broadcasting. has become a. bone of contention between. the u.s. . drug more than two hundred million dollars worth of.

brewing. detained. to continue the. policies. the us overestimates the threat of terrorism and billions of dollars on military operations abroad that's according to anti-war activist blogger and author. who's been speaking to our team this interview. sitting down with tom engelhardt tom dispatch dot com a blog described as a regular antidote to that means to media and author of the american way of war how

bush's wars became obama's sir thank you for sitting down with us today good to be here i'd like to start off by taking a look at the extent of the u.s. military presence throughout the world right now it's global i mean that's the first thing you can say the pentagon is a little hard to tell in detail the pentagon usually admits to about yearly to about eight hundred military bases or sites from macro to micro but in their count they don't include anything in a war zone and tom dispatch you know we've done some reporting for instance on the afghan war the present afghan war zone where we have upwards of four hundred bases again from tiny combat outposts to enormous basically american towns with boardwalks with fast food joints and whatever that we just built more or less from scratch and there are certain countries where the countries are embarrassed that their military bases there it's really hard to say i mean eight hundred to

a thousand maybe more depending on what you're counting it's an awful lot it's an imperial presence of a kind i don't think we've ever seen in history and it's particularly strange because the bases traditionally bases more or less where the way you kept colonies but for us bases are actually the thing when you say global it's a frightening word it sounds like every single country throughout this globe has some form of military presence from the united states that i can't swear that it's every see it probably isn't every single country but a striking number of countries i don't actually know the number right here but i mean if you think if you if you take this another way and you think to yourself. of . the u.s. military now has a kind of secret military inside it and those are the special operations forces which have been incredibly peeved up and taken over certain activities that once were more cia type activities in the bush and now obama period special operations

forces and there are thirteen thousand of them according to the washington post stationed outside the united states their station now in seventy five countries there are only one hundred ninety two countries in the u.s. i think that's the latest figure so you're talking about somewhere upwards of forty percent just for special operations forces so it is a lot now it's very interesting that to draw that dividing line between declared war is an undeclared wars which you raise this point in your work often most americans are aware of declared wars with iraq but afghanistan over the last several years what about the un declared boys how come nobody really talks about bad wars skirmishes whatever you know it's hard to know in this country what people know i mean i mean even the wars the afghan war for instance has disappeared more or less disappeared for years at a time from i think from the media public consciousness you know it's hard to say with the u.s. media you can always find something i mean there's something there and that is that

is it's not that there's ever no coverage but you have to be a news jockey like me you have to be reading the inside pages of the papers the war in the pakistani border line and americans obviously know very little about that i mean we are proud of our drones and so we're caught always between calling it a covert war and actually. had actually bragging about it and americans are remarkably detached from the wars that being are being fought in their names and the various other military positions and so on and so forth on the globe it's one of the things that i focus on as is just the degree to which we are doing things that americans could know about basically don't we have to put some of that blame on the media who is essentially responsible. bringing some of that information to the u.s. and i have to ask you do you feel like the media and the military are sort of sleeping in the same bed at this point i think the military may have but there's a there's a history with the military of post vietnam history of trying to put journalists

in bed with it when you are embedded with the military there's an element of stockholm syndrome that just has to be with it and you tend to if you're out with american troops in afghanistan you are in the end i mean your life is at stake you are at the end going to a dead a fight with american troops let me ask you this you spent years the ciphering sort of the military's agent of the u.s. foreign policy when when when should that line be drawn between you know reasonable national defense and really kind of paranoid expansionism is that line ever drawn any more no but basically it basically is no longer drawn and so what you really get this you get american treasure poor into by the multi-billions into you know into into remarkably strange wars approach i've long been convinced that if osama bin laden you know had a dream for him in a nightmare for us it was to involve us in in inconclusive wars in distant

