Podcast appearances and mentions of william hartung

NOTE: This conversation was recorded in November 2024, which is why you'll hear references to the elections and the Biden Administration.This week on The Big Picture, we sit down with military analyst and author William Hartung.Hartung is a senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and in 2010 published Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Military Industrial-Complex - a seminal work that examined how military lobby groups shaped public policy, and how White House officials pursued lucrative jobs in the same lobbies that funded their political careers.In 2024 he published a Cost of War report with Brown University, which unpacked the $20 billion of military aid the Biden Administration had given to Israel's government since October 7, the majority of which was then used to purchase weapons from US military companies.We'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, and any guests you'd like us to have on our show. Reach us by email at mh@middleeasteye.org or find us on instagram @BigPictureMee.You can also watch all our episodes on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMyaP73Ho1ySj3cO0OSOHZAOgD1WTDixG

William Hartung, a senior research fellow focusing on the arms industry and US military budget at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, joins the program to discuss reports that the Trump administration is planning “sweeping budget cuts” for the Pentagon. They talk about these “cuts” being more accurately termed “reinvestments” into other areas, the enormous amount of defense spending and the culture that engendered this, how the defense industry has changed in the past 20 years, actual moves that could meaningfully reduce the military budget like reducing bloated systems (F-35s, aircraft carriers) and overseas bases, whether there exists an influential constituency to support military budget cuts, and more. Read William's recent piece on this, “Hegseth orders 8% cut to Pentagon budget. Not so fast.”           Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of American Prestige, William Hartung — senior research fellow focusing on the arms industry and US military budget at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft — joins the program to discuss reports that the Trump administration is planning “sweeping budget cuts” for the Pentagon. We talk about these “cuts” being more accurately termed “reinvestments” into other areas, the enormous amount of defense spending and the culture that engendered this, how the defense industry has changed in the past 20 years, actual moves that could meaningfully reduce the military budget like reducing bloated systems (F-35s, aircraft carriers) and overseas bases, whether there exists an influential constituency to support military budget cuts, and more.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We're experimenting and would love to hear from you!In this episode of 'Discover Daily', we begin with the technical and financial implications of Trump's Iron Dome executive order, which mandates Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to deliver an implementation plan within 60 days. The proposed $2 trillion defense system aims to create a comprehensive shield against various missile threats, though experts like William Hartung raise important concerns about its practicality.The episode then examines the Calexit initiative's complex requirements, including the need for over half a million valid signatures and the potential creation of a 20-member commission to study California's viability as an independent nation.The show concludes with groundbreaking scientific discoveries from NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, where we uncover the presence of all five nucleobases essential for DNA and RNA in asteroid samples. We explore the implications of finding unique minerals and evidence of ancient water on asteroid Bennu, providing unprecedented insights into the potential origins of life in our solar system. From Perplexity's Discover Feed: https://www.perplexity.ai/page/trump-proposes-us-iron-dome-HmBhiChzQvaRlfPHt01hSQhttps://www.perplexity.ai/page/california-secession-bid-proce-C5a6tX9FQbiPL7M6.B9auAhttps://www.perplexity.ai/page/asteroid-carries-seeds-of-life-WGb2igfbT0a3v0fuLsYxtw Perplexity is the fastest and most powerful way to search the web. Perplexity crawls the web and curates the most relevant and up-to-date sources (from academic papers to Reddit threads) to create the perfect response to any question or topic you're interested in. Take the world's knowledge with you anywhere. Available on iOS and Android Join our growing Discord community for the latest updates and exclusive content. Follow us on: Instagram Threads X (Twitter) YouTube Linkedin

Why JD Vance's understanding of Christian patriotism fundamentally misunderstands christianity...on purpose. ANTIFA is not a terrorist organization, and we should all be antifascist. Why Burmese scholarships are not woke and DOGE has cut too far. And how to cut the Pentagon intelligently. Subscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com Read Julia's report (with William Hartung and Gabe Murphy) on cutting defense spending: https://www.stimson.org/2025/developing-efficient-effective-defense/ Catch Un-Diplomatic on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@un-diplomaticpodcastThe views expressed are theirs alone.

A Manifesto to Stand Up in the Face Of Trump's Firehose of Reactionary Initiatives | Trump Threatens to Sanction Putin and Calls on OPEC to Lower Oil Prices to Force Russia's to End Its War On Ukraine | The Tech-Industrial Complex's Plans to Capture the Defense Budget backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

For decades, millions of Americans have urgently sought to bring sanity to the defense budget. They propose a new  nongovernmental “Dept of Government Efficiency.” And military waste is the low hangng fruit. On this show, expert William Hartung says maybe The post Could These Guys Actually Cut Military Waste? appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show.

William Hartung, co-author of a recent paper for Brown University's Watson Institute, outlines how much aid the US has given to Israel over the last year (plus, he shares some wacky stuff on AI weapons). The sociologist Scott Schieman talks about his surprising research showing that people actually like their jobs.Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Behind the News, 10/22/24 - guests: William Hartung on arming Israel, Scott Schieman on how people actually like their jobs - Doug Henwood

William Hartung, co-author of this paper, on how much aid the US has given to Israel over the last year (plus some wacky stuff on AI weapons) • sociologist Scott Schieman on his surprising research showing that people actually like their jobs The post How much US aid goes to Israel? • people actually like their jobs, a study shows appeared first on KPFA.

