6/6/20 Kelley Vlahos on the Arms Dealers and Lobbyists Getting Rich as Yemen Burns - a podcast by Scott Horton

from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

:: ::

Kelley Vlahos discusses the scandalous ties between the arms industry and the American government, starting with the fact that so many members of the Defense Department are former employees of top arms firms like Raytheon, Lockheed, and Northrop Grumman—and vice versa. This revolving door inevitably leads to a deliberate alignment of the interests of these two parties, meaning more unnecessary wars in the Middle East so we can make and sell more bombs. In particular, the entire justification for allowing the war in Yemen to continue is the fact that America’s weapons deals with Saudi Arabia supposedly mean a great deal for our economy. President Trump has even claimed that this relationship is responsible for a million American jobs. In reality, says Vlahos, that number is probably more like 40,000, many of which are white collar consulting and lobbying jobs in Washington D.C. that are otherwise completely worthless.

Discussed on the show:



“Before COVID Strong, Navarro Was Big War’s Man in the White House” (The American Conservative)

“Turns Out Saudi Arms Deals Won’t Add a ‘Million’ Jobs to U.S. Economy” (The American Conservative)

“5/15/20 Ben Freeman on the Qatar Lobby in Washington” (The Libertarian Institute)

“Arms Dealers and Lobbyists Get Rich as Yemen Burns” (The American Conservative)



Kelley B. Vlahos is the executive editor of The American Conservative. Follow her on Twitter @KelleyBVlahos.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.







The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show TranscriptScott Horton 0:00

For Pacifica radio, June 7 2020. I'm Scott Horton. This is anti war radio.



All right show welcome. The show is anti war radio. I'm your host, Scott Horton. I'm the editorial director of antiwar.com and the author of the book fool's errand time to end the war in Afghanistan. You can find my full interview archive more than 5000 of them now going back to 2003. At Scotthorton.org and youtube.com/ScottHortonShow. All right, you guys introducing Kelly Vlahos, from the American Conservative magazine. She's got two important pieces for you here before COVID strong. Navarro was big wars man in the White House. And then the follow up. Turns out Saudi arms deals one Add a million jobs to the US economy. Oh, you don't say. Welcome back to the show. Kelly, how are you?



Kelley Vlahos 1:06

Oh, great. It's awesome talking to you again. Yeah. Great



Scott Horton 1:10

to have you here. So I guess first of all, with the first one here, this was your reaction to what was is the New York Times piece right? All About Raytheon, and their role in lobbying for the continuation of America's genocidal campaign against the civilians, of Yemen. So first of all, tell us all about what we learned in that piece.



Kelley Vlahos 1:35

Well, well, we learned is, you know, I don't think many people are very familiar with Peter Navarro. So up until COVID, he's sort of been behind the scenes as Trump's chief trade adviser. He you know, and he'd come out during COVID as a sort of primary spokesman for you know, redirecting our manufacturing Back from China, particularly pharmaceuticals, and I feel like you know, so he had gotten a lot of props from people who had looked at China as sort of like, you know, dominating the manufacturing space and people who have wanted to see particularly in crisis for jobs, manufacturing, and also pharmaceuticals and emergency equipment coming back to US companies. But aside from that,

Further episodes of Scott Horton Show - Just the Interviews

Further podcasts by Scott Horton

Website of Scott Horton