lands would cost us a fortune there's a kind of intelligence national security bureaucracy that's fed in this country all fear and americans are irrationally scared of terrorism since two thousand and one the number of americans who have been you know killed by by terrorist actions is it's a shark attacks but below anything else dangerous in our world you know and yet the fear level is so remarkably high and everything is justified upon us those lines are drawn and we don't think seriously about what our national interest is and we're paying for it now you've mentioned money and apparently the pentagon is going to be able to enjoy as much as seven hundred twenty six billion dollars. next year or something along those the ice that's and i have to ask you i mean it might seem a sort of a naive question but it has to be asked couldn't this money be put to better use and especially now in this economy but of course you know commanders in afghanistan

can walk into a village they have they have a fund so they can find an afghan village elder if they want to do a hearts and minds' sort of thing they can see that the infrastructure is weak that they have canals or field or whatever they can just pay money to people to start digging out those canals you can't do that in the united states we're a can't do nation here we can't build anything we just we just decided not to build a tunnel between new jersey and new york city where i live because it was too expensive but we can spend billions building these bases very efficiently and if there are extraordinary in a way can do x. these huge bases in afghanistan or iraq or wherever else i think it's quite startling actually and what about the cost of civilians on the ground civilian lives we have piled up many towers in response to the towers that went down to two thousand trees three we have piled up many towers of dead they don't have memorials nobody thinks about them i mean except obviously their families and their countries

we don't know the numbers in iraq or afghanistan but they are they are startling numbers not only has the idea of peace gone just gone the idea really of diplomacy in the normal sense as opposed to a militarized kind of diplomacy but the very idea of victory the most basic thing to military culture is going on in one of your latest articles you ask this question how old will you be when the american envoy stared state goes down as you often bring up this point of a terror of an eternal state of war you know is that essentially america's destiny and in one war i'm starting out i actually think not this can only go on so long all things of course must end but in the american case you know we cannot simply continue fight. trillion dollars to three whatever it might be trillion dollar wars ad infinitum i this country simply can't afford it and washington thinks that we're in a slow long manageable decline i think this country like the soviet union in an earlier

period it's in decline now most this is what americans know asked the question is this country in decline sixty five percent of americans in the most recent poll say yes we are in a state of decline americans feel this washington doesn't fully feel this yet but that reality is going to shape this war world of ours will it continue to go on for the next couple of decades or what i know it's a time when i don't know i don't think it's a couple of decades no i mean longer or less no i think it's less i think it's really significantly less i think we are in a steeper decline and we realize we won't be able to afford. to eternally. it will be a necessity to to lessen the american military on the military mission on the planet talking about these issues and us voisin us military isn't. there many authors out there here in the united states talking about it how come this point does just not get across to washington is it so different planets i think

washington is in many ways remarkably sealed off from most fresh thinking i think one of the startling things and disturbing things about the arrival of the barack obama in foreign policy terms is that is the people he chose to put around him you know obama picked james jones as his national security adviser general marie a retired marine general who is a friend of john mccain's so you have a general election is coming up right out nothing is really going to change after that right it's going to be the same thing over and over again it will be worse it will be worse because the we know before the election happens and without being there are november second without even thinking about it we know that whoever comes in and. the cruelty to it what america will be a country that will be able to do less and congress will be able to do less less is going to happen for a while i mean less and in the sense of anything new any change anything that would

really set of some a different course i think this is not going to be a happy moment. not a very optimistic prediction tom go hard thank you very much for sitting telling us today it's a pleasure. well for the. police to tell him it's containing potential bacteria strikes the limits to see it's like milledgeville magic has better planes in the sky and seeds of hope to protect our hearts the ever so you know we can provide such accuracy to many forms modern technology up to here and. we've got the future covered. wealthy british style the stock.

market. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred global financial headlines kaiser reports. more news today. the film these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china operations are today. moon the star. made him look forward to be

held down say. the pain and suffering will never be forgotten. as well as the joy of moderation. here a spring of nineteen forty five on our team. president

medvedev touches down on the caribbean islands to become the first russian leader to visit the far eastern territory. has four decades of contention between moscow and tokyo. the u.s. and russia joining the forces for the first time to wipe down drug labs and more than two hundred million dollars worth of heroin in afghanistan the operation came as a result of increased pressure from moscow to block the flood of heroin entering russia . spy scandal brewing after reports georgia had to change twenty members of an alleged russian bring tbilisi has refused to either confirm or deny the claims. voted in as brazil first female

president pledging to continue the outgoing leader's anti-poverty policies and opposition bible say set out in a second round. now take a look at what's happening in the wide world of sports with kate. hello welcome to the sports news and here the headlines marching on alexander could recall scores a senate win three now it's time to catch six points clear at the top of the russian premier league. ball moving up a little gravel late one mill when it falls into rice six places to twelve in the english premier league. last night and high as mccall you she loses the final of the st petersburg open but kim clijsters triumphs into. the start was vocal was an

instant petersburg have restored a six point lead at the top of the russian primarily after a comprehensive stream ill home went over a lot who are in a real relegation battle the hosts went in front of the quarter of an hour off to dine colossal vitrified home to see. their second constraint before the break leading would be strong launched across. and there's a cough provided the easy thing and. then six minutes off the restarts downing the rushes strike is true again yet it isn't in the second of the afternoon to take his tally of the season to twelve so it isn't a game six points for the game found a reaping. the wall there was a dramatic finish and i know it'll happen from the time of my teeth late in the first tough maka fashion was sent off for a second card after what looks like a debatable call by the referee but luck i still took those three points distance to secure stats and in the dying minutes it quantifies taking the brunt of the spot

celebrations. on spawn time not checked defeats in the table. housewives on one and one man times one caught the only goal time in the fifty second is at times to back this shot a lot of thanks and after that five inches. constrained the drop zone along the severe. wall spots enough to conceded and only dull early in the game that he didn't manage to spill and he climbs up to ten yards and john salvaging a point for the visitors who stick to sixth in the table. last game of the day ten man satin fang back to draw a long long effect as to sky you lose ground on the top two so much nets it open for the all and then off to thirty nine minutes before alexa yvon off level for the home side straight off to the interval but stay with quickly on the back foot as rizla naku chef sole read off the fifty three minutes however that sounds and held on for the draw on the points. and on saturday fourth place sponsor moscow came

from behind to stay in the hunt for a place in europe next season hindsight found themselves a goal down when i'm rich gauche netted off to twenty minutes but spotlight current into the bright level aiden mcgeady provided the cross in its top story verisign on to the finish line won one was the white statement the final minutes substitute it's in us yes it's not down attempts again to make no mistakes on the spot spot sack sometimes there's three crucial points the m six placed on must also remain in the chase for your right the next passata coming from behind to make the wrong time to look at and see bit but one leg gelato days that is it is a surprisingly often hour not in six minutes the first taking the lead telling frankly taking the level i wanted and on days with him in dentical and at the time why i use that to the chinese their hands to go out and send out some get off this

entire time it's three one i was tired and was shocked at the force right cross from alex on the ball than i i really didn't like see rodriguez scored the eighty six minute winner as liverpool rose six places to twelve after one though when the bolts and the red. just a point out of the relegation zone but the late victory ensured that and back to back wins for the first time really hearts and there were two dogs in england kevin nolan scored a hat trick i mean i haven't added a brace this new cost with last ten months on the line five want to see james as part of the black cats hunt titus bramble sent off after fifty three minutes and grabbed a late consolation benson aston villa against birmingham and. tennyson compliance has been the w t a championships often too loud number one caroline does not speak in the final tuned slice to how it's through the a set to take its sixth straight and this cruising through the second when first

