents, Again -- Antiwar.com - 2/8/22
With Russia & China, America’s righteous crusader routine is getting old -- Responsible Statecraft -- 2/1/22
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As Kim Jong Un continues testing missiles and South Korea warns of a crisis, it seems just like old times. But why? The Biden Administration has not yet restarted serious talks with North Korea and demands of denuclearization is always the mountain standing in the way. The Quincy Institute's Jess Lee joins Kelley & Dan this week to talk about what needs to be done to change the thinking in Washington on this issue, whether Kim Jong Un will ever change his mind on the nukes, and what the U.S. can do to bring peace to the peninsula and perhaps end the longest war in American history. In the first segment, we talk about that massive joint statement signed by China and Russia ahead of the opening Olympic ceremonies in Beijing last week.
More from Jess Lee:
Peace for Korea -- Plough Quarterly, Jan. 22, 2022
Attacks on possible Korean peace plan are politically and financially motivated -- Responsible Statecraft, Dec. 6, 2021
‘Squid Game’ invites Americans to binge on another, human Korea -- Responsible Statecraft, Oct. 22, 2021.
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This week, Kelley and Dan talk with researcher and Bourse & Bazaar Foundation founder Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, who has been digging deep into the issue of U.S. sanctions on Iran and how they have been driving inflation and mostly impacting the middle and working households there. More importantly, he discusses whether or not U.S. sanctions are even successful in bringing Tehran to heel. In the first segment, we talk about recent mainstream smears against those opposed to a possible war with Russia over Ukraine, particularly on the right, as hawks and their handmaidens in the press single out some of the contrarian conservative populists as marginalized kooks.
More from Esfandyar Batmanghelidj:
The Inflation Weapon: How American Sanctions Harm Iranian Households -- Sanctions & Security -- 2022
Shared interests: Why both China and the West support the Iran nuclear deal -- ECFR -- Jan. 17, 2022.
The Hidden Toll of Sanctions: Why Washington Must Reckon With the Devastating Inflation Its Policies Cause, w/ Erica Moret -- Foreign Affairs -- Jan. 17, 2022
The Case for Optimism on Iran in 2022 and Beyond -- -- Bourse & Bazaar Foundation -- Jan. 2, 2022
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The more people are talking about the cockeyed foreign policy of this country, the better. This week Dan and Kelley join Kyle Anzalone and Connor Freeman (both at the Libertarian Institute) to chat about their own podcast "Conflicts of Interest," and how they each came to dedicate their energies to challenging establishment orthodoxy and opposing U.S. military policies overseas. We talk about the usual suspects ratcheting up anxiety over Russia and China, and how the 9/11 wars forged their own passion for the issues. In the first segment, Dan & Kelley talk about fresh violence in Yemen and why Congress and the Biden Administration seem to have given up on ending U.S. assistance to Saudi Arabia and ending the war.
More from Kyle & Connor:
Russia Roundtable – Can the Ukraine Crisis Be Resolved Without War? --podcast episode 1/27/22
Cold War Served Hot, Hawks Cry For Russian Blood -- podcast episode 1/26/22
Biden's Gaffe's Highlight a Year of Foreign Policy Missteps -- podcast episode 1/20/22
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If you talk to anyone this week they’ll say that Russia may be closer than ever to invading Ukraine. But why? President Vladimir Putin has drawn a red line over further NATO expansion but Washington isn’t budging, leading to the critical standoff we see today. Joshua Shifrinson, associate professor at Boston University and author of Rising Titans, Falling Giants: How Great Powers Exploit Power Shifts, walks us through the history and missteps that brought us to this place, and whether he thinks war is on the horizon. In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about whether NATO has gotten too “big and baggy” to even be effective anymore.
