The Last Days?

Chalmers Johnson discusses with Paul Jay the crumbling of the American Empire seen through the twin lenses of the cost of Military Industrial Complex and the cost of the Wall Street bailout bill, as if the more of your and your childrens and your grandchildrens money they spend the easier it is for political “leaders” in Washington to hide from reality.

October 5, 2008 – 10 minutes

Last days of the American Republic?

USA must cut back on military spending and build green infrastructure or face ruin

Chalmers Johnson: “Something has happened to us comparable to what happened to the former USSR after 1989 … And that led finally to the dissolution of the USSR.”

Chalmers Johnson taught from 1962 to 1992 at the Berkeley and San Diego campuses of the University of California. From 1968 until 1972 he was a consultant to the Office of National Estimates of the Central Intelligence Agency. He has written 17 books. His most recent releases are “Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire” (Metropolitan Books, 2000) and “The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic” (Metropolitan, 2004) and his newest book, “Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic” (Metropolitan, 2007). Chalmers has been a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times, the London Review of Books, Harper’s Magazine, and The Nation among others, he appears in the 2005 prize-winning documentary film “Why We Fight”.