Ralph welcomes back William Hartung of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. They'll discuss the Cost of War Project's latest reports on US military spending in support of Israel, and the humanitarian costs of the war in Gaza. Then, Ralph is joined by Palestinian writer and analyst Sumaya Awad to discuss the mass civil disobedience at the New York Stock Exchange, which was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace to protest the weapons manufacturers that are making millions off the genocide in Gaza.William Hartung is an expert on the arms industry and US military budget, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He is the author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex, and the co-editor of Lessons from Iraq: Avoiding the Next War.In all my years of watching the operations of Washington—including the Bush/Cheney criminal invasion of Iraq—I have never seen such a servile position by top officials of an administration to a foreign power. Not even close. They are humiliating the United States of America. They are jeopardizing the United States of America—because as you know, the Department of Defense, CIA, NSA have studies and scenarios of blowback. So this war in the Middle East is gonna come back to the US in terms of reprisal and retaliation. And we are not able to anticipate that because we think, as the ruling empire in the world, that we're invulnerable. But we're not invulnerable.Ralph NaderThe Biden administration is living in the past. They've got this “Israel, right or wrong” ideology. They think it's a political detriment to criticize Israel, and the fact that the younger generation is not locked into that point of view. But I think they're going to hurt themselves more by enabling the war crimes that Israel is committing than they would by taking a stand. And of course, they keep trying to say that they're pushing for a ceasefire…But as long as they're doing the weapons and the financing, that is laughable.William HartungIt's just stunning. Given the record of this century—two failed wars, $8 trillion spent, hundreds of thousands killed—and yet they could say with a straight face, “We need a dominant military.” As if that's the tool that's gonna solve any of these problems, rather than make them worse.William HartungSumaya Awad is a Palestinian writer and analyst based in New York City, and she is the spokesperson for Jewish Voice for Peace's mass civil disobedience event at the New York Stock Exchange. Ms. Awad directs strategy and communications for the Adalah Justice Project, and she is a cofounder of the Against Canary Mission Project, which defends student activists targeted by blacklists for their Palestinian rights advocacy. She is the co-author of Palestine and Elections and co-editor of Palestine: A Socialist Introduction.There were over 200 arrests—the majority of them anti-Zionist Jewish New Yorkers, who want to send a clear message both to the US government and the American people that Israel weaponizes their identity in order to justify crimes against humanity and that they are not okay with this. That they refuse for their identity and Jewish people to be weaponized in this way. And that in fact, what Israel is doing and what the US government is funding and politically backing is actively making this country and certainly the rest of the world unsafe not just for Jewish people, but for others.Sumaya AwadWe are strategizing about how to push back against the role of AIPAC and the grip of AIPAC. I think the reality is that there are many people in Congress that are actually benefiting financially from what is happening in Gaza. We know that at least 50 members of Congress have links to the military-industrial complex—whether that's through stocks or other things. And so it's about unraveling this network, these connections between our government, the way it's profiting from the genocide and then what that means in terms of these elections across the country.Sumaya AwadIn Case You Haven't Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 10/16/241. The Israeli government is finally dropping the facade that the genocide in Gaza is about ‘returning the hostages.' Haaretz reports “According to senior defense officials, the Israeli government is not seeking to revive hostage talks and the political leadership is pushing for the gradual annexation of large parts of the Gaza Strip.” Not only that, apparently “Israel's political leaders have not held any discussions with the various security branches about the condition of the hostages.” In other words, Israel clearly does not care about the hostages at all and are simply using them as political props to prolong their campaign of terror. In addition, the AP reports “Netanyahu is examining a plan to seal off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza,” and if Palestinians are unable or unwilling to leave their homes, they “would be considered combatants — meaning military regulations would allow troops to kill them.” Last weekend, Israel launched an offensive against the Jabaliya refugee camp, resulting in gruesome footage of Palestinians burnt alive while still connected to IV tubes in field hospital tents.2. Responding to a report by NBC, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), is sounding the alarm that “US officials have discussed joining Israel in offensive strikes against Iran, and passing them off as ‘defensive' after the fact.” As Just Foreign Policy notes, this would not only violate the War Powers Resolution, but “Unnamed US officials” are seeking to circumvent the debate and Congressional vote required for such an act under the Constitution. Now the question becomes whether the American empire will allow itself to be drawn into a rapidly escalating regional war based on Israel's aggression.3. On October 10th, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reported “This morning, two peacekeepers were injured after an IDF Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL's headquarters in Naqoura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall. The injuries are fortunately, this time, not serious, but they remain in hospital.” Beyond this attack, UNIFIL also reports that the IDF fired on the UN positions in Labbouneh and Ras Naqoura, ending by writing “Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and of Security Council resolution 1701.”4. On October 8th, Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal released a statement decrying the lack of action by the organs of U.S. foreign policy regarding the killing of American citizen Aysenur Eygi in the West Bank. Jayapal writes “It has been 32 days…and we have seen no movement toward an independent investigation by the U.S. government and no additional information on changes in the practices of the…IDF…units that are using live ammunition on those who are peacefully protesting…I am frankly appalled…If the Israeli government is unwilling or unable to follow our own domestic laws as well as international humanitarian laws…we must initiate our own investigation into Eygi's killing.”5. In the UK, Jeremy Corbyn and the parliamentary Independent Alliance have sent a letter to Foreign Secretary David Lammy expressing their “disgust over the government's complicity in one of the greatest crimes of our lifetime.” This letter goes on to explain how “the government could have...opposed the genocide in Gaza. It could have ended military, economic and diplomatic support...[and] defended the equal application of international law. Instead, the failure to bring Israel to justice emboldened it to kill thousands of people in Lebanon and now, wage war on the UN.” The letter then asks a series of questions to the British government, including “what red lines, if any, does Israel have to cross for the government to end its diplomatic and political support?” and “does the UK government oppose genocide?”6. In a humiliation for Elon Musk, Forbes reports that Tesla stock slid by nearly $70 billion following the “sour” reaction to the company's unveiling of their absurd new products including a “robotaxi” and “Optimus” humanoid robots. In fact, disappointment in Tesla's “cybercab” was so acute that Uber shares spiked by 11% and Lyft's by 10%. Another story signaling that Tesla is vastly overvalued comes from the Orange County Register, which reports the Irvine Police Department spent over $150,000 on the first ever police Cybertruck. What is the department planning to use this eye-wateringly expensive boondoggle for? According to this report “the department does not plan to use the truck for patrols. The Cybertruck will…principally be driven by DARE officers to schools.”7. According to USA Today, “A study from the University of California Berkeley's Institute for Research on Labor and Employment found that a California state law [which] raised the minimum wage for fast food workers did not lead to large job loses or price hikes.” The law in question, AB 1228 established a “$20 per hour minimum wage for those working at fast food restaurants with less than 60 locations nationwide and restaurants located inside airports, stadiums and convention centers. The law further gave employees stronger protections and the ability to bargain as a sector.” The study found that this law effectively raised average pay of these non-managerial employees by almost 18%, a truly remarkable margin, while prices went up only about 15 cents per $4 item. Hopefully this study will finally put an end to the old canard that raising wages for fast food workers leads to widespread job loss and price increases.8. A depressing story from NPR exposes the US Department of Agriculture's “Wildlife Services” program, described as “a holdover from the 1930s, when Congress gave the federal government broad authority to kill wildlife at the request of private landowners….So long as livestock or human life are threatened.” Employees of this program continue to kill “hundreds of thousands of noninvasive animals a year…Even species considered [endangered]…like grizzly bears.” Yet even within the broad mandate of this program, data shows “employees frequently kill native wild animals without evidence of livestock loss,” including 11,000 in Montana. The USDA and the Bureau of Land Management now face increasing calls to overhaul this outdated program.9. Politiken, a prominent Danish newspaper, reports local harbormaster John Anker Nielsen encountered US Navy vessels at the scene of the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage operation in 2022, per Al Mayadeen. Nielsen, the harbormaster of Christianso, told Politiken that in the days after the explosion he tried to initiate a rescue mission “after noticing ships with their transponders turned off and presuming an emergency.” Yet once they drew near, they discovered the vessels to be US Navy warships. According to Nielsen, “the Naval Command then instructed…[him] to turn back.” This report conforms to the narrative of the Nord Stream sabotage as presented by legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh and directly contradicts the narrative put forward by the U.S. government.10. Finally, on October 11th the Democratic National Committee released what it claims is “its first-ever ad focused on third-party candidates,” per DNC Chair Jamie Harrison. The ad features Green Party nominee Jill Stein grotesquely morphing into Donald Trump with dialogue arguing that “a vote for Stein is really a vote for Trump.” As many have remarked, the DNC feeling the need to disseminate such an ad is an ill omen for their chances in the coming election, particularly in Michigan where recent polling shows Stein drawing 40% of Muslim voters, compared to 18% for Trump and just 12% for Kamala Harris, per Reuters. Of course, the DNC could instead direct their efforts to improving their standing with Muslim and Arab voters in Michigan – as well as young progressives throughout the country – by taking a stand against the ongoing genocide in Palestine, but then that isn't really their style.This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

