Robert Naiman of the group Just Foreign Policy discusses the fifth year anniversary of the Iraq War and casualties
Produced by Dori Smith, WHUS, a Pacifica Affiliate station at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT TRT: 29:28
As we mark year five of the Iraq War we look once again at US foreign policy. The financial cost of the Iraq War is in the trillions, nearly 4,000 US soldiers are listed by the US Military as casualties, though tens of thousands have been wounded and it is not clear that they list all of the numbers of US dead. Those who die after airlift may not be reported in full but you can track the statistics at http://www.antiwar.com/casualties.
See Just Foreign Policy at http://www.justforeignpolicy.org
An internal Army study reported 121 soldiers committed suicide in 2007 alone. Our guest this time is Robert Naiman, Senior Policy Analyst and National Coordinator at Just Foreign Policy. A counter on their web site lists more than a million Iraqi civilian casualties.
Robert Naiman assesses the Iraq War costs in terms of civilian casualties and discusses Clinton versus Obama versus McCain policies and the current media focus on experience, race, and Obamaâs former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Isnât this really a question of Wright touching on the existing anger about US policies at home? Is it even legal in Bushâs America to mention that US policies abroad provoke terrorism? What would disillusioned US soldiers think about Wrightâs speeches? Can Barack Obama unite angry Black, White, Latino, and all other US voters where they too are angry? We hear longer segments of Wrightâs state of the dream speech plus a clip from Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff who says US policies donât have anything to do with provoking terrorism. They attack us because we are âweakâ he told media expert Sam Husseini.
Just Foreign Policy http://www.Justforeignpolicy.org is an independent and non-partisan mass membership organization working to reform U.S. foreign policy. Robert Naiman explained that of the two leading democratic Presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obamaâs positions are more in keeping with the views outlined on their web site, but they are not supporting him.
The group consists of economists, foreign policy experts, sociologists, writers and activists including former member of Congress Tom Andrews of Win Without War, NAACP and University of Virginia History professor Julian Bond, Lisa Hoyos, President of the board for the California coalition for fair trade and human rights, peace activist and writer Tom Hayden, and others. They point out that at the height of the Vietnam War in 1968, the U.S. gross federal debt was 43.5 percent of our economy and falling. Today it is over 67 percent and rising. Maintaining our current foreign and military policy and possible large increases in military spending (for example if we have an arms race with China, whose economy will be larger than ours within a decade) will lead to serious declines in U.S. living standards. They say U.S. foreign policy therefore threatens to impedeâperhaps as never beforeâthe countryâs economic and social progress. It has become extremely important to the lives of all Americans, and we cannot afford to leave it in the hands of the âexpertsâ without influence from the public.
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