nancy found a full twenty bench and took it seven five to level a much thoughts the belgian regained her dominance again in the final set tactics six three and if the try to fade. in the meantime michigan has claimed a surprising victory over former champion economies make final at the st petersburg i think because i play i lifted the trophy after streit set six three seven six when it comes out of the second from kazakhstan to win a team from title and i'm going to get success and come back at it this year it. has moved on to the ice now and that was a stunning result in the kontinental hockey league as a rookie as you came from two goals down to win three two on penalties defending champions. and the other big results on sunday night sky awesome piece as bad one for three western conference leaders h.t. did on the visitors were two goals up after the first period that were pegged back at you then she took the victory on penalties the army yeah got net is the visitors

were never in overtime as god one two one afternoon released the humidex court twice in the third period to win five three a time to various spots at moscow and never behind and won three want to set us back on the number one for three on penalties asked in a moment's. as i say there was a shock three one defeat for me to move to the course open for the house the end of the first period so straight to the second and i could come back after the powerplay to double and some to however this part also converted a power play from the green line to the block and that's zyklon ish i mean it's so mr morris to go advantage in a quick counterattack sculls did give a lot of hope of saving the gain of the strike back to school i suppose because they got the train to. my g.p. now and while champion who guy who runs i held off

a strong challenge from yamaha teammate valentino rossi two in the portuguese motor g.p. for the third year in a row the runs over to rossi with eleven laps to go before speeding to for an eight point six second victory on the right and read the physio so perhaps certainly not what race of the season but still around so it was his first victory in two months spaniard could wrap up the season match. next sunday. by just a water and i've been almost crushed many times i think everyone by you know in the lab a then. i thought was going to win the race but little by little i was simply my love dying he was just filling in the same base so i got him. and then then go finally to rugby and this weekend russia where thrashed thirty two points to six by argentina's reserve side the loss was their second to that team in

as many weeks and dented their preparation for next year's rugby world cup with all his riches empathy. there's less many years ago the two thousand and eleven rugby world cup gets underway new zealand and davidson's russia have a lot of work to do no one is expecting miracles but the newest nation to take part in. the showpiece event needs to improve fast if they're going to be competitive against the likes of australia ireland in italy as says russia's new banks coach henri paul. they do the rights with the world cup. oh i so want to be involved in a short time but it's hard when the players they have cells they need the front so they need to work on contact with her so you pretty much everyone everywhere. the checklist needs to be text and you know we're slowly going to go through the process that is us the surgeon making it to make about who's going to go to the world cup so you know those are things that you know officer steve diamond in the choli will work on myself i'm going have to work with the guys on technique and skill work to continue their preparations for the event in new zealand russia been

playing two tests against argentina second string the russians must be a pain in counter i'm over forty points last we can and we're hoping for a much improved performance seven days later i'm for the majority of the first half they would give a good account of themselves and would have been in front but we would go kicking and opportunistic troy from this to strum half tomsk benny at the trail because the points going into the home tiny brain. despite applying some early pressure following resumption russia would soon find themselves further behind as visitors no problem balls managed to bundle is way over the line from close range on the home side with less of a mountain to climb just minutes away turn despite being down to fourteen men this certainly didn't hint of a january and one published tale is was on hand to finish slick move and put argentina into twenty to sixteen russia needed to convert to tries just to draw

level there was to be no way back for russians who were beginning to tire and argentina's greater fitness would prevail as they would run into late scores to secure a thirty two point six victory. in the first off. there are power from the try against a run up. in the first ten minutes we go see control most of all we had most of position we were in small wooden and those offices it's a negative so that's the thing that has something to work on but i think we kept ourselves in the game we were i'll kick his ego has been working all or you know a lot you know with mr i'll fly off the air at that one fly off but the last two games we have given a few guys are on the for in general peripheral a lot of game time and that's great for the development and improve performance by the russians you know ways to plan if they continue then build on the old camp but in reality the team needs to become much featured stop making elementary mistakes a big and on the chance of even competing on the same level with some people's top

sides in september to france live in richmond if we don't see skin. and that's all the sport for this one isn't beisner. hungry for the full story we've got it for. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers on. in

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