Background Briefing: August 18, 2026
As Trump and Hegseth Show Callous Indifference to the Morale of the Rank and File, Signs of Resistance Inside the Military Emerge
We begin with signs of protest within the ranks of the serving U.S. military with a sailor jumping overboard off the USS Abraham Lincoln and an Air Force Major protesting on the capitol steps holding up a sign “Impeach. Convict. Remove.” Joining us is Rachel VanLandingham, a (ret.) USAF Lt Col., the Co-Associate Dean of Research and a Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School as well as a former judge advocate in the U.S. Air Force. During her military career, she served as a senior legal advisor on the international law of armed conflict, military prosecutor, criminal defense attorney, appellate defense attorney and nuclear surety inspector, stationed in the United States, South Korea, and Italy with deployments to the Middle East. She was the legal advisor for international law at Headquarters, U.S. Central Command, where she advised on operational and international legal issues related to the armed conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A Strategic Overview of Trillions Wasted in the Middle East as Trump Digs the Hole Deeper
Then we get a strategic overview of the cost-benefit of our $8 trillion investment of lives and treasure in the Middle East prior to the ongoing disastrous war on Iran and speak with Michael Fuchs, a Director at the Open Society Foundations. From 2021 to 2022, he was Special Assistant to President Joe Biden and Deputy Chief of Staff to Vice President Kamala Harris. During the Obama administration, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and Special Assistant to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He is the co-author of The Survival and the Success of Liberty: A Democracy Agenda for U.S. Foreign Policy and has an article at Foreign Policy we discuss, “America Must Let Go of the Middle East: The Failed Iran War Should Spur a Long-Overdue Withdrawal.”