Fight the Empire

evergreen_web_banner.png

KBOO is open to the public! To visit the station, contact your staff person or call 503-231-8032.


Hosted by: 
Produced by: 
KBOO
Subscribe to podcast

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Download audio file
Streams: 
KBOO Stream 1
Program status: 
Current

James Howard Kunstler on his new book TOO MUCH MAGIC

Airs at: Thu, 07/19/2012 at 9:30am - 10:00am
Produced for Fight the Empire
Host Per Fagereng speaks with James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency, a shocking vision for our post-oil future caught the attention of environmentalists and business leaders. In the seven years since its first publication, many of Kunstler’s warnings from The... Read more

Fight the Empire on 07/05/12

Airs at: Thu, 07/05/2012 at 9:30am - 10:00am
Produced for Fight the Empire
The global drug trade brings in profits of more than $300 billion a year. Where does all that money go? Mark Karlin, editor of Buzz Flash at Truthout, writes that it serves the empire in several ways -- starting with the banks.   Photo by Mark Karlin Read more

Tom Engelhardt on The History and Future of Drone Warfare

Airs at: Thu, 06/21/2012 at 9:30am - 10:00am
Produced for Fight the Empire
Host Per Fagereng speaks with Tom Engelhardt, co-author with Nick Turse of the new book, "Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050." The drone has been a remarkable fantasy weapon -- our version of Terminator planet -- and a blood-stained one as wel... Read more

Fight the Empire on 06/07/12

Airs at: Thu, 06/07/2012 at 9:30am - 10:00am
Produced for Fight the Empire
Host Per Fagereng speaks with Charles Bowden, the critically acclaimed author of many books including Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields, Down by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder, and Family, A Shadow in the City: Confessions of an Underco... Read more

INTEL WARS: The Secret History of the Fight Against Terror

Airs at: Thu, 05/17/2012 at 9:30am - 10:00am
Produced for Fight the Empire
Host Per Fagereng interviews intelligence historian Matthew Aid, author of INTEL WARS: The Secret History of the Fight Against Terror, a detailed overview of U.S. intelligence since President Obama’s election which finds more problems than solutions. Matthew M. Aid is the ... Read more

An interview with Michael Klare

Airs at: Thu, 05/10/2012 at 12:00am
Produced for Fight the Empire
Oil and other resources are dwindling, and the nations of the world grow desperate for more. Will the hunt end badly or can it lead to a lasting era of global justice? Fight The Empire talks with Michael Klare, author of The Race for What's Left: The Global Scramble for ... Read more

Fight the Empire on 05/03/12

Airs at: Thu, 05/03/2012 at 9:30am - 10:00am
Produced for Fight the Empire
Oil and other resources are dwindling, and the nations of the world grow desperate for more. Will the hunt end badly or can it lead to a lasting era of global justice? Fight The Empire talks with Michael Klare, author of The Race for What's Left: The Global Scramble for the... Read more

Bruce Gagnon on Weapons in Space, Military Expansion, War, Climate Change and Corporate Domination

Airs at: Thu, 04/19/2012 at 9:30am - 10:00am
Produced for Fight the Empire
Host Per Fagereng speaks with Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He was a co-founder of the Global Network when it was created in 1992. Between 1983–1998 Bruce was the State Coordinator of the Florida Coalition for Pea... Read more

PAKISTAN ON THE BRINK:The Future of America, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

Airs at: Thu, 04/05/2012 at 9:30am - 10:00am
Produced for Fight the Empire
Host Per Fagereng speaks with journalist Ahmed Rashid about the relationship between Islamabad and Kabul and U.S.-Pakistani relations. Ahmed Rashid is a Pakistani journalist based in Lahore, is a regular contributor to the Financial Times and The Washington Post, and has wr... Read more

Interview with Ellen Brown

Airs at: Thu, 03/15/2012 at 9:30am - 10:00am
Produced for Fight the Empire
Interview with Ellen Brown who has written extensively on state banks, debt and other economic issues. Now she describes how the Greek financial crisis could take down Wall Street. Read more