The Libertarian Institute

Air defense looks clean on a diagram. In real war, it is messy, conditional, and expensive in ways most people never see until the alarms are late and the interceptors are flying in bunches. We sit down with Daryl Cooper to translate the jargon and show what “layered missile defense” actually means when Iranian ballistic missiles, drones, and cruise missile threats pressure the system day after day.

We walk through the U.S. missile defense stack in plain English: Aegis on ships, THAAD and Patriot batteries on land, the radar and satellite cueing that stitches ever...

They’re dragging a disproved Iraq War storyline out of storage to sell a new war with Iran, and it matters because it’s the kind of myth that can get people killed. We sit down with Captain Matt Ho to dissect the EFP hoax: what explosively formed penetrators were, how they were used in Iraq, and how the claim of Iranian direction or supply turned into a convenient political talking point. We also name the bigger pattern: when leaders need a clean villain, they rewrite messy history into a simple slogan.

From there, we get...

I’ll discuss Iran and the grunt math of salvo competition.

Buppert’s Law of Military Topography:

“Mountainous terrain held by riflemen who know what they are about cannot be militarily defeated.”

For other insight on Iran, I recommend CG episodes 061 , 067 and 078.

References:

The Boogeyman of 21st-Century Warfare: Drones

Why the US is facing strategic defeat

Points of Resistance and Departure: An interview with James C. Scott

Lester Grau and Charles J. Bartles Mountain Warfare and Other Lofty Problems: Foreign mountain combat veterans discuss...

I invited Buck Johnson of Counterflow on to have a nice relaxing conversation about things revealed and how it plays into our daily lives and worldview.

A headline-friendly story says Iran tried to assassinate Donald Trump. We pull the threads and find a different picture: an FBI-driven sting targeting Asif Merchant, two undercover “hitmen,” no money to fund the job, and no credible evidence that Tehran ordered anything. When prosecutors invoke state secrets and the agents who proposed the idea also control the evidence, it raises a hard question—are we building a case for war on a foundation of sand?

From there we widen the lens. Antony Blinken has acknowledged years of Israeli pressure on Washington to strike Iran, and the ga...



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Scott interviews Israeli geopolitical analyst Shaiel Ben-Ephraim about how Israelis are navigating and thinking about this new war with Iran. He and Scott dig into the differences between the US and Israeli government’s objectives in this war, the distinction between the various factions in Israel, how Netanyahu’s goals differ from the IDF’s and more.

Discussed on the show:

Shaiel Ben-Ephraim is an Israeli geopolitical analyst, activist, and podcast host. Subscribe to his show The Grand Reckoning and follow h...

A president calls for Iran’s “unconditional surrender,” then floats picking the next government and rebuilding a nation of 90 million. We unpack how a mission that began as punitive strikes ballooned into de facto nation building, why timelines quietly stretched from days to months, and how the math of missiles versus interceptors exposes the limits of U.S. power. Along the way, we confront the human cost of a school reduced to graves, the political theater of “this isn’t a war,” and the uncomfortable reality that AI-assisted targeting can accelerate mistakes faster than leaders can correct them.

We...

Ben Dixon of the Union of Orthodox Journalists joined me to discuss the UOC and OCU schism, the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, and Orthodoxy in America.

Two million people flood central Tehran and an American reporter says he felt safe—so what else about Iran, the protests, and the path to war have we been getting wrong? We open with a vivid, on-the-ground account of Iran’s national day, where politics look more like a citywide festival than a fever dream of chaos, and where conversations about U.S. policy run surprisingly deep. That lived reality sets the stage for a tougher conversation about how narratives harden: claims of mass killings, allegations of organized provocateurs, and the media scaffolding that turns moral outrage into quiet cons...

A war launched with shifting reasons and sliding timelines is a warning sign, not a strategy. We sit down with former Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski to examine how the U.S.–Iran confrontation veered from consent to chaos in days: bungled evacuations, brittle base defenses, and a communications vacuum that can’t cover for poor planning. Karen draws a sharp line from the Iraq playbook—months of theater and “evidence”—to today’s improvisation, arguing that when leaders skip the work of persuasion, they often skip the work of preparation too.

We unpack the divergence between U.S. n...



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Scott interviews author and scholar Robert Pape about the insights he’s gained from his decades of extensive research into the strategic effectiveness of air power in war. Pape argues that, while modern precision bombs are remarkable at carrying out their tactical functions, they alone are not enough to win wars. And further, the obsession with tactical bombing campaigns can distract decision-makers from the political dynamics that primarily determine how wars end.

