Fight the Empire

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Every first and third Wednesday from 9:00 AM to 9:30 AM. 

 

 

Connecting history with the latest world events

We live in an empire that began 500 years ago with the European conquest of the Americas. This program looks at how the empire permeates our lives.

 

What are we doing in the world? What are we doing to the world?

George Kennan was an influential US diplomat during the Cold War years. It was he who devised the containment strategy against the Soviet Union (as opposed to a more aggressive rollback policy). In February 1948 Kennan presented a document to President Truman, Presidential Policy Statement #23, which includes the following:

"The US has  50 percent of the world's wealth, but only 6.3 percent of its population. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which permits us to maintain this position of disparity...To do so we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming, and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives.

"We should cease to talk about vague and unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are hampered by idealistic slogans the better."

Some have claimed that Kennan was speaking as a foreign policy "realist," and arguing against an ideological anti-Communist crusade. That may be so, but his words are clear, as Noam Chomsky has pointed out. The US intends to keep for itself an unfair share of the world's resources. The main difference between the realists and the ideologues is one of tactics in pursuing this ignoble goal.

 

 

 

 

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Fight the Empire on 09/19/13

Airs at: Thu, 09/19/2013 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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Fight the Empire on 09/05/13

Airs at: Thu, 09/05/2013 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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There is oil on the market, but fewer people can afford it.Gail Tverberg is an insurance actuary and a writer on peak oil and the economy. She finds that there is a growing gap between the price that oil exporters require to keep drilling and the price that importers can af... Read more

Fight the Empire on 08/15/13

Airs at: Thu, 08/15/2013 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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Host Per Fagereng interviews author and professor Michael Klare, about his recent article "How to Fry a Planet: The Third Carbon Age: Don’t for a Second Imagine We’re Heading for an Era of Renewable Energy," on TomDispatch.com and CommonDreams.org.Michael T. Klare is the Fi... Read more

Fight the Empire on 08/01/13

Airs at: Thu, 08/01/2013 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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There's much talk these days of soaring U.S. oil production. With huge reserves and modern technology, experts say we can be energy independent and export oil to the rest of the world. They call us Saudi America. But is it true? Chris Nelder doesn't think so. He's the enrgy... Read more

Fight the Empire on 07/18/13

Airs at: Thu, 07/18/2013 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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Is China a lawless society ruled by despots? Is it totally different from Western civilization? Some people seem to think so.Thursday's guest will be Teemu Ruskola, professor of law at Emory University. He examines these questions in his book Legal Orientalism. Read more

Fight the Empire on 06/20/13

Airs at: Thu, 06/20/2013 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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Host Per Fagereng speaks with Moji Agha founder of the Mossadegh Legacy Institute. Moji discusses the life, career and legacy of Dr. Mossadegh; the unfortunate long-term breakdown in U.S.- Iranian relations that resulted from U.S. led coup; and now the CIA is back to its ol... Read more

Fight the Empire on 06/06/13

Airs at: Thu, 06/06/2013 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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Host Per Fagereng discusses a recent article by Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, bestselling author, investigative journalist, international security scholar, policy expert, film-maker, strategy & communications consultant, and change activist. "UK Pays Price for MI5 Courting Ter... Read more

Fight the Empire on 05/16/13

Airs at: Thu, 05/16/2013 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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Gilad Atzmon, Israeli-born musician and author of The Wandering Who, criticized a recent solidarity statement calling for Syrian ruler Bashar Assad to step down. Are progressives really in bed with Bibi Netanyahu? Read more

Fight the Empire on 05/02/13

Airs at: Thu, 05/02/2013 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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Host Per Fagereng speaks with Michael Klare, who offers a hair-raising look at how two trends on the planet -- growing resource scarcity and climate change -- are creating a formula for future disruption, social unrest, state collapse, and in the long run cataclysm.  Accord... Read more

America's Shifting Imperial Strategy (at Palestine/Middle East conference)

Airs at: Sat, 04/27/2013 at 12:00am
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Ashley Smith, author of "Obama's Pivot to Asia" in the current International Socialist Review, addresses the April 27, 2013 conference at Portland State University on "Palestine, Imperialism and the New Middle East" sponsored by Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights ... Read more