TIMESTAMPS: Intro (0:00) Out of Touch Media (5:34) Interview with William Hartung & Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins (31:51) Outro (1:09:33) - - - Watch full episodes on Rumble, streamed LIVE 7pm ET. Become part of our Locals community - - -  Follow Glenn: Twitter Instagram Follow System Update:  Twitter Instagram TikTok Facebook LinkedIn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Veterans for Peace Nuclear Abolition working group hosted an important webinar about Nuclear Power and Nuclear weapons with William Hartung of the Quincy Institute, Linda Pentz-Gunther of Beyond Nuclear, and Greg Mello of the Los Alamos Study Group. In the show, Harvey and Jim abridged, discussed, and emphasized the topics discussed during the webinar. You will learn things you never knew and be challenged but guided to take action. We need a movement. We finish with Billy Bragg and There will be a Reckoning.

The Next Revolution in Military Affairs-Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles and Newt Gingrich- Reforming the Pentagon for the 21st Century.   Bill Whittle- ‘Attritable Assets' Newt Gingrich. Reforming the Pentagon for the 21st Century   ‘Attritable Assets' https://youtu.be/DzF1syYFfbc?si=2R5AcGB-Z_uVi51k Bill Whittle 187K subscribers 9,575 views May 22, 2024 Meet the Manta Ray: it's unmanned, it's huge, and it can remain on station for months at depths no manned submersible could ever hope to achieve. Meanwhile, in the air, multiple ‘loyal wingman' drones accompany manned stealth fighters and are put into harm's way in place of an irreplaceable human life. This new generation of autonomous, unmanned vehicles occupies the bleeding edge of the next Revolution in Military Affairs. Join our crack team of elite anti-elitists by becoming a member or making a one-time donation right here: https://billwhittle.com/register/   Newt Gingrich. Reforming the Pentagon for the 21st Century Newt's World Reforming the Pentagon for the 21st Century  Jun 07 2024   Other Episodes Newt discusses the Pentagon, its history, and the challenges it faces in modernizing for the 21st century. The Pentagon, built between 1941 and 1943, is the second largest office building in the world and has 27,000 military and civilian employees. The Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2024 provided $825 billion in total funding. Newt's guest, William Hartung, a Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, discusses the influence of large contractors on defense policy and the need for strategic thinking and reform in the defense system. They also discuss the rise of artificial intelligence and the increasing role of Silicon Valley in defense technology.   Check out our ACU Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/ACUPodcast   --------------------------------------------------------------------    HELP ACU SPREAD THE WORD!  Please go to Apple Podcasts and give ACU a 5 star rating. Apple canceled us and now we are clawing our way back to the top. Don't let the Leftist win. Do it now! Thanks. Also Rate us on any platform you follow us on. It helps a lot. Forward this show to friends. Ways to subscribe to the American Conservative University Podcast Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts Click here to subscribe via RSS You can also subscribe via Stitcher FM Player Podcast Addict Tune-in Podcasts Pandora Look us up on Amazon Prime …And Many Other Podcast Aggregators and sites ACU on Twitter- https://twitter.com/AmerConU . Warning- Explicit and Violent video content.   Please help ACU by submitting your Show ideas. Email us at americanconservativeuniversity@americanconservativeuniversity.com   Endorsed Charities -------------------------------------------------------- Pre-Born! Saving babies and Souls. https://preborn.org/ OUR MISSION To glorify Jesus Christ by leading and equipping pregnancy clinics to save more babies and souls. WHAT WE DO Pre-Born! partners with life-affirming pregnancy clinics all across the nation. We are designed to strategically impact the abortion industry through the following initiatives:… -------------------------------------------------------- Help CSI Stamp Out Slavery In Sudan Join us in our effort to free over 350 slaves. Listeners to the Eric Metaxas Show will remember our annual effort to free Christians who have been enslaved for simply acknowledging Jesus Christ as their Savior. As we celebrate the birth of Christ this Christmas, join us in giving new life to brothers and sisters in Sudan who have enslaved as a result of their faith. https://csi-usa.org/metaxas   https://csi-usa.org/slavery/   Typical Aid for the Enslaved A ration of sorghum, a local nutrient-rich staple food A dairy goat A “Sack of Hope,” a survival kit containing essential items such as tarp for shelter, a cooking pan, a water canister, a mosquito net, a blanket, a handheld sickle, and fishing hooks. Release celebrations include prayer and gathering for a meal, and medical care for those in need. The CSI team provides comfort, encouragement, and a shoulder to lean on while they tell their stories and begin their new lives. Thank you for your compassion  Giving the Gift of Freedom and Hope to the Enslaved South Sudanese -------------------------------------------------------- Food For the Poor https://foodforthepoor.org/ Help us serve the poorest of the poor Food For The Poor began in 1982 in Jamaica. Today, our interdenominational Christian ministry serves the poor in primarily 17 countries throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Thanks to our faithful donors, we are able to provide food, housing, healthcare, education, fresh water, emergency relief, micro-enterprise solutions and much more. We are proud to have fed millions of people and provided more than 15.7 billion dollars in aid. Our faith inspires us to be an organization built on compassion, and motivated by love. Our mission is to bring relief to the poorest of the poor in the countries where we serve. We strive to reflect God's unconditional love. It's a sacrificial love that embraces all people regardless of race or religion. We believe that we can show His love by serving the “least of these” on this earth as Christ challenged us to do in Matthew 25. We pray that by God's grace, and with your support, we can continue to bring relief to the suffering and hope to the hopeless.   Report on Food For the Poor by Charity Navigator https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/592174510   -------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer from ACU. We try to bring to our students and alumni the World's best Conservative thinkers. All views expressed belong solely to the author and not necessarily to ACU. In all issues and relations, we hope to follow the admonitions of Jesus Christ. While striving to expose, warn and contend with evil, we extend the love of God to all of his children.

Van, Julia, and Matt discuss how to think about Biden's Gaza ceasefire deal. Why "peace through strength" is a chauvinist meme. A.I. is a violent grift that hasn't changed war. Mexico's election of Claudia Sheinbaum highlights a potential contradiction between industrial policy and geopolitics. Thinking about the meaning of D-Day in light of militarism today. William Hartung and Michael Brenes on A.I. and the War Industry: https://michaelbrenes.substack.com/p/better-defense-through-technologyJamaal Bowman on The Breakfast Club: https://www.un-diplomatic.com/p/white-supremacy-aipac-and-us-foreignRoger Wicker's peace-through-strength chauvinism: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/29/op... Brian Rathbun, Christopher Parker, and Caleb Pomeroy, "Separate but Unequal: Ethnocentrism and Racialization Explain the 'Democratic' Peace in Public Opinion": https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/separate-but-unequal-ethnocentrism-and-racialization-explain-the-democratic-peace-in-public-opinion/0BEEE1D2EC35BFD9EE6A8BA8E344643A 

Newt discusses the Pentagon, its history, and the challenges it faces in modernizing for the 21st century. The Pentagon, built between 1941 and 1943, is the second largest office building in the world and has 27,000 military and civilian employees. The Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2024 provided $825 billion in total funding. Newt's guest, William Hartung, a Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, discusses the influence of large contractors on defense policy and the need for strategic thinking and reform in the defense system. They also discuss the rise of artificial intelligence and the increasing role of Silicon Valley in defense technology.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Israeli attack on a civilian aid convoy, which killed seven World Central Kitchen workers, has pushed U.S. officials to entertain policy alternatives to unconditional aid to Israel. Bill Hartung, national security and U.S. foreign policy analyst at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, discusses the Biden administration's weapons sales to Israel, many of which have not been reported to U.S. Congress. Hartung addresses the role of venture capital firms in shaping the U.S. defense industry, firms which advocate the development of dual-use technology or artificial intelligence as optimized tools to wage warfare.