More from Joshua Shifrinson:
Acting too aggressively on Ukraine may endanger it — and Taiwan: Washington Post — 12/21/21
Russia, a problem, not a threat: Newsweek — 4/21/21
The dominance dilemma: The American approach to NATO and its future: Quincy Institute brief — January 2021
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All of the taxpayer-funded security assistance — including US troops, arms and advisors — given to African countries in the name of "counterterrorism" over the last 20 years has only resulted in more coups, more violence, and more terrorists. This week we talk to Elizabeth Shackelford, a former career diplomat with the U.S. State Department and author of The Dissent Channel: American Diplomacy in a Dishonest Age, about why. She also explains how this is a microcosm of the failed Global War on Terror writ large. In the intro segment, Dan and Kelley talk about the recent protests in Kazakhstan and how the Blob (including the mainstream media) rushed to make it "all about Russia."
More from Shackelford:
Democracy had a rough year in 2021. But don't give up -- Chicago Tribune (paywall) -- Dec. 31, 2021
For the American Public, Military Conflict Is the New Normal (with Dina Smeltz) -- The Hill -- Oct. 18, 2021
I Know Firsthand How Ugly a Wartime Evacuation Really Is -- Politico -- Sept. 4, 2021
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The U.S. is on a mission to contain China and it hopes to accomplish this by forging enough agreements with and among partners and allies to create a security hedge against Beijing. The problem is, Washington seems to be tone-deaf and doesn't get it that a number of countries, particularly in Southeast Asia, have no interest in getting on board the anti-China train. Sarang Shidore, director of studies at the Quincy Institute and expert in Asian geopolitics and global geopolitical risk, sets the table for what could be a serious foreign policy tripwire in 2022. In the first segment, Kelley & Dan talk about the 2-year anniversary of the assassination of Qassem Soleimani and its reverberations today.
More from Sarang:
New Japan-Australia military pact takes anti-China coalition to new level -- Responsible Statecraft -- Jan. 6, 2021
The U.S. should stop coddling abuser allies -- Dec. 13, 2021 -- Washington Post
Why South and Southeast Asia must cooperate to prevent a new Cold War amid US-China rivalry -- Oct. 5, 2021 -- SCMP
De-Risking the India Relationship: An Action Agenda for the United States -- March 10, 2021 -- Quincy Institute
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We celebrate our last episode of 2021 with Robert Wright — author of The Moral Animal , BloggingheadsTV podcaster, and publisher of the popular Nonzero newsletter. We discuss the continued U.S. military operations in Syria, the spiraling tensions between the U.S. and Russia over Ukraine, neocons, and humanitarian interventionists. A virtual holiday grab bag! In the first segment, Kelley & Dan talk about Talon Anvil, the secret U.S. military kill team responsible for thousands of bombings and untold number of civilian deaths in Syria from 2014-2019, according to a new New York Times report.
Kelley and Dan will be taking off the next two weeks for the holidays and will be back with a new episode Jan 7. Thank you for your continued support and all the best for a Happy and Healthy New Year!
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Lyle Goldstein, author of Meeting China Halfway: How to Defuse the Emerging US-China Rivalry, and director of Asian engagement at Defense Priorities, breaks down the fragile dynamics in Russia over the Ukraine issue, and blames in part, NATO expansion and Washington rhetoric for pushing the boundaries and putting Ukraine itself in "the crosshairs." What would happen if Russia invaded? Goldstein warns the West needs to be careful what it wishes for. In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about this week's Democracy Summit and the hypocrisies borne out of the Biden Administration deciding who is "in" and who is "out" of Washington's warm embrace for the two-day confab.
More from Lyle Goldstein:
What The Georgia War Means for U.S.-Russia Relations -- The National Interest -- November 2021
Here's How China Sees North Korea's Military Strategy -- The National Interest -- November 2021
Where is the Russia-China Relationship Headed? -- The National Interest -- November 2021
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This week, Stephanie Savell, researcher and co-founder of Brown University's Costs of War Project, joins us to talk about her study of how U.S. military assistance — ostensibly for counterterrorism — has created more terrorists and killed untold more people over the last 20 years. She also talks about how Costs of War became an essential tool for measuring not only the financial toll, but the human destruction left behind in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In our first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about the new "Global Posture Review" and how the Biden Administration doesn't seem keen on scaling back the military footprint abroad, at all.
