John Feffer on President Obama, Foreign Policy, and the Cost of Empire

Talk Nation Radio for July 22, 2009
John Feffer on President Obama, Foreign Policy, and the Cost of Empire

A discussion with John Feffer about his July 14, 2009 'World Beat' column in Foreign Policy in Focus, The Cost of Empire

Produced by Dori Smith
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here and at Archive.org and Radio4all.net



John Feffer's July 14th piece is titled, 'The Cost of Empire'. In it he refers to President Barack Obama as the 'consummate pitch man'. We spend the half hour with John Feffer, co-Director of Foreign Policy in Focus, FPIF.org to talk about where we are in foreign policy terms under President Obama.

A former Pan Tech Fellow in Korean Studies at Stanford University, John Feffer is a specialist in East Asia as well as the Balkans. He runs programs on military spending in East Asia and post conflict identity issues in the Balkans and has written or edited eight books, the latest on North Korea and South Korea. He comes from a background of having worked for AFSC, The American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization, based in Tokyo and Eastern Europe.

Contributors to Foreign Policy in Focus covered the Obama campaign, now they study President Obama's foreign policy challenges and opportunities. Writers at FPIF.org provide original articles and reports on topics related to foreign policy. They do it through eyes that search for peace and justice, equal rights, economic rights, and better US policy in general.

In recent issues, Conn Hallinan maps conflict in Africa, flagging sites where future energy supplies are having an impact on policy, Eric Leaver and Daniel Atzmon take a sober look at US policy in the MidEast, Phillis Bennis analyzes what the Obama White House has said after Iran's elections. Emira Woods looks at Obama's visit to Africa's 'Oil Gulf' and Stephen Zunes points out that Iranians need no lessons in democracy from the US. And Rostam Pourzal asks, 'Would MLK Back Iran's Protesters'?

We take a look at the way Obama's policies come across versus the heart of the matter. Has Obama's foreign policy led to a split within the U.S. peace movement? John Feffer explores some of the existing divisions and offers his best advice on how to hold Obama accountable. Remind him of his own words!

Brookings Institute figures US needs more troops for Afghanistan.

CNN wire, US needs still more troops for Afghanistan, July 17, 2009

Related News Headlines
July 22, 2009

Even as peace groups celebrate a Congressional vote to end production on the F-22, an outdated and costly aircraft, Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss is making plans to sell the planes to Japan. And before they voted to kill the F-22, members of Congress voted to build 12 more beyond the 187 already authorized. Hi military budgets, troop build ups in the Middle East, this time in Afghanistan, harsh rhetoric by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Iran--Do things only sound good under Obama, but turn out much the same as they were under George W. Bush?

F-22 production not quite dead yet, despite senate vote
By Thomas L. Day