Dave Decamp on Iran, Yemen, Ukraine, and Gaza: What Are We Even Doing?

Dave Decamp On Iran, Yemen, Ukraine and Gaza: What Are We Even Doing?

Jacob Winograd welcomes back Dave DeCamp, news editor at Antiwar.com, for a comprehensive foreign policy breakdown across four global flashpoints: Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen, and Iran. The episode kicks off by evaluating the confusing and contradictory nature of Donald Trump’s foreign policy rhetoric and actions. While Trump has at times used antiwar language—such as suggesting he would end the war in Ukraine—his actual record reveals continued military escalation, arms deals, and increased defense spending. Dave explains that Trump’s unpredictability makes it difficult to trust even his more promising statements, especially given his track record of reversing himself and surrounding his administration with neoconservative hawks.

The conversation then shifts to Ukraine, where Dave unpacks the flawed logic of the U.S.–Ukraine critical minerals deal. Rather than curtailing U.S. involvement, the deal may incentivize further entanglement and long-term military support, especially given recent arms sales. Jacob and Dave critique the morality of continuing to fund Ukraine’s war effort, especially when diplomatic opportunities were actively discouraged early in the conflict. Dave brings in principles from just war theory, arguing that Ukraine lacks a reasonable chance of success and that the U.S. deliberately undermined peace prospects in 2022. The two explore why Christians in the U.S. often fall into simplistic good-versus-evil narratives and how America’s own hypocrisy and aggressive foreign policy should give pause to those cheering intervention.

Turning to Gaza and Yemen, Dave paints a horrific picture of the humanitarian situation. Israel’s total blockade on Gaza has led to starvation, including the death of infants, with the U.S. government backing and supplying the siege. Dave and Jacob expose how Israeli policy now openly aims at ethnic cleansing, as described by Israeli media and government insiders. They argue the stated goal of rescuing hostages has become a smokescreen, with hostage families themselves often demanding a ceasefire that Israel refuses. Yemen, meanwhile, has become a growing front again as the U.S. and Israel escalate bombing campaigns in response to Houthi strikes—strikes that themselves resumed in response to the end of a temporary ceasefire in Gaza. As Jacob notes, without de-escalation in Gaza, regional peace is virtually impossible.

The conversation closes with a grave warning about Iran. Dave outlines how Israel’s long-standing desire to push the U.S. into a war with Iran may finally be nearing fruition, especially given Trump’s increasingly hostile rhetoric and threats to dismantle even Iran’s civilian nuclear program. With no viable diplomatic talks and growing provocations in Syria, Gaza, and Yemen, Dave suggests that war with Iran is a real and imminent danger—one that would make the disasters of Iraq and Afghanistan look tame by comparison.

Together, Jacob and Dave make the case that American Christians and libertarians must resist the seductive pull of imperialism, recognize the devastating consequences of interventionism, and call for true peace rooted in diplomacy, not domination.