PRESS ROOM

There’s been a lot of nonsense passing as truth in post-blast Lebanon reporting. Most centers around alarmism about Hezbollah’s nefarious influence, the West’s "opportunity" to destroy it, and the supposed struggle with Russia, China, and Iran for paternalist-preeminence in a country that isn’t ours (or theirs) to preside over in the first place.

Scott talks to Danny Sjursen about Lebanon, which has been in the news recently after a disastrous, and apparently accidental, explosion left hundreds dead there. Today Sjursen discusses Lebanon’s past, a history that has seen it become a battleground for many proxy wars throughout the Middle East.

Washington’s willful misreading of, and misleading narrative about, Lebanon – and its decades-worth of dangerous policy implications.

Stuart Schrader stops by the podcast to discuss his book, “Badges Without Borders: How Global Counterinsurgency Transformed American Policing”, along with the recent protests against police brutality, the massive changes in policing that came out of the fight for civil rights in the 60’s, and where the empire of cops is headed in the future.

On the subject of NATO — as with much else — President Trump is obtuse and ill-informed. Only here he isn’t exactly wrong. In fact, recent events raise serious questions about the 70-year old alliance’s lingering relevance and utility — as in what, so to speak, NATO is for?

As the House and Senate consider the Pentagon budget this year and in the years to come, they should act to reduce the department’s bloated budget and shift funding to what Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. described as “programs of social uplift.” New Jersey’s congressional delegation will have an important say in this ongoing debate.

The murder of Vanessa Guillen has struck a violent, but unsurprising chord among the progressive community, anti-war veterans as a whole, and the many victims of military sexual trauma, as the activist reaction, given the high violent crime rate at Ford Hood, is to demand shutting down the entire Army post (the second biggest one in the continental U.S.) and insisting that the entire chain of command from Vanessa’s first line supervisor to the commanding general, resign in shame at their failing to protect an innocent human being under their command.

The Post Office is older than the Constitution, tracing its roots to 1775 during the Second Continental Congress, when Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general. The first Census was taken in 1790, just after the election of George Washington; it is taken every ten years in order to allocate seats for the House of Representatives. Both institutions are explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution, and no U.S. president—other than Andrew Jackson—has tried to compromise them.

Chris Hedges discusses Ghost RIders of the Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge, with author Danny Sjursen, combat veteran and West Point graduate.

Brent Scowcroft was certainly the model of a fair-minded and judicious national security adviser, but it was wrong to say that the military recapture of the American merchant ship Mayaguez in 1975 was “successful.” Forty-one service members lost their lives in storming Koh Tang Island, where the Pentagon wrongly believed 39 crew members were being held.

On an issue of primary concern – Pentagon spending – the draft platform has some promising rhetoric. But it needs to be backed up with specific commitments, whether in the final document, or on the campaign trail, or, if presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Biden is elected, in the early days of a new administration. That discussion needs to start now.

This Mideast mirror was ready to burst well before the recent Beirut blast. And here’s a hint for Washington: it’s not about us!