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 10/17/19

Airs at: Thu, 10/17/2019 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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Fight the Empire on 10/03/19

Airs at: Thu, 10/03/2019 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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OBAMA’S UNENDING WARS: Fronting the Foreign Policy of the Permanent Warfare State

Airs at: Thu, 09/26/2019 at 9:00am - 10:00am
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Host Per Fagereng talks to author Jeremy Kuzmarov about his new book OBAMA’S UNENDING WARS: Fronting the Foreign Policy of the Permanent Warfare State (Clarity Press, 2019). "Many academics consider Obama to have been a master foreign policy strategist and shrewd practitio... Read more

Fight the Empire on 09/19/19

Airs at: Thu, 09/19/2019 at 9:00am - 10:00am
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Fight the Empire on 09/05/19

Airs at: Thu, 09/05/2019 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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​The rise of fascism in Germany and in the world

Airs at: Thu, 09/05/2019 at 9:30am - 10:00am
Produced for Fight the Empire
The rise of fascism in Germany and in the world. Read more

Fight the Empire on 08/15/19

Airs at: Thu, 08/15/2019 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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Fight the Empire on 08/01/19

Airs at: Thu, 08/01/2019 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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Fight the Empire on 07/18/19

Airs at: Thu, 07/18/2019 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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America at 243

Airs at: Thu, 07/04/2019 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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  Host Per takes a look at America at 243 years old. Read more