Scott talks with journalist Aaron Maté about his recent piece bringing attention to the U.S. occupation of Syria. The U.S. military currently controls about a third of Syria with an official troop count of 900. But considering officials were willing to lie to the former president about the real troop numbers, Scott and Maté are skeptical of the official figures. Maté observes that even with bipartisan opposition to these “forever wars” the occupation of Syria remains a subject that’s not to be talked about. Maté has little hope it will come to an end anytime soon. While the official reason given for the military presence is the fight against ISIS, Maté shows that this claim falls apart after a small amount of digging. And that the real reason is to hold economic leverage against the Syrian regime as a way to support Israel in its not-so-cold war with Iran.  Discussed on the show: “To keep troops in Syria, US leaders are lying like in Afghanistan” (substack) Joe Kent on Tucker Dana Stroul giving the official reason for staying in Syria  Pentagon Report admitting that the U.S. is not fighting ISIS in Syria, contradicting the official narrative “US military ‘owns’ 1/3rd of Syria, boasted top Biden Pentagon official, vowing to block reconstruction of ‘rubble’” (Grayzone)  Aaron Maté is an NYC-based journalist and producer. He hosts the news show Pushback for The Grayzone, and writes regularly for The Nation. Follow him on Twitter @AaronJMate. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hQNyvrgUr4 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices