September 2 – A Regional Settlement for Syria with a $200 Billion Price Tag; Is NATO a Military Juggernaut or a “Worthless” Paper Tiger?; Voter Supression in Georgia Ahead of a Key Senate Primary

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the second beheading of an American journalist by ISIS or the Islamic State and speak with Dr. David Lesch, a professor of Middle East History at Trinity University in San Antonio and the author of “Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad?” We discuss the mounting pressure on the Obama Administration to employ military force against ISIS in Syria and Iraq and whether weakening ISIS in Syria will lead to the strengthening of the Assad regime’s position in the on-going civil war so that they could turn their attention to eliminating the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army.

Part 2

Then we assess the upcoming NATO summit in Wales where there is expected to be an announcement of military budget increases from member states and the formation of a NATO rapid-reaction force. Jeffrey Mankoff, the Deputy Director and Fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Russia and Eurasia Program and the author of “Russian Foreign Policy: The Return of Great Power Politics”, joins us to discuss how much the tit-for-tat escalation in response to Russia’s military aggression feeds into Putin’s narrative that NATO is a military juggernaut heading east like the WW11 Nazi Panzers, instead of the “worthless” fictional paper tiger that the Polish Foreign Minister described it as in a private phone conversation.

Part 3

Then finally we look into voter suppression underway in Georgia ahead of a key Senate race in November that could determine whether the Democrats hold onto a thin majority or the Republicans take over the Senate with an equally thin majority. Lou Dubose, the Editor of The Washington Spectator where he has an article “Party of Lincoln Takes Aim at Black Voters”, joins us to discuss how the Georgia GOP has rewritten voter ID laws as a hedge against the growing strength of minority voters who could determine whether Sam Nunn’s daughter becomes Georgia’s next senator and Jimmy Carter’s grandson their next governor.