William Hartung of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft explains the problem of retired military brass working for the arms industry and how this revolving door tends to militarize U.S. foreign policy. He also discusses China's military buildup and why it shouldn't automatically translate to bigger U.S. defense budgets. Other topics include the military industrial complex, Eisenhower's Farewell Address, the Pentagon's inability to pass an audit, and threat inflation, among others.Show NotesWilliam Hartung and Dillon Fisher, "March of the Four-Stars: The Role of Retired Generals and Admirals in the Arms Industry, " Quincy Brief No. 47, October 4, 2023.William Hartung, "Reality Check: Chinese Military Spending in Context," Costs of War Project at Brown University's Watson Institute, December 5, 2023.William Hartung, "Good Times for the Military Industrial Complex," TomDispatch.com, November 12, 2023. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the web version of Foreign Exchanges, but did you know you can get it delivered right to your inbox? Sign up today:Friends, for family reasons and also because of my own mental exhaustion I will be taking a longer than usual break from the newsletter for this year's Thanksgiving holiday. The newsletter will be going quiet following Thursday's roundup and will return to our regular schedule on Tuesday, November 28. As I've written before here I can always tell when it's time for me to take a bit of a break from the newsletter and the truth is we probably passed that point around three or four weeks ago so I'm running on fumes. Thanks for reading and for supporting this venture!TODAY IN HISTORYNovember 14, 1965: The Battle of Ia Drang, the first major engagement between the United States and the North Vietnamese Army, begins. It ended on November 18 with both sides claiming victory, though the NVA's ability to fight the much better armed US Army to a draw was a boost to their morale and probably the battle's most important effect.November 14, 2001: Fighters with the Northern Alliance rebel coalition enter and occupy the city of Kabul, marking the end of the US war in Afghanista—just kidding. I had you going there for a second, didn't I?INTERNATIONALWith deaths due to “extreme heat” projected to increase five-fold by 2050, according to The Lancet Countdown, you'll no doubt be pleasantly surprised to learn that an AP investigative report shows that the “green transition plans” being formulated by most major fossil fuel companies are not green, not transitional, and not even really plans. Without any serious government pressure to force them to invest in genuinely renewable technologies, these firms are able to do things like, say, classify natural gas development as a “green” investment. That's absurd, of course, but who's counting?The main problem with these plans has long been, and continues to be, the fact that fossil fuel companies exempt the products they sell when assessing their progress toward “net zero” carbon emissions. Firms only account for “Scope 1” emissions, which are their direct carbon outputs, and “Scope 2” emissions, the indirect output that results from their production process. The emissions that ensue when people burn the products they sell are considered “Scope 3” and energy firms disavow any responsibility for them. Like tobacco companies, they argue that what the customer does with their products is the customer's business, not theirs. Maybe people just want to buy a barrel of oil and place it in their foyer as a conversation piece or put it to some other use that doesn't emit carbon. Who's to say?MIDDLE EASTISRAEL-PALESTINEEarly Wednesday morning Israeli forces began what they called “a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Shifa hospital” involving “medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians.” There are hundreds of patients and thousands of other people who have been trapped in the hospital by the IDF and the chances that “no harm” will come to any of them in the next several hours are probably slim. Israeli officials have been insisting that Hamas's lair is located underneath the hospital but at this point it's too soon to know if that's the target or if this is a more limited operation. This is a developing story so there's not much more I can say about it at this time.What I can say is that the Biden administration gave a green light to this operation earlier in the day, when White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the administration has “independent intelligence” (which is code for “we didn't get this from the IDF”) that “Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip — including Al-Shifa — and tunnels underneath them to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages.” According to Kirby this intelligence shows that the militant groups have a “command and control” center in Shifa and “have stored weapons there.” Kirby insisted that that the administration was not endorsing an Israeli attack on the hospital, but anybody with ears to hear or eyes to read what he said should have no doubt as to what the intent was.I wrote everything below prior to news of the Israeli assault breaking so some of it might no longer be relevant but I think most of it still is:Gazan health authorities said on Tuesday that some 40 patients at Shifa—three of them babies—have died since that facility ran out of generator fuel on Saturday. Without electricity the hospital cannot maintain its incubator units and so there are now 36 newborns who are at critical risk. With the IDF surrounding the hospital it's also become impossible to transfer the dead to a cemetery, so personnel are planning to bury some 120 bodies in a mass grave on site. Gazan officials have proposed evacuating the facility under the auspices of the Red Cross/Red Crescent and sending its remaining patients to Egypt but there had been no movement on that front at time of writing. The Israeli government has apparently offered to send the hospitals more incubators, a fascinating attempt at a humanitarian gesture that would be completely pointless because the problem isn't the incubators, it's the electricity.In other news:* David Ignatius at The Washington Post reported (I use that term loosely) on Monday that “Israel and Hamas are close to a hostage deal.” With the caveat that if David Ignatius told me the sky was blue I'd glance out the window to double check, the terms he reported are that Hamas would release (or facilitate the release) of the women and children that it and other Gazan militant groups took hostage during their October 7 rampage through southern Israel. This would be done in stages and be matched by the release of Palestinian women and children being held by Israeli authorities. It would also involve a ceasefire of unspecified duration but “perhaps five days” according to Ignatius. The ceasefire could allow some time to address humanitarian issues in Gaza though I don't know what that would entail and whatever it was would almost certainly be inadequate.* Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen met with International Committee of the Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric Egger on Tuesday and later told reporters that the ICRC has had no access to the aforementioned hostages. It's highly unlikely that the Israelis would agree to anything involving hostages without at least proof of life, so this could be a big sticking point with respect to the potential prisoner deal outlined above. Families of the hostages, meanwhile, are marching from Tel Aviv to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem to pressure him to take some action to secure the hostages' release.* Israeli occupation forces killed at least eight Palestinians in the West Bank on Tuesday, seven of them in Tulkarm. The IDF carried out a drone strike in that city, an occurrence that's still relatively rare in the West Bank though it's certainly become more common over the past year and in particular the past month.* Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich issued a statement on Tuesday endorsing what he laughably termed the “voluntary emigration of Gaza Arabs to countries around the world.” I guess “leave or die” is a choice, right? A couple of Israeli politicians floated this idea on Monday in a Wall Street Journal editorial that was less a serious proposal than a written middle finger to Western critics of the Israeli military campaign. That piece didn't go into extensive detail about what a mass relocation would look like—again, it wasn't meant as a serious proposal—but Smotrich's intent is much easier to guess, and that's the permanent ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the relocation of its population as far away from Israel as possible. Smotrich, whose ministerial brief also includes running the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories office, isn't part of Netanyahu's “war cabinet” but that doesn't mean he's completely lacking in influence.* The US and UK governments on Tuesday announced new sanctions targeting Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members along with a Lebanese entity that allegedly facilitates money transfers from Iran to Gazan militant groups. This is the third round of sanctions the Biden administration has imposed since October 7. Also on Tuesday, over 400 employees of the Biden administration sent a joint letter to their boss, Joe Biden, expressing opposition to the administration's approach to the Gaza conflict.YEMENHouthi rebels say they fired another barrage of missiles toward Israel on Tuesday. There's no confirmation of this, though the IDF did say that its air defenses downed a single missile near Eilat that we can probably assume was of Houthi provenance. The leader of Yemen's Houthi movement, Abdulmalik al-Houthi, delivered a speech on Tuesday pledging that his rebel fighters would continue attacking Israel. In particular, Houthi suggested that they could target Israeli commercial vessels in the Red Sea, which would certainly be an easier target for them than Israel itself.IRAQA Turkish drone strike killed two people, both allegedly members of the Sinjar Resistance Units militia, in northern Iraq's Nineveh province on Monday evening. The Sinjar militia was formed in 2014 with assistance from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and is still allied with that group, which makes its personnel potential targets for the Turkish military.Elsewhere, the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court removed two members of the Iraqi parliament on Tuesday, one of whom just happened to be speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi. It's not clear why, though another MP named Laith al-Dulaimi had reportedly sued Halbusi alleging that the speaker forged Dulaimi's name on a resignation letter. Dulaimi was, as it happens, the other MP who had his term ended by the court (I assume that's not a coincidence). The ruling created a potential political crisis for Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaʿ al-Sudani. As speaker, Halbusi was Iraq's leading Sunni Arab politician, and his support was important to Sudani's government. Three members of his Progress Party quit their cabinet posts after the court ruling and it remains to be seen how that will impact Sudani's position.ASIAAFGHANISTANAfghan Commerce Minister Haji Nooruddin Azizi apparently visited Pakistan this week, where—according to the Afghan government—he pressed Pakistani Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani on the issue of all those Afghan migrants the Pakistani government is presently deporting. Specifically it sounds like Azizi raised the issue of allowing deportees to at least take some of their money and/or possessions to Afghanistan with them. Deportees are currently arriving with nothing and are being housed in what are effectively refugee camps—leaving aside the incongruity of being a “refugee” in one's home country—on the Afghan side of the border.MYANMARReports on Monday only hinted at some new fighting in western Myanmar's Chin state, but as more details are emerging the situation there sounds pretty serious. According to the Chin National Front, rebel fighters had by the end of the day seized two Myanmar military outposts and were working to seize control of the Myanmar-Indian border. According to Indian media the fighting has sent some 2000 people streaming across that border to escape. In neighboring Rakhine state, the rebel Arakan Army has also been seizing military outposts and authorities have imposed a curfew in the state capital, Sittwe, as a result. Rebel factions across Myanmar have launched new offensives in recent weeks, starting with the “1027” (for October 27) operations by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army in Shan state. Myanmar's ruling junta is clearly struggling to mount a response.CHINAJoe Biden told reporters on Tuesday that his main goal in meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco this week is to restore “normal” communications between their governments. In particular this would involve a return to regular military-to-military contacts, something Beijing ended in the wake of former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan last year. Any prospect of resuming those contacts was complicated by the fact that former Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu was under US sanction. But as he's no longer defense minister