Ep. 5184 – Danny Sjursen on Middle East Politics and the Missing Antiwar Left – 2/7/2020

Scott talks to Danny Sjursen about the many catastrophic failures of American foreign policy, and most recently the proposed plan to carve out an autonomous Sunni region in western Iraq, which the U.S. could use to help control the Middle East and prevent Iranian influence from spreading to the eastern Mediterranean. The plan, says Scott, would be a reversal of everything the American military has spent much of this century doing in its wars in Iraq, and could lead to the deaths of thousands of U.S. troops. Sjursen also brings up the utter failure of the American Left to show up in important ways in the antiwar movement, something that in theory they are actually supposed to be good on. Most “activists” today seem content to post on social media about gender politics and let the political elites forge ahead with their bipartisan pro-war agenda.

Danny Sjursen is a retired U.S. army major and former history instructor at West Point. He writes regularly for TomDispatch.com and he’s the author of “Ghost Riders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge.” Follow him on Twitter @SkepticalVet.

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