On Memorial Day a Pentagon Run by a Racist Incompetent Whose Number Two is a Defense Contractor Entrenching the Military Industrial Complex
We begin on this Memorial Day with an analysis of what is happening at the Pentagon with a racist incompetent in charge who is destroying our military’s valuable asset as America’s greatest meritocracy and a number two who is a military contractor from Dyncorp, Stephen Feinberg, who is busy entrenching the military industrial complex. Joining us is Robert Young Pelton, an author, filmmaker, journalist, and explorer. He is the publisher of Dangerous magazine and has a first-hand perspective on the war on terror from direct contact with the world’s most infamous jihadi, rebel and insurgent groups. His books include: The World’s Most Dangerous Places, Come Back Alive, Three Worlds Gone Mad, Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror and his autobiography, The Adventurist.
Trump Will Try to Spin a Defeat as a Victory Over Iran Then Maybe Invade Cuba as a Distraction
Then we look into how Trump is already declaring a glorious victory is within reach while Iran is saying no that is not happening. Joining us to assess whether Trump will distract us with a little war on Cuba since he won’t be able to spin his way out of his defeat in Iran is Nader Hashemi, the Director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and a Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is the author of The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran’s Future and Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East.
Asymmetric Warfare Goes Back to the American Revolution as Now Cheap Defense Favors Smaller Powers, While Expensive Offense Does Not Secure Victory for Major Powers
Then finally we explore how asymmetric warfare goes back to the American revolution when the colonial revolutionaries defeated the greatest power on earth at the time, the British Empire and investigate the changing nature of warfare with defense prevailing over offense as smaller powers like Iran and Ukraine are able to defeat greater powers like the U.S. and Russia. Joining us is Tom Mockaitis, a professor of history at DePaul University, where he teaches courses in British, Modern European, and Military History. His research and writing cover international security, terrorism, unconventional conflict, and military history. He has taught counter-terrorism courses at venues around the world as part of the U.S. Department of Defense Counter-terrorism Fellowship Program and is the author of many books including ‘New’ Terrorism: Myths and Reality and Violent Extremists: Understanding the Domestic and International Terrorist Threat. He has an article at The Hill we discuss, “A new era of asymmetric war exposes the limits of conventional warfare.”