August 25 - A Showdown in Syria Looms; A Political Use of Military Force in Syria; "The United States of Paranoia"

Full Program	LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM
Part 1	We begin with the almost certain military response to the apparent use of chemical weapons in Syria and speak with Robert Baer, a veteran CIA operations officer who worked for decades in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. The author of a number of best-sellers, Robert Baer is now an Intelligence Analyst on CNN and he joins us to discuss why military intervention in Syria is a bad idea, even if it is all but inevitable.
Part 2	Then we get further analysis on a likely U.S. strike from Henri Barkey, a professor of International Relations at Lehigh University who served on the Policy Planning Staff at the State Department. We discuss growing international pressure on President Obama to act in response to the use of weapons of mass destruction and how a punitive political, as opposed to military use of force, will do little to change the outcome of Syria’s agonizing civil war that the majority of American want the U.S. to stay out of.
Part 3	Then finally we speak with Jesse Walker, a Senior Editor at Reason magazine and Reason.com. He is the author of a new book “The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory” that traces the history of political paranoia in America and explores the reasons why people are attracted to conspiracy theories, that may be harmless when ordinary citizens believe them, but can be a lot more dangerous when those in power act on those beliefs.