More from Stephanie Savell:
The Costs of United States’ Post-9/11 “Security Assistance”:How Counterterrorism Intensified Conflict in Burkina Faso and Around the World (March 4, 2021)
“The Problem with War: Digital Exclusive Panel” with Jon Stewart (television panelist, October 4, 2021)
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This week we had the privilege of talking to author and columnist Peter Van Buren, who served with the State Department in Iraq and experienced such a traumatic eye-opener he became a whistleblower and full-time critic of U.S. war policy ever since. We discuss the New York Times investigation of a 2019 bombing of women and children by a secret U.S. special forces unit in Syria, and the delusion that this was an aberration not the rule in Washington foreign policy. In the intro, Kelley and Dan talk about Washington buzz — again — over a possible Russia-Ukraine war. Will the hawks get what they wish for?
More from Peter Van Buren:
The US makes the rules, and Syria massacre was no exception -- Responsible Statecraft, 11/16
It Looks Like We Forgot -- The American Conservative, 9/27
We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, 2012.
Who Pays the Moral Price for War? -- The Nation, May 2017
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Chris Preble, director of the New American Engagement Initiative, joins us this week with some optimistic news: the age of American hegemony may be over, but there are amazing benefits to this new reality! For one, there's plenty of evidence that the so-called "rules-based order" will be just fine without Washington meddling in every problem, planting a troop in every country, or serving as the spear point for liberal democracy across the globe. Chris walks us through the steps to hegemonic recovery. In the intro segment, Kelley and Dan discuss the recent assassination attempt on the Iraqi prime minister and the tinder box of US-Iran relations.
More from Chris Preble:
Assumption #3: US leadership is indispensable to the health of the global order -- Nov. 3
The consequences of a US overreaction to the perceived threat of terrorism -- Nov. 1
What Washington owes the American people after its Afghanistan failure -- Aug. 19
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Longtime insider critic Col. Doug Macgregor schools us on what the military's real motives are as it continues to hype up the threats and build up for WWIII in the South China Sea. He talks about how the generals — there are way too many of them — turned out to be far less capable, less competent, and over-estimated than anyone gave them credit for in the last 20 years. In the first segment, Dan and Kelley talk about Afghanistan on the verge of economic and social collapse, and why the Biden Administration is still refusing to work with the Taliban to avoid it.
More from Doug Macgregor:
With All Due Respect —The American Conservative— 10/8/21
A Required Course For Americans: Strategic Failure 101 — The American Conservative — 8/21/21
The revenge of Col. Douglas Macgregor —By Mark Perry — Responsible Statecraft —11/12/2020
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This week on the show, Dan and Kelley are joined by Danny Davis, who as a career Army soldier and officer, risked it all in 2012 to publish a searing essay taking the generals to task for lying about conditions on the ground in Afghanistan and painting a rosy picture about what we know now was an unwinnable war. We talk about that, the Army's pivot to Asia, and increasing Washington chatter around whether America will defend Taiwan against China. In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about that damning 60 Minutes interview in which a Saudi exile accuses MBS of running a death squad against his rivals.
More from Danny Davis:
Eleventh Hour in 2020 America: How America's foreign policy got jacked up - and how the next Administration can fix it (2020)
Our troops are targets in Syria. Why is Biden keeping them there? -- Responsible Statecraft -- 10/28/21
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This week, Quincy Institute scholar, author and journalist Anatol Lieven talks to us from Sochi, Russia, where he was a speaker this week at the 18th annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club. We talk about the mixed messages the administration is giving out on NATO, and the persisting tensions between Washington and Moscow, and hopes for some semblance of cooperation over Ukraine and nuclear missile agreements. In the first segment, Dan and Kelley wrestle with the legacy of Colin Powell, who died this week at the age of 84.
More by Anatol Lieven:
Ending the Threat of War in Ukraine: A Negotiated Solution to the Donbas Conflict and the Crimean Dispute -- June 2021 paper for the Quincy Institute.
