On today’s episode of the RealClearDefense podcast “Hot Wash,” host John Sorensen, and RCD contributor John Waters speak with journalist and combat veteran Ben Kesling about his new book, “Bravo Company: An Afghanistan Deployment and Its Aftermath”. It is the story of one unit of the famed 82nd Airborne, their tour in Kandahar’s notorious Arghandab Valley and the impact on their lives in the years after. By the end of their deployment, three soldiers had been killed in action, a dozen more...

On today’s episode of the RealClearDefense podcast “Hot Wash,” RCD contributor John Waters speaks with Bill Bee and Wills Robinson the authors of “The Shot: The Harrowing Journey of a Marine in the War On Terror.” Sergeant Bill Bee is the Marine infantry rifleman in one of the defining images of the War in Afghanistan. Captured in Helmund Province in 2008 by Reuters Photographer Goran Tomašević in a photo that would be seen around the world, Sgt Bee is seen in a dramatic moment, the spray of...

On the RealClearDefense podcast "Hot Wash", host John Sorensen and RCD Contributor John Waters speak with Stephanie Savell, the Co-Director of the Costs of War project at the Watson Institute for International Relations at Brown University. Savell is an anthropologist, who researches militarism, security, and civic engagement in relation to the United States post-9/11 wars. The Costs of War project takes an interdisciplinary approach to ask what are the real total costs of war? Have the...

On today's episode of the RealClearDefense Podcast "Hot Wash" host John Sorensen and RCD contributor Todd Carney, speak with Jason Kander, veteran, politician and most recently author of “Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD” In 2006, Kander served as a military intelligence officer in Afghanistan for the Army Reserve. After returning to civilian life, Kander entered politics serving in his home state of Missouri’s House of Representatives in 2008, and then in 2012 as...

On today's RealClearDefense podcast "Hot Wash," host John Sorensen and RCD Editor David Craig, talk with Jamie Roberts, the director of a new documentary on HBO/Max “Escape From Kabul” about the chaotic evacuation of civilians from Afghanistan in August of last year. The documentary uses never before seen archival footage and interviews with participants and eyewitnesses from the Marines on the ground to the Taliban forces who took over the city. Roberts is also the director of “Four Hours at...

Today on the RealClearDefense podcast “Hot Wash” RCD editor David Craig, contributor John Waters, and host John Sorensen speak with retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller, about holding the political and military leadership accountable for the chaotic withdrawal and ultimate Taliban victory after 20 years of fighting in Afghanistan. Scheller, an infantry officer who in part became well known for viral videos on Facebook in which he criticized command for the pull out, is now the...

On this edition of the RealClear Defense podcast Hotwash, John Sorensen hosts retired Marine Colonel Andrew Milburn, Founder and CEO of the Mozart Group, an organization that is training Ukrainian frontline units in the war against Russian occupation. Milburn retired from the Marine Corps as a colonel in 2019. His last position in uniform was as deputy commander of Special Operations Command Central, and prior to that, commanding officer of the Marine Raider Regiment and Combined Special...

Writer/Director Abi Damaris Corbin discusses her new film, "Breaking," based on the real-life story of the late Brian Brown-Easley, a former Marine Corps veteran who robbed a Wells Fargo Bank with a bomb threat in 2017.

RealClearDefense Contributor John Waters and "Hot Wash" host John Sorensen speak with Michael Gordon national security correspondent at the Wall Street Journal, about his new book “Degrade and Destroy: The Inside Story of the War Against the Islamic State, From Barack Obama to Donald Trump.”

This week a look at the documentary, “Who Killed Lt. VanDorn?” In a January 2014 training exercise off the coast of Virginia, pilot Lt. Wes VanDorn, his co-pilot Lt. Sean Snyder, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Brian Collins died when VanDorn’s MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter caught fire and crashed into the frigid Atlantic. The MH-53E is the Navy’s largest, oldest, and most deadly aircraft. Today, we speak with Zach Stauffer, director of the feature documentary, “Who Killed Lt. VanDorn?” which...

Today on the RealClearDefense podcast "Hot Wash", host John Sorensen and RCD contributor John Waters talk to Retired Marine Major Fred Galvin about his new book, “A Few Bad Men: The True Story of US Marines Ambushed in Afghanistan and Betrayed in America.” Galvin enlisted in the Marine Corps as a 17-year-old and quickly deployed to combat in the Persian Gulf. A few years later, he commissioned as a Marine officer and served with elite infantry, reconnaissance, and force reconnaissance units....

On today’s RealClearDefense podcast "Hot Wash", RCD Editor David Craig and Contributor John Waters speak with retired four-star Admiral James Stavridis about his new book, “To Risk It all: Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision.” It's a gripping collection of stories of Naval heroes demonstrating how to make decisions under pressure. As much a book about leadership as it is naval history, Stavridis' profiles demonstrate key elements of successful decision making regardless of the...

