Posts Tagged ‘military industrial complex’

To download right-click and select “Save link as…” : SANDY’S PUNK REPORT

Nicolas DaviesNICOLAS “Sandy” DAVIES joined us again on the phone to discuss hes recent article linking ISIS and the global crisis in US foreign policy to our government’s belligerent and misguided response to the mass murders of September 11th, including 94,000 air strikes, an opportunistic global military expansion and a doubling of the military budget:

Sandy has been writing on this and related topics for years and his book Blood On Our Hands: the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq is another horrible but accurate piece of top notch investigative journalism.

I believe this is a critical perspective Punkonomics must address. On a personal level, as a professor teaching economic history, I regularly encounter the problem of having to teach the ugly truth to students who have no clue about their history and thus are, as the saying goes, condemned to repeat it. This shit keeps me up at night–literally :(

Select previous interviews and articles by Nicolas J.S. Davies:

It’s not so much about oil as such but about flows of investment funds…

obama-oil-libya

After the Arab Spring movements overturned the rulers of Tunisia and Egypt, Libya experienced a full-scale revolt beginning on 17 February 2011. The civil war resulted in the ousting and death of the country’s despotic dictator Muammar Gaddafi, and the collapse of his 42-year long tyranny. The liberation of Libya was celebrated on 23 October 2011.
At least 30,000 Libyans died in the civil war. No doubt all those who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of their homeland dreamed of a better future for their children and countrymen. They hoped a day would come when Libya would prosper and thrive. But that day will not come soon. It is estimated that it would take at least 10 years merely to rebuild Libya’s infrastructure. Even before the 2011 war, Libya’s infrastructure was in a poor state due to “utter neglect” by Gaddafi’s administration. Yet Libya has a new obstacle to overcome; its assets have been stolen and the country has no wealth to build its future on.
This is the story of how Libya, a once wealthy African nation with its vast reserves of oil is now down on its knees and its wealth being stolen by Western Powers now. This has only added insult to the injury of decades of Gaddafi’s dictatorship.

Latest article by our upcoming (and regular) guest this Wednesday Nicholas Davies:

Why the Showdown with Islamic Extremists Is the War the Pentagon Was Hoping For | Alternet.

We will have 2 Rollins students who are uber-conservative to talk about war and foreign policy. One of them is a former and current student of mine with whom I’ve enjoyed many heated arguments so it should be good :)

They will be there for the 2nd half of the show–we’ll start with other current events.

>>> as usual podcast will follow some time next week <<<

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The Tragic History of U.S. Military Supremacy Having the most expensive and destructive military does not make the American people safer (Sandy Davies, Alternet)

Did you realize that, since the end of the American War in Vietnam, we have spent at least $17 trillion – our entire national debt – on war and preparation for war?  But the US still hasn’t won a major war since 1945.  As Richard Barnet wrote in 1972, “…at the very moment the number one nation has perfected the science of killing, it has become an impractical instrument of political domination.”  So why do we do it?

Sandy Davies, the author and frequent guest on the show