Vindicating Realist Internationalism -- September 16 -- Survival magazine
Has neo-Orientalism killed our ability to sense the limits of Western influence? -- September 28 -- Responsible Statecraft
Most Recent from Daniel Larison: Note to Blinken: Israel’s ‘military option’ shouldn’t be on our table - October 15
Most Recent from Kelley Vlahos:
Remembering Powell’s revealing exchange with Madeleine Albright -- October 18
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This week, Assal Rad, senior research fellow a the National Iranian American Council, joins us to talk about why the JCPOA (Iran nuke deal) talks have faltered, if not killed completely by a lack of interest, Washington politics, and no effort taken by the Biden administration to put down the whip and admit the US was wrong to get out of it in the first place. We also discuss the limits of sanctions as a tool of warfare. In the intro segment, Kelley and Dan talk about members of Congress who are literally begging to give the president more war powers to attack China.
More by Assal Rad:
Responsible Statecraft: Ending forever wars must include economic warfare -- July, 19, 2021
The American Prospect: Iran’s Presidential Election Demonstrates Limits of U.S. Pressure Campaign -- June 24, 2021
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We have the pleasure of talking with longtime author and reporter Andrew Cockburn about his new book, “Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American War Machine” How are we ever going to scale back our overseas and endless military commitments when it is so damn profitable for the defense industry and the political, parasitical culture around it? Andrew talks candidly about the “living organism” he calls the military-industrial complex, a tangled system of codependency, culture, and the almighty dollar. In the first segment, Dan and Kelley talk about Senator Ted Cruz’s obsession with Russia and the Nordstream 2 pipeline.
More from Andrew Cockburn:
Why America Goes to War - The Nation, Sept. 9
How the U.S. Military Got Rich from Afghanistan, July 19
Iraq was Donald Rumsfeld’s War. It will forever be his legacy -- The Guardian, July 5.
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Samuel Moyn, author of "Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War," joins Dan and Kelley to talk about how well-intentioned efforts over the last 75 years to make war "less lethal" has legitimized and made war more palatable, therefore protracting conflict rather than shutting it down. He talks about criticisms of his thesis by anti-war advocates and liberal interventionists alike. In the first segment, our hosts discuss the defense budget bonanza, an annual Washington ritual in which common sense and taxpayer dollars are sacrificed on the altar of the military-industrial congressional complex!
More from Samuel Moyn:
America Is Giving the World a Disturbing New Kind of War - New York Times -- Sept. 3
"The False and Dangerous Promise of More Human Wars" (Review) -- Robert Kaplan, New York Times.
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This week Kelley & Dan talk to Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU National Security Project, which focuses on unconstitutional policies (think drone war, PATRIOT Act, torture) in U.S. policies, particularly in its Global War on Terror. Shamsi describes for us the evolution of Washington's targeted killing program through Obama and Trump, and up to the latest lethal drone strike that killed 10 civilians in Afghanistan. In the first segment, Kelley & Dan talk about Biden's plan to sell nuclear submarine technology to the Australians in another bid to build a security alliance against China.
More from Shamsi:
20 Years After 9/11, We Have a Roadmap Toward a More Just and Equitable Future -- September 10, 2021
Trump’s Secret Rules for Drone Strikes and Presidents’ Unchecked License to Kill -- May 5, 2021
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In this episode of Crashing the War Party, Kelley and Dan talk to former Marine officer Jeffrey Groom, author of American Cobra Pilot: A Marine Remembers a Dog and Pony Show. Groom left the service in 2018 disenchanted with what he saw as the institution's contradictions, waste, and hypocrisies, and worse the growing failure of the military to respond and adapt because of sclerotic thinking and messed up priorities at the top. We talk about why we lost in Afghanistan, and whether men and women are still willing to join the service and sacrifice their lives to defend the nation. We also talk about the Aug. 29 U.S. drone strike that killed an aid worker and his family in Kabul, a parable for our failed war on terror.