Discussed on the show:



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Scott interviews Matthew Hoh about an article he just wrote debunking the old lie, that is being pushed once again, that the Iranian government helped kill hundreds of American soldiers by supplying critical parts for armor-piercing roadside IEDs. He and Scott also discuss how insane Trump’s decision to attack Iran is.

Discussed on the show:

Matthew Hoh is associate director at...

War rarely begins with a single decision; it grows from motives, misreads, and momentum. We sit down with Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson to map how a promised era of “no new wars” gave way to a high-stakes confrontation with Iran that could redraw the strategic landscape. He unpacks an unsettling mix of incentives—profit for well-connected investors, donor appeasement, and domestic distraction—that, layered atop alliance politics with Israel, pushed Washington onto an escalation ladder with few exit ramps.

We walk through the hard realities of deterrence, from Netanyahu’s saber-rattling and nuclear ambiguity to the very real...



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Daniel Davis joined the show for a quick rundown on the war Trump just launched on Iran. He and Scott talk about what’s happened so far and where things may go from here.

Discussed on the show:

Daniel Davis did multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan during his time in the army. He is a Senior Fellow at Defense Priorities and is the author of the reports “Dereliction of Duty II: Senior Military Leaders’ Loss of Integrity Wounds Afghan War Effort” and “Go Big or Go...



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Scott interviews Andy Schoonover, the CEO of CrowdHealth, about the business he started to offer an alternative to our terrible government-warped healthcare market.

Discussed on the show:

Andy Schoonover is the Founder and CEO of CrowdHealth. 

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Use code HORTON50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings, sound like a pro, and also support the Scott Horton...

John and I continue reading and commentary on the old revolutionary text, Rule for Radicals.

I am back from moving and health setbacks.

With Western conflict in Iran escalating and in train, I discuss the vagaries and verities of the nuclear gambit in Iran in the Middle East and what this will mean to the future of warfare for the reminder of this century.

I assess how the RMAs rapidly displacing centuries-old conflict norms are going to look for the remainder of the century.

Buppert’s Law of Military Topography:

“Mountainous terrain held by riflemen who know what they are about cannot be militarily defe...

Sirens don’t always sound before a war—sometimes the warning is a bland memo telling diplomats to pack. We open with the U.S. pullback of non‑emergency staff from Israel and track how similar moves in Lebanon and likely elsewhere signal more than routine caution. From there, we map the fault lines in the Iran talks: Oman’s shuttle diplomacy, Tehran’s offer to dilute 60 percent uranium in exchange for real sanctions relief, and Washington’s push for a forever framework with stockpile transfer. When “progress” headlines collide with uncompromising demands, the math points one direction—toward force.

A quiet leak says the loud part: some senior voices in Washington think the politics “work better” if Israel strikes Iran first. Not because it changes the threat. Because it changes the story Americans hear. We pull that thread and walk through the actual mechanics of how a regional spark becomes a U.S. war—and how the talking points are already scripted to sell it as defense, not regime change.

We dig into the Wall Street Journal’s reporting on U.S. negotiating demands in Geneva: dismantle core facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan; ship out...



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Scott interviewed Larry Johnson hours before the joint US-Israeli air campaign on Iran commenced. In the interview, Johnson presciently explained why he was virtually certain this was coming. He and Scott then debunked all the ridiculous lies this insane operation is built on and reflected on the complete lack of a clear endgame.

Discussed on the show:

Larry C. Johnson is a former CIA officer and intelligence analyst, and a former planner and advisor at the...

A journalist gets detained. Carriers surge toward the Gulf. Politicians talk in slogans while the facts stay fuzzy. We connect these threads to show how U.S. power, Israeli interests, and media narratives are steering Washington toward a dangerous collision with Iran without a clear mandate or honest case.

We start with the reported detention of Tucker Carlson in Israel and the curious U.S. response that brushed it off as “routine.” That move doesn’t just look bad; it signals confidence that America will absorb the fallout. From there, we trace a rapid military buildu...

A wall of U.S. air and naval power now sits within reach of Iran, but does massed hardware equal a winning strategy? We sit down with Colonel Douglas Macgregor to map the real shape of a campaign: suppressing integrated air defenses, cracking command-and-control, and hunting Iran’s theater ballistic missiles before they launch. The outline sounds familiar; the context does not. Iran fields depth, industry, and partners willing to help, and that changes everything.

We walk through the limits that rarely make the speeches: finite interceptor stocks, exhausted carrier groups, long supply lines, and th...