PRESS ROOM

"The Biden administration started out on a promising note with respect to Yemen. In his first foreign policy speech, the president said that the United States would cease its support for offensive operations in Yemen and stop relevant arms sales. The administration has since paused two bomb sales to Saudi Arabia and ordered a review of US arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. But much more needs to be done, and soon."

"Deforestation, in particular, has been a controversial issue among food manufacturers and ingredients suppliers, and ending its use is one of the goals ADM has a set target for. Competitor Cargill also stated in June 2020 that it too plans to eliminate deforestation by 2030 globally. Previously, Cargill outlined plans in 2019 to make its soy supply chain deforestation free, although it came under fire that same year by environmental watchdog Mighty Earth for not doing enough. Since then, Cargill reports that it has revamped some of its processes, with 95.68% of its soybeans sourced from Brazil coming from deforestation-free land as of June last year."

Let the record show that the almighty American military machine was soundly defeated by an enemy that didn’t like fighting either in the dark or cold. Talk about bad medicine that’s good for a society (somehow still) desperately in need of a decisive case study in the limits of its own power and martial prowess. Enter the tested teachers of the Taliban and Afghanistan (though, ironically, Talib vaguely translates as "student.".

Danny Sjursen, self described "leftist military veteran," along with nationally known author, speaker, professor, podcaster brings his wit and wisdom to our radio show. Danny, author of Patriotic Dissent and Ghost Riders of Baghdad, speaks on Biden's foreign policy team, our recent saber-rattling with China, American Exceptionalism, our previous expeditionary blunders, the climate and more.

In anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the Pentagon Papers, we sat down with Hedrick Smith, award winning journalist and producer, who was one of the principle journalists covering the initial release of the Pentagon Papers.

18 years after President Bush invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003, the US remains at war in Afghanistan and Syria. President Biden bombed Syria on February 25. The US continues to support the wars in Yemen and Libya, stations troops in Iraq and Somalia, and is selling arms to its allies Saudi, UAE, and Israel as they prepare to confront Iran. Syria and Iran are heavily sanctioned, including new “Caesar Act” sanctions which are devastating Syria’s civilian economy, and President Biden’s team is moving much too slowly to rejoin the Iran Nuclear Deal. Presidents change but the endless wars continue and escalate.

"On March 16, a white man named Robert Aaron Long went on a shooting spree, killing eight people. Most of his victims were women of Asian descent. News outlets have been reluctant to call this a hate crime, but how could it not be? The perpetrator was a white male and he targeted victims who were mostly women of color. He argued that his motive was rooted from sexual urges; yet the fact that the most of the victims were Asian women goes to prove the deeply and grossly entrenched notion of misogyny and submissiveness of Asian women."

None of this is to say that Japan and South Korea aren’t valuable U.S. allies, that are critically important partners in addressing the challenges presented by North Korea and China — they most certainly are. The issue is that the boundaries around the debate over U.S. relations with Japan and South Korea have been dramatically narrowed by those countries lobbying operations in the United States. At the very least, U.S. policymakers and pundits must be conscious of the way this influence constrains our thinking and pushes us towards accepting the status quo of a heavily militarized approach to solving foreign policy problems in the region.

Advocates of increasing the Pentagon’s already massive budget continue to argue that current spending levels are not adequate to support the department’s wish list for the size of the armed forces and the equipment needed to outfit it. These analyses ignore an obvious point: current Pentagon plans are unrealistic, unwise, and unaffordable.

"Moving OCO to base was also included in the recommendations of both the bipartisan Sustainable Defense Task Force and the National Defense Strategy Commission. While the former saw this as part of a strategy for necessary defense budget cuts, and the latter argued the budget should increase, both agreed on the need to draw down from OCO. For the commission’s part, its report criticized the use of OCO as “not the way to provide adequate and stable resources” for the department."

If the president doesn’t act, Congress should. There are already bills in the works to cut off all arms to Saudi Arabia; impose financial and travel sanctions on MBS; and suspend U.S. arms transfers to the Kingdom until MBS is held accountable for the Khashoggi killing. All are worthy of support, and all would mark a welcome new direction in U.S.-Saudi relations.

"On COI #85 Danny Sjursen returns to the show to discuss some of his recent columns at Antiwar.com. Kyle and Will ask Danny about ever-expanding US military involvement on the African continent, as well as French adventurism across the Sahel region, including in Chad, Mali, Nigeria, Mauritania and Burkina Faso. Danny also updates the ongoing civil war between the US-backed Ethiopian national government and forces in the northern Tigray region, where allegations of war crimes and atrocities have abounded on all sides."