David Swanson's Blog, page 173
July 28, 2012
69 Nations Have More U.S. Troops Than Olympic Athletes
Here is a link to a list of U.S. troops deployed to various nations around the world: PDF. These are permanent deployments openly admitted to by the U.S. military. When U.S. Special Forces drive off a bridge in Mali, as recently happened, we discover that U.S. troops are in Mali in greater numbers than we knew, but those troops aren't listed here or considered in the calculation below. No secret forces are considered here, no allied forces funded or trained or armed by the United States, and of course no drones.
The Socialism of McCain, Graham, Ayotte
From Senator John McCain's website: (slight changes marked)
Washington, D.C.–U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) today announced the launch of their “Preserving America’s Strength” series of town hall-style meetings in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and New Hampshire highlighting the devastating impacts of the looming defense clean energy and infrastructure cuts now scheduled to take place under budget sequestration next year.
July 27, 2012
Guess What % of Americans Know Military Spending Is Increasing
And keep guessing some more, because pollsters are unlikely to ask that question.
A year and a half ago, a poll found that Americans drastically underestimate how high U.S. military spending is.
This fits with consistent polling showing slim majority support for cutting military spending, but strong support for major military cuts when the people polled are told what the current budget it.
July 25, 2012
Video: Greg Muttitt on the Untold Story of the War on Iraq for Oil
Greg Muttitt Speaks About His Book "Fuel on the Fire: Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq"
Charlottesville, VA
July 24, 2012
Random Row Books
July 24, 2012
Talk Nation Radio: Clinical Psychologist Bruce Levine Says U.S. Citizenry Particularly Inactive
Clinical psychologist Bruce Levine says the U.S. public is particularly inactive. Levine explains how we got this way, and how we might be cured. Levine is the author of Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite. He also contributed a chapter to The Military Industrial Complex at 50. Levine's website is http://brucelevine.net
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Engineer: Christiane Brown.
Music by Duke Ellington.
Download or get embed code from Archive.org or AudioPort or LetsTryDemocracy.
Syndicated by Pacifica Network.
Please encourage your local radio stations to carry this program every week!
Embed on your own site with this code:
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July 21, 2012
Greg Muttitt in Charlottesville, VA, on Tuesday, July 24th
Greg Muttitt, visiting from the U.K., is the author of the brand new book on Iraq that is making a lot of news. It's called Fuel on the Fire: Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq.
"Nothing short of a secret history of the war" -- Naomi Klein.
Democracy Now aired this interview of Greg this week.
Greg will speak and answer your questions:
Tuesday, July 24, 2012, 7 p.m.
Random Row Books
315 West Main Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902
(434) 295-2493
Map
Please sign up and spread the word on FaceBook!
Please email and tell everyone you know!
About Fuel on the Fire:
The departure of the last U.S. troops from Iraq at the end of 2011 left a broken country and a host of unanswered questions. What was the war really about? Why and how did the occupation drag on for nearly nine years, while most Iraqis, Britons, and Americans desperately wanted it to end? And why did the troops have to leave?
Now, in a gripping account of the war that dominated US and UK foreign policy over the last decade, investigative reporter and activist Greg Muttitt takes us behind the scenes to answer some of these questions and reveals the previously untold story of the oil politics that played out
through the occupation of Iraq.
Drawing upon hundreds of unreleased government documents and extensive interviews with senior American, British, and Iraqi officials, Muttitt exposes the plans and preparations that were in place to shape policies in favor of American and British energy interests. But he also tells the inspiring story of how Iraqi trade unions organized not only to defend their members’ rights, but also to thwart many of the USA’s oil plans -- with remarkable success. Through their stories, we begin to see a very different Iraq from the one our politicians have told us about.
In light of the Arab revolutions, the war in Libya, and renewed threats against Iran, Fuel on the Fire provides a vital guide to the lessons from Iraq and of the global consequences of our persistent oil addiction.
"Excellent... a textbook example of how international pressures are put on politicians to get them to buckle" - The Guardian
"Set to turn our understanding of the war on its head" - The Independent
"Will trouble the most ardent liberal interventionist" - Petroleum Economist
"The Iraqi civil society voices resound with dignity in this brilliant, comprehensive account" - New Internationalist
Gregg Muttitt in Charlottesville, VA, on Tuesday, June 24th
Greg Muttitt, visiting from the U.K., is the author of the brand new book on Iraq that is making a lot of news. It's called Fuel on the Fire: Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq.
"Nothing short of a secret history of the war" -- Naomi Klein.
Democracy Now aired this interview of Greg this week.
Greg will speak and answer your questions:
Tuesday, July 24, 2012, 7 p.m.
Random Row Books
315 West Main Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902
(434) 295-2493
Map
Please sign up and spread the word on FaceBook!
Please email and tell everyone you know!
About Fuel on the Fire:
The departure of the last U.S. troops from Iraq at the end of 2011 left a broken country and a host of unanswered questions. What was the war really about? Why and how did the occupation drag on for nearly nine years, while most Iraqis, Britons, and Americans desperately wanted it to end? And why did the troops have to leave?
Now, in a gripping account of the war that dominated US and UK foreign policy over the last decade, investigative reporter and activist Greg Muttitt takes us behind the scenes to answer some of these questions and reveals the previously untold story of the oil politics that played out
through the occupation of Iraq.
Drawing upon hundreds of unreleased government documents and extensive interviews with senior American, British, and Iraqi officials, Muttitt exposes the plans and preparations that were in place to shape policies in favor of American and British energy interests. But he also tells the inspiring story of how Iraqi trade unions organized not only to defend their members’ rights, but also to thwart many of the USA’s oil plans -- with remarkable success. Through their stories, we begin to see a very different Iraq from the one our politicians have told us about.
In light of the Arab revolutions, the war in Libya, and renewed threats against Iran, Fuel on the Fire provides a vital guide to the lessons from Iraq and of the global consequences of our persistent oil addiction.
"Excellent... a textbook example of how international pressures are put on politicians to get them to buckle" - The Guardian
"Set to turn our understanding of the war on its head" - The Independent
"Will trouble the most ardent liberal interventionist" - Petroleum Economist
"The Iraqi civil society voices resound with dignity in this brilliant, comprehensive account" - New Internationalist
July 18, 2012
Minnesota Town Bans Signs in Yards Unless They're Pro-War
At a festival called Peacestock in Wisconsin last weekend, I met a woman who lives in Little Falls, Minnesota. That city had forced her to take down signs in her own yard, signs that said "Occupy Wall Street," "Back the 99 Percent" and "Boycott Monsanto."
But Robin Hensel noticed that the city itself was displaying, in violation of the same ordinance, a banner reading "We Support Our Troops."
Talk Nation Radio: U.S. Poverty Is Expanding and Worsening
Poverty in the United States is surrounded by myths and misunderstanding. Poverty is expanding, and extreme poverty is expanding. The social safety net is retracting. Congress has just slashed food stamps. But corporate media coverage that misleads us on the nature and causes of poverty is neither expanding nor improving. Karen Dolan is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and coordinator of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. She discusses this project, which is producing reporting on poverty while providing work to unemployed and under-employed journalists. Learn more at http://economichardship.org
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Engineer: Christiane Brown.
Music by Duke Ellington.
Download or get embed code from Archive.org or AudioPort or LetsTryDemocracy.
Syndicated by Pacifica Network.
Please encourage your local radio stations to carry this program every week!
Embed on your own site with this code:
<object autostart="false" data="http://davidswanson.org/sites/davidsw..." height="100px" width="400px"></object>
Past Talk Nation Radio shows are all available free and complete at http://davidswanson.org/talknationradio