that complication is no longer an issue.AFRICALIBERIALiberian voters turned out on Tuesday for the second round of that country's presidential election, pitting incumbent George Weah against Joseph Boakai. Both candidates finished with just under 44 percent of the vote in last month's first round. Such a close finish might augur poorly for the incumbent in a head to head matchup, though that's just one of many factors that could sway this vote in either direction. Polls have closed in that contest but I have yet to see anything by way of preliminary or partial results.MALIMali's ruling junta says its security forces have seized control over the northern town of Kidal after battling with rebels in that region for several days. The Malian military and mercenary auxiliaries marched on Kidal after United Nations peacekeepers vacated the region as part of their ongoing withdrawal from Mali. Kidal has been a rebel stronghold since the initial northern Mali uprising in 2012 and government control there has been nebulous at best since then. There's been no comment as far as I know from the rebels and it's unclear what their disposition is at this point.ETHIOPIAAccording to Addis Standard, Fano militia fighters attacked a predominantly Oromo community in Ethiopia's Amhara region last week, killing at least 25 people and displacing some 3000 into the Oromia region. The Fano militia is still battling the Ethiopian government but Amhara paramilitary groups have also made a pastime of preying on ethnic Oromo communities (likewise, Oromo militias have preyed on ethnic Amhara). In this case they apparently demanded grain from the community and attacked after residents refused to comply.On a more upbeat note, the US Agency for International Development is reportedly planning to resume food distribution across Ethiopia next month under a “one-year trial period.” The agency suspended its Ethiopian food program earlier this year amid allegations that the aid was being diverted. It resumed providing food aid to Ethiopian refugees last month and is now planning to spend the next year testing whether procedural changes adopted by aid groups and the Ethiopian government are enough to stop that alleged diversion. Solid data is hard to come by but it's possible that hundreds or thousands of Ethiopians have died because of the decision (which the UN World Food Program joined) to suspend food aid.DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGOThe death toll from Sunday's Allied Democratic Forces attack on a village in the eastern DRC's North Kivu province has risen to 33, according to provincial officials. ADF fighters are also believed to have been responsible for attacking a village in neighboring Ituri province on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people.EUROPERUSSIAVladimir Putin signed a new law on Tuesday that permits elections to be held even in parts of Russia that are under martial law. This apparently clears the way for the portions of Ukraine that Moscow claims to have annexed to participate in next year's presidential election. The effect will be to try to stitch those regions a little more tightly to Russia and complicate any possible return to Ukrainian authority.UKRAINEThe European Union promised back in March to supply the Ukrainian military with 1 million 155 mm artillery shells within 12 months. You'll never guess how that went. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told a meeting of EU defense ministers on Tuesday that the bloc isn't going to fulfill its commitment and even went so far as to criticize the fact that it was made in the first place. The will was apparently there, but EU member states still don't have the collective capacity to churn out that many shells that quickly. The effort has apparently sparked a boost in production capacity but not enough to meet the 12 month deadline.SWEDENSweden's NATO accession may be moving slightly forward, as the Turkish parliament's foreign affairs committee will take up the issue on Thursday. It's been about three weeks since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan submitted Sweden's accession to parliament and it should be clear by now that the folks in Ankara are in no particular hurry to work their way through that process. There may be some impetus on the part of other NATO members to have the issue resolved in time for the alliance foreign ministers summit on November 28, but Erdoğan has proven himself to be fairly impervious to that sort of pressure in the past.AMERICASUNITED STATESFinally, TomDispatch's William Hartung wonders whether the “Arsenal of Democracy” really cares all that much about the “democracy” part:The list of major human rights abusers that receive U.S.-supplied weaponry is long and includes (but isn't faintly limited to) Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Turkey, Nigeria, and the Philippines. Such sales can have devastating human consequences. They also support regimes that all too often destabilize their regions and risk embroiling the United States directly in conflicts.U.S.-supplied arms also far too regularly fall into the hands of Washington's adversaries. As an example consider the way the UAE transferred small arms and armored vehicles produced by American weapons makers to extremist militias in Yemen, with no apparent consequences, even though such acts clearly violated American arms export laws. Sometimes, recipients of such weaponry even end up fighting each other, as when Turkey used U.S.-supplied F-16s in 2019 to bomb U.S.-backed Syrian forces involved in the fight against Islamic State terrorists.Such examples underscore the need to scrutinize U.S. arms exports far more carefully. Instead, the arms industry has promoted an increasingly “streamlined” process of approval of such weapons sales, campaigning for numerous measures that would make it even easier to arm foreign regimes regardless of their human-rights records or support for the interests Washington theoretically promotes. These have included an “Export Control Reform Initiative” heavily promoted by the industry during the Obama and Trump administrations that ended up ensuring a further relaxation of scrutiny over firearms exports. It has, in fact, eased the way for sales that, in the future, could put U.S.-produced weaponry in the hands of tyrants, terrorists, and criminal organizations.Now, the industry is promoting efforts to get weapons out the door ever more quickly through “reforms” to the Foreign Military Sales program in which the Pentagon essentially serves as an arms broker between those weapons corporations and foreign governments.Thanks for reading! Foreign Exchanges is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.foreignexchanges.news/subscribe