Read more from Jeff Groom:
Will US military failures touch off a ‘revolution from below’?-- Sept. 15, 2021
Marines take fight to the sea, targeting China dollars -- April 2021.Increased Military Suicides Aren’t Necessarily About War -- February 2019
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On this special episode, Dan and Kelley discuss the 20-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and the government's use and abuse of that horrifying event to advance its goals of military primacy, not only in Afghanistan and Iraq, but across the Middle East and at home here in the United States. They talk to Chris Coyne and Abigail Hall, authors of the recent books Manufacturing Militarism, and Tyranny Comes Home, about the use of propaganda after 9/11, the growth of the massive surveillance state, and the domestic war on terror.
More from Coyne and Hall:
9/11 militarized law enforcement and made every American a suspect -- September 2021
The Military-Big Tech-Complex -- January 2021
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Living as a young writer during 9/11 and its aftermath in New York City, Spencer Ackerman's career as a news reporter soon followed the expanding national security state, with all of its attending domestic and foreign war policies and metastasizing law enforcement powers. Twenty years later, he is looking back and examining the real horror of it all and the impact on American society. Today, he talks to Dan and Kelley about his new book, Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump . In the opening segment, we discuss Israel's continuing meddling in U.S. attempts to get back into the Iran nuclear deal and whether it is finally having an effect.
Read Dan's review of Reign of Terror in Responsible Statecraft here
More by Spencer Ackerman:
McChrystal: ‘Impossible to Argue’ War on Terror Was Worth It -- The Daily Beast, 8/21/21
Donald Rumsfeld, Killer of 400,000 People, Dies Peacefully -- The Daily Beast, 6/30/21
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The U.S. is ending its 20-year war in Afghanistan and conventional wisdom now holds that it was largely a failure and a waste of more than $2.5 trillion and countless lives. In 2010, Wikileaks published a massive trove of classified documents that exposed the American government's lies about the war. It was a colossal brief against the war state, but instead of thanking Assange for his service to the truth, he remains imprisoned in London, fighting extradition and prosecution in the U.S. Kelley and Dan talk to journalist and Shadowproof managing editor Kevin Gosztola about the current state of the case against Julian and the press freedoms at stake as the government is determined to make him an example. We also talk about the role of whistleblowers during the post-9/11 wars, as well as the crisis surrounding the current withdrawal of Afghanistan.
More from Kevin Gosztola:
The Afghanistan War and the dissenters we should've listened to -- 8/17/21
Drone whistleblower Daniel Hale receives 45-month sentence for releasing drone documents -- 7/27/21
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Kelley and Dan talk to Richard Hanania, president of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology and a Defense Priorities fellow, about the developing news in Afghanistan, the blame game in Washington, lying generals and government officials, and whether the Blob can succeed in making the defeat in Afghanistan an indictment against foreign policy restraint and the antiwar movement. We think not.
More from Richard Hanania:
Trump could gain from Biden's decision to delay withdrawing from Afghanistan -- NBCNews.com
Richard's Substack newsletter
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Kelley and Dan talk this week with Emma Ashford, an expert at the Atlantic Council's New American Engagement Initiative. Her experience spans the Middle East, Russia, and Europe, and she spends her time swatting down attacks from the Blob as she seeks to change minds about old liberal internationalist order and American primacy. In our first segment, we pay tribute to the loss of two greats in the defense reform community: Mark Perry and Pierre Sprey.
More from Emma Ashford:
Reality Check #4: Focus on interests, not on human rights with Russia -- The Atlantic Council, with Mat Burrows.
Remembering Mark Perry
Remembering Pierre Sprey
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Mary Dudziak, the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law at Emory University and co-editor of Making the Forever War: Marilyn B. Young on the Culture and Politics of American Militarism, joins Dan and Kelley this week to talk about the late historian Marilyn Young and her decades-long research into the pathologies of American war-making. We zero in on the popular support for wars, the integration of romantic mythology, and the country’s inability to learn the lessons from each previous conflict. In the first segment, Dan and Kelley talk about the growing national security bureaucracy under Biden, whistleblower Daniel Hale, Israeli nukes, and the troop shell game in Iraq.