Today on the RealClearDefense podcast "Hot Wash", RCD Editor David Craig looks at competing with China’s military on the technology front. The US military has long enjoyed dominance in its ability to leverage connected communications and data for its warfighters, but peer competitors like China could challenge the US in crucial areas like advanced computing and Artificial Intelligence. The Defense Department’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control project, or JADC2 is an ambitious attempt to...

On the RealClearDefense podcast “Hot Wash,” RealClearDefense editor David Craig speaks with retired Army Colonel and former General Counsel at US Cyber Command Gary COrn about Cyber and the Russian war in Ukraine. What are the implications for the law of war, and how cyber might provoke larger NATO involvement in the war?

Investigative journalist and author Matthew Cole joins "Hot Wash" to discuss his new book, “Code Over Country: The Tragedy and Corruption of SEAL Team 6”. In the book Cole details a long history of alleged wrongdoing including war crimes by members of the Navy’s SEAL Team Six and efforts to cover-up that behavior demonstrating a fundamental flaw in the Unit’s culture. Has public hero worship and the military’s extensive reliance on these highly skilled operators over the past two decades...

Today on the RealClearDefense podcast "Hot Wash", host John Sorensen and RCD Editor David Craig continue coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine by speaking to David Lasseter, former Deputy Assitant Secretary of Defense for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction and a visiting Fellow at the National Security Institute. He is also recently the author of an article on RealClearDefense, “Putin’s Disinformation & Opportunity: Weapons of Mass Destruction.” Putin has put Russia's nuclear...

On the RealClearDefense podcast “Hot Wash”, in light of what appears to be a full scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the largest conventional conflict in Europe since WWII, we’ve asked Ben Connable to return to update us on his views of this rapidly evolving situation, and to discuss his recent commentary on RealClearDefense “Will the Ukrainians Fight?” RealClearDefense editor David Craig speaks with Dr. Ben Connable, a retired Marine Corps intelligence officer, a senior nonresident...

On the RealClearDefense podcast “Hot Wash”, host John Sorensen and RealClearDefense contributor John Waters speak with Dr. Ben Connable, a retired Marine Corps intelligence officer, a senior nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council, adjunct professor of security studies at Georgetown University. And author of an article for RealClearDefense, “Troop-to-Task: A Russian Invasion of Ukraine.” What would it actually take for Putin to invade and occupy Ukraine and what are the risks for Russia?

In this episode of the RealClearDefense podcast “Hot Wash”, host John Sorensen and RCD contributor John Waters speak with journalist and author Toby Harnden about his new book, “First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11.” Based on original interviews with CIA officers, paramilitary and special forces members of the small team inserted into Afghanistan after 9/11, Harnden tells the riveting story of the amazing individuals who allied with the Northern Alliance to take...

Although the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act funding the military passed with bipartisan support, the appropriations bill has not. This puts the entire military and much of the intelligence community under a Continuing Resolution since October 1, freezing new spending, stalling dozens of major programs, and holding spending military-wide to 2021 levels. In a time of rising inflation, the effect is actually a major cut. Now, some members of Congress are proposing extending the...

In this episode of "Hot Wash" from earlier this year, host John Sorensen and RealClearDefense editor David Craig talk with New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor about his new installment in the extremely popular Scot Harvath series, "Black Ice." As climate change opens up new shipping routes in the Arctic, Russia and China increasingly challenge the US and its allies for control of newly accessible territory and resources. Thor has been writing thrillers for the past two decades,...

In this episode of "Hot Wash" from earlier this year, RealClearDefense hosts Josh Rogin, foreign policy columnist for the Global Opinions section of The Washington Post and political analyst for CNN, to discuss Rogin's new book, "Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the Battle for the 21st Century."

Today on the RealClearDefense podcast "Hot Wash," host John Sorensen speaks with Retired Admiral Scott Swift, former Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet form 2015 to 2018, about the need for a grand strategy in dealing with the challenges posed by China as a peer competitor in the Pacific and beyond.

On today's episode of the RealClearDefense podcast "Hot Wash", RCD editor David Craig and host John Sorensen, talk to retired Navy SEAL Jocko Willink about leadership, discipline, and his new fiction book "Final Spin." Willink served as a Navy SEAL for 20 years, rising to platoon commander. While serving in Iraq in 2006, Willink led Task Unit Bruiser during the violent battle of Ramadi. Bruiser became the most highly decorated Special Operations unit of the Iraq war. Since retiring from the...

On today's episode of the RealClearDefense podcast "Hot Wash," host John Sorensen speaks with Rep. Elaine Luria (VA-02), Democratic Vice Chair of the House Armed Services Committee. Luria, is a graduate of Annapolis and served in the Navy for 20 years as a nuclear engineer, ultimately rising to Commander. We talk about the need for a strategy to drive defense funding priorities, especially when it comes to deterring China, why she voted to increase this year's defense budget over President...