On Bill Moyers Journal tonight, Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater, will be interviewed.
Link http://www.pbs.org/moyers/jour…
Scahill wants the United States to back up and examine its entire approach to foreign policy and, rather than analyze the number of troops to send to Afghanistan or replace the commander, ask whether the U.S. should have any troops there at all.
Independent journalist Jeremy Scahill has some disappointing analysis for supporters of Barack Obama. From an increase of armed contractors in Afghanistan to his handling of detainees, Scahill sees the Obama administration continuing what he believes to be some of the most dangerous U.S. foreign policies from the Bush administration. According to Scahill, President Obama has moved from inheriting policies to adopting them, “Obama is sending one message to the world, but the reality on the ground, particularly when it comes to private military contractors, is that the status quo remains from the Bush era.”
President Obama has made several changes since taking office. He has changed the tone of foreign policy in his speeches; he has changed official U.S. detainee policy; he has increased the number of troops in Afghanistan and selected a new commander, General Stanley McChrystal.
But much of what President Obama has done has not corrected what Scahill sees as the fundamental problems. For instance: President Obama has left a loophole allowing indefinite detention without charges, and though President Obama plans to close Guantanamo, he is expanding Bagram Airforce base in Afghanistan. Scahill says, “They’re spending $60 million to expand that prison. You have hundreds of people held without charges. You have people that are being denied access to the Red Cross in violation of international law. And you have an ongoing position, by the Obama administration, formed under Bush, that these prisoners don’t have right to habeas corpus.”
25 comments
Skip to comment form
Author
… for not using contractors, there’d have to be a draft.
This is a fucked up situation.
I always said I liked the attitude behind the urge to vote for Obama but I think it’s turned into “well, I pulled the lever and that guy says stuff I like, off to the beach!”
Reminds me of an article I read in a 1972 issue of Playboy “How to hustle the youth vote”.
Investigative journalism is a public need.
…it looks like we have the exact opposite of a draft [actually, I question that, maybe we have the ultimate draft — money!]. Jeremy Scahill shows that, along with so many other areas of our society, war is being privatized. The military is being privatized.
We now have more contract military forces in Afghanistan than we have Regular Armed Forces. Imagine that: More mercenaries than RA troops.
This is really scarey, especially in a floundering economy. Perhaps the recruiting slogan shoud be: “Will kill for money!”
or maybe Im just kookoo but it was that celtic something or another.
heres the transcript though.
cocky enough not to have to pardon anyone before he left office…he knew he had nothing to fear from his successor.