Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with today's confirmation hearing for Pete Higgseth before the Senate Armed Services

Committee, which was stacked in advance by the Republican Chair, who denied a second round

of questioning and reduced the question time from 10 to 7 minutes, as the Republican

senators in lockstep followed Trump's dictate

to confirm this dangerously unqualified ideologue.

Joining us is someone who spent years in the war zones with the U.S.'s tip of the spear

warriors and knows the military culture, Robert Young Peltin, an author, filmmaker, journalist, and explorer.

He is the publisher of Dangerous magazine and has had a first-hand perspective on the war on terror

from direct contact with the world's most infamous jihadi, rebel and insurgent groups.

His books include The World's Most Dangerous Places, Come Back Alive, Three Worlds Gone Mad, Licensed to Kill, Hired Guns in the War on Terror, and worlds gone mad, licensed to kill, hired guns

in the war on terror, and his autobiography, The Adventurist. Then we'll address the issues of

women in the military and military justice, which Hegsef has disparaged and speak with Rachel

Van Landingham, a retired lieutenant colonel as well as a former judge advocate in the United

States Air Force, who is now the co-associate dean of research and a professor of law

a southwestern law school. During her military career, she served as a senior legal advisor on

the international law of armed conflict, military prosecutor, criminal defense attorney,

appellate defense attorney, and nuclear security inspector, stationed in the United States,

South Korea and Italy with deployments to the Middle East. She was the legal advisor for international

law at headquarters U.S. Central Command, where she advised on operational and international legal issues

related to the armed conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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