The United States is Without a Functioning House of Representatives | "Will the Pentagon's Techno-Fantasies Pave the Way for War with China?" | Can Lessons From the Past Save Our Future on an Endangered Planet? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Norman Solomon, an American journalist, media critic, author, and activist discusses his latest book is, “War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine.” Solomon's dozen other books include “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.” He has been actively involved in RootsAction and is the founder of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His recent book deals with the US having a larger military budget than the next 10 countries combined, and how it has been involved in endless wars with Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and many other countries.  The main drivers of these wars are the Military Industrial Complex, Joint Chiefs of Staff, military leaders, apathetic and ill-informed citizens, and ultra-conservative media outlets (as well as some mainstream media), to mention a few.   Diplomacy should not be a dirty word. Solomon's book highlights the costs of war and its racial aspects on people of color.  

This episode doesn't just have a theme, it has a thesis. Have you wondered how precisely the Pentagon manages to siphon so much taxpayer money year after year? How the military-industrial-congressional complex functions in practice? Why US primacy is so expensive yet perpetually in crisis? This episode with William Hartung and Julia Gledhill is something of a tutorial for understanding Pentagon bloat and corruption—which are deeply intertwined. US defense strategy has been hot garbage for, well, as long as I've been alive. It's never been well conceived, sets impossible standards that it uses to request evermore funds when it fails to meet them, and heightens the very threats it aims to guard against. As we discuss in this episode, a key cause of this strategic ineptitude is Pentagon graft and the ability to buy its way out of the kinds of tradeoffs that would impose discipline on strategy-making.Bill and Julia's piece in The Nation: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/pentagon-debt-ceiling-bill/Subscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com