Read More Mary Dudziak here.
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Kelley and Dan talk to the Quincy Institute's Middle East expert Annelle Sheline about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's seeming efforts to "reform" the Kingdom's authoritarianism — and whether those efforts are real, or not. In the first segment, we reunite with our old Empire Has No Clothes comrade Matt Purple to discuss recent violence in our own hemisphere: the recent assassination in Haiti, protests in Cuba, and the U.S. role in both.
Read more from Annelle Sheline:
The Saudi blockade on Yemen is a war crime, and only civilians suffer from it
How the growing UAE-Saudi rivalry could pay off for the United States
Read more from Matt Purple:
Not A Cold War But An Ideological Argument
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Barbara, Dan, and Kelley talk to GWU professor Samuel Goldman, author of After Nationalism: Being American in an Age of Division, talking about what defines the country today, and how we might re-orient our exceptionalism towards being a model rather than a missionary. In the first segment, Kelley and Dan relive the Donald Rumsfeld of 2002 and 2003, and his Iraq War legacy.
More from Goldman:
America Has a Ruling Class: Why do members of the political elite insist that they’re not? -- New York Times
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Kelley, Dan, and Barbara pick former Congressman Ron Paul's brain on the Biden administration, the Trump effect, and what inspires him after all of these years to fight Washington and the intractable military-industrial complex. In the first segment, we talk about the June airstrikes and how the White House can bomb anyone, anywhere, whenever, without Congressional approval —and say it has the authority to do so.
See Ron Paul's daily Liberty Report
The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity
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On this week’s episode, we talk to Ben Freeman at the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative about how Washington think tanks — particularly foreign policy and national security institutions — are taking hundreds of millions of dollars from the government, foreign countries, and the defense industry. In many cases, they aren’t disclosing it. How is this affecting policy, more specifically, is it feeding the threat of inflation keeping us on a continuous war footing? In our first segment, Dan, Barbara and Kelley talk about the pressure on President Biden to keep a military presence in or around Afghanistan.
Ben Freeman’s latest:
The Saudi Lobby in 2020 (May 2021)
Restoring Trust in the Think Tank Sector (with Eli Clifton) (May 2021)
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In this week's episode, Kelley, Dan & Barb talk to Marine Corps veteran and Project on Government Oversight defense analyst Dan Grazier about the boondoggle F-35 fighter, and how the anti-China threat inflation is driving procurement in the Pentagon. He gets into how the sausage is made in the Pentagon budget, and we got close to losing our appetite. In the intro segment, we talk about Biden's recent trip to Europe and NATO's new "China mission."
Dan Grazier's latest article, "Inflating the China Threat to Balloon the Pentagon Budget"
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Historian Greg Brew talks about his upcoming book, "Oil and the Cold War: the Iranian Crisis of 1951-1954," which fleshes out the CIA-backed 1953 coup which toppled the elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. He offers some new and provocative insights on the incident, which is a stain on U.S. foreign policy and in many respects the foundation of the fraught relationship between Washington and Tehran ever since. Barbara, Kelley, and Dan also talk about today's imperial behavior on the high seas: U.S. ships interdicting Iranian ships in international waters.
See Greg's latest here:
"Panic at the Pump and the Real Threat to National Security" (War on the Rocks)
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Barbara, Dan and Kelley talk to George Washington University lecturer and Defense Priorities fellow Ben Friedman about the stakes of provoking greater conflict with Russia in Ukraine. Recent Biden administration rhetoric via NATO suggests that Washington will continue to put it’s thumb on the scale without really planning to fight for Ukraine militarily. We also talk about Biden’s puzzling decision to not renew the no-brainer Open Skies treaty.
Ben’s latest in NBCnews.com: “Biden doesn't like Russia's meddling in Ukraine. But he's not prepared to stop it”
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On a very special Crashing the War Party, Barbara, Dan and Kelley 'want to believe' …that our government will finally come clean with what it knows about UFO sightings dating back to the 1940s. We interview Gideon Lewis-Kraus about his exhaustive piece in the New Yorker, “How the Government Started Taking UFOs Seriously,” which reveals that while believers and sightings by Americans were being mocked, the government was studying the phenomenon all along. He also talks about the new legitimacy around the issue in the media and on Capitol Hill, and about the Congressional task force set to release its new findings this month. Don't miss!
(“The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951)(Screenshot/You Tube)
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After violence exploded in Israel and Gaza last month the Biden administration helped broker a ceasefire, but is it enough? Kelley, Barbara and Dan talk about the new and growing opposition to Washington's "blank check" to Tel Aviv with nothing in return. Also, we talk to Jason Paladino from the Project on Government Oversight about Pentagon secrecy, and how we still don't know how many troops we have in the world's hotspots.
The latest from Jason at POGO:
The Navy Wants to Throw Its Internal Auditor Overboard
How a “Small Business” Kingpin Wins Billions in Defense Contracts
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In this episode, we talk to Win Without War's Kate Kizer about President Biden's pledge to stop assisting Saudi Arabia in their devastating offensive operations against the Houthis in Yemen. But have we stopped? Is Washington using some loophole to continue arming Riyadh in this war, when will it end? We also give our thumbs up -- and thumbs down -- to Biden's foreign policy moves in his first four months on the job.
Kate Kizer’s latest’s writing on Yemen:
The Biden administration can follow three steps to becoming a credible actor for peace in Yemen (March 2021)
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Investigative journalist Eli Clifton joins Barbara, Daniel, and Kelley to talk about the corruption and hypocrisy that makes this city go, starting with the dark money and blatant corporate, foreign, and government funding into think tanks and lobbying for a preferred interventionist agenda. Plus, crazy Beltway headlines that will make you cringe (and your pocketbook shrink)!
Eli is a senior advisor for The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and investigative journalist for Responsible Statecraft.
His latest issue brief, written with Ben Freeman of the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative, on Restoring Trust in Think Tank Sector can be found here.
Other recent articles:
Weapons biz celebrates declining ‘state of humankind,’ cold war with China
Weapons biz bankrolls experts pushing to extend Afghan War
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So what what does it feel like to be vindicated by history? We ask radio host Scott Horton, author of Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan and Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism about his 20-year fight against U.S. war policies, which are largely considered a colossal failure. Kelley, Barbara and Daniel also talk about anti-Russia hysteria carrying over into the Biden Administration.
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This week, Kelley, Barbara, and Dan talk about Yemen: how it was so easy to get into this war six years ago but so difficult for Washington to get out. Then we talk to Trita Parsi, author of Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy and Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States, and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He talks to us about the damage done after President Trump ripped the U.S. out of the nuclear deal with Iran (JCPOA), and how President Biden’s attempts to get back into it are going, despite resistance from the Gulf States, Israel, and the hawks in Washington.
Trita’s latest article in Foreign Policy magazine:
Why Mohammed bin Salman Suddenly Wants to Talk to Iran
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It's been nearly 20 years and it looks like we will finally be leaving Afghanistan -- can we believe it? Barb, Dan, and Kelley talk about realistic expectations for ending the war. Then we interview FEE writer, author, and podcaster Brad Polumbo about the nation's militarized police, anti-war Republicans, confronting the military-industrial complex, and the Blob's fascination with the "China threat."
See Brad’s latest on FEE:
Biden’s Labor Secretary Just Threatened Independent Contractors
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Barbara, Kelley, and Dan aren't invited but they are crashing the party anyway. In this first episode, they will get it off their chests: the Beltway Blob is corrosive and toxic, lacking in self-awareness and helping the U.S. bumble and stumble into back foreign policy decisions while marginalizing voices of reason and restraint. We'll talk, too, about the war hangover and how to start cleaning up the mess.
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