now hughes, we are joined again by a david swanson, author, actress, journalist, and radio host. well, the nobel peace prize and nominate, thanks for joining us. david. now, do you feel like some protest or not entirely organic? how can you tell will i depending how you define organic? i doubt there's any protest ever that that hasn't been plants out strategized, uh, you know, rosa parks didn't spontaneously decide not to get out of a seat on a bus. that doesn't mean she didn't do the right thing by refusing to get out of the seat on a bus. but there certainly are protests that have funding and organization that is intentionally hidden. and there are, there are protests and, and all kinds of movements that are sort of astro turf that our corporate sponsored, foreign government sponsored that want their, their sources hidden. and that's a problem that should be exposed. but you know, the people, people organize seen campaigns to union, i starbucks or protest prisons or opposed the construction of a military base or whatever. i think more strategizing and organizing and funding is n

to go further and up on this list, cross live now to david swanson, executive director of world beyond war. david, it's great to have you on the program today. now, what do you make of the pentagon chief statement that the u. s. wants to help iraq? all of a sudden, isn't that a bit rich coming from the nation that destroyed the country? to begin with here. well presumably part of the reason he's there is to pressure the iraqi government to keep the u. s. troops there, there are still at least a couple 1000 us troops there and they want them to never leave. and the iraqi people are overwhelmingly opposed to continue as for every minute of the past 20 years to want every last us troop out. and he doesn't want that. i, the in this may backfire just as the, the iraq war back fired on the u. s. policy ames, i, you know, they of course wanted tens of thousands of troops permanently there. they wanted iraq as a base for attacking a number of neighboring countries. ok. but the, the goal in terms of u. s. propaganda at the moment which may have little to do with his visit, he's visiting his pet

david swanson, david, it's great, have you on the program today. now, given the current economic turbulence, the u. s. is under. do you think this amount of money is flowing in the right direction when it comes to their so called national security budget? of course not, and it has very little to do with national security or anything justifiable. it's, it has a lot to do with the sort of sick war propaganda that we just watched on this channel 2 minutes ago. i'll be it for the other side of that war. this is money to escalate war make, you know, around the world. and it is in the u. s. budget as much as most of the other countries on earth put together. there are only $29.00 countries that spend as much as one percent of what the u. s. military does. and 26 of those 29 r u. s. allies, weapons customers and the homes of us military bases. so, you know, we're talking about russia, which is that about 9 percent of us military spending and iran at about one and china at around 36 percent of us military spending. this is the justification and it doesn't

build a new coalition if the willing against to wrong the executive director of a well beyond was david swanson. the thing for us is trying to convince iraq to keep some american troops in the country. the reason austin is going to a rock is quite clear. he's trying to shore up and increasingly rickety imperial structure, the u. s. needs iraq to, to put pressure on iran. it's major enemy in the persian gulf. busy so therefore, it's trying to bolster its government and bolster its economy as well. but the range of the iraqi economy is actually doing quite poorly the, the national currency, the d n. r, is in free fall, due to us financial interference. america is trying to stop capital money from flowing from iraq into a ran because the u. s. wants to embargo ran isolated. but unfortunately that's having very negative economic consequences in iraq itself. and so austin's job is to somehow contain the damage and put things on a better footing. presumably part of the reason he's there is to pressure the iraqi government to keep the us troops there. there are still at least a couple 1000 us troops t