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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Russia-Gate Refuses to Die: Robert Parry

Airs at: Thu, 10/19/2017 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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  Per welcomes Robert Parry to discuss the zombie-like reanimation of claims that Russia hacked the vote.  Robert Parry is an American investigative journalist best known for his role in covering the Iran-Contra affair for the Associated Press (AP) and Newsweek, including ... Read more

World on Fire

Airs at: Thu, 10/05/2017 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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  This week FTE covers the Rohingya, Catalonia, Russia and Puerto Rico. Plus a solution for North Korea. Read more

In the Shadows of the American Century

Airs at: Thu, 09/21/2017 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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  The Rise and Decline of US Global Power Per Fagereng welcomes Alfred McCoy to KBOO.  Alfred McCoy is the J.R.W. Smail Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. McCoy has been recognized as "one of the world’s leading historians of Southeast Asia and a... Read more

Brzezinski’s Brilliant Idea

Airs at: Thu, 09/07/2017 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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  The United States backed Afghan Islamists in order to give the Soviet Union their own Vietnam. Now the Soviet Union is gone and the US is still bogged down in Afghanistan. And Islamic fundamentalism has spread throughout the world. Read more

The San Patricio Battalion

Airs at: Thu, 08/17/2017 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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  On this episode of Fight the Empire Per reflects on the San Patricio Battalion, the mostly Irish soldiers who switched sides in our war against Mexico. They were led by an artillery man named John Riley and fought several big battles against the Yankee invaders. Mexico l... Read more

Fight the Empire on 08/03/17

Airs at: Thu, 08/03/2017 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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Fight the Empire on 07/20/17

Airs at: Thu, 07/20/2017 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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Fight the Empire on 07/06/17

Airs at: Thu, 07/06/2017 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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Fight the Empire on 06/15/17

Airs at: Thu, 06/15/2017 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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Fight the Empire on 06/01/17

Airs at: Thu, 06/01/2017 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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