We start the show hearing and discussing clips from Professors Alperovitz and Ruane about why the evidence shows clearly that the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not necessary. We then turn to the article written by William Hartung published in the Peace and Planet News about the movie Oppenheimer, Nuclear Industrial Complex, and public denial. During his article he refers to other movies and thus we share clips (but not spoilers) from Dr. Strangelove and Fail Safe. We also discuss other movies: Threads and The Day After. We finish with a classic from Vera Lynn.

The Senate just passed a defense spending bill with a top line of $886 billion. Added to other national security-related funds like nuclear weapons modernization and homeland security, the U.S. is poised to spend more than one trillion on defense in 2024, with more than half going to military contractors. Julia Gledhill, a Pentagon spending expert with the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), joins us this week to bring us up to speed on the Congressional shenanigans involving the budget, including "emergency spending" that will allow the government to blow past spending limits, Ukraine and Taiwan aid that is expected to be slipped into a supplemental aid package, and how contractors are benefiting from the war in Ukraine, and will continue to do so, long after the conflict ends.In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about the heartbreaking conditions on the ground in Haiti and whether a multinational peacekeeping force would help or hurt the situation. We also discuss the coup in Sudan and how US military assistance has actually made things worse in the African "coup belt."More from Julia Gledhill:1) The ultimate All-American slush fund, with William Hartung, Tom Dispatch, 7/22/23 2) Defense Industry Crying Wolf on Its Finances, POGO, 5/22/233) Lawmakers quietly gave weapons firms bailout for unproven inflation burden, Responsible Statecraft, 3/3/23 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit crashingthewarparty.substack.com

So, Jeffery Epstein WAS blackmailing Bill Gates?! Does this prove Bill Gates lied about his relationship with Epstein? We look at the FBI wrongfully suspending three whistleblowers & the BBC launching ‘Verify' to counter disinformation. PLUS, William Hartung - the author of ‘Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex' joins us. Watch the FULL show only on RUMBLE: https://bit.ly/3qcHYAr  For a bit more from us join our Stay Free Community here: https://russellbrand.locals.com/ Come to my festival COMMUNITY - https://www.russellbrand.com/community-2023/ NEW MERCH! https://stuff.russellbrand.com/

We continue our indictment of the U.S. war machine by welcoming William Hartung of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft to break down the bloated military budget and what we can do about it. Then Cindy Sheehan, joins us to talk about her journey as the mother of a fallen soldier to become the most prominent anti-war activist of the Bush/Cheney era. Plus, Ralph comes down hard on states that deny their citizens Medicaid.William Hartung is an expert on the arms industry and US military budget, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He is the author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex, and the co-editor of Lessons from Iraq: Avoiding the Next War.The Pentagon wants to get rid of some of these weapon system programs, and the Congress says “Oh no, we're going to continue them because… it's a jobs program. It creates jobs, or it retains jobs that are already in shipyards or elsewhere.” Of course, you can never get these members of Congress to understand that a billion dollars in civilian infrastructure investment in this country creates far more jobs than a highly capital-intensive billion dollars in another unneeded weapons system.Ralph NaderI think there's three pillars…What are the costs of this—the opportunity costs?...What do we need to defend ourselves?...And then I think people need to feel like they can influence the government. I think a lot of people have given up. They forget that citizens' movements have had tremendous victories in the past, and they can do so again.William HartungCindy Sheehan is the mother of Casey A. Sheehan, who was killed in action in Iraq on April 4, 2004. She is an anti-war activist, the founder of Gold Star Families, and an organizer of the 2018 Women's March on the Pentagon. She is the author of Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox Newsletter on Substack.I think that as long as you stay in the safe zone of only criticizing Republicans if you're a Democrat, or only criticizing Democrats if you're a Republican, then they give you a platform, they let you use your voice on this national stage. But once I recognized that the Democratic Party were, at that point, enablers of the Bush/Cheney war of terror around the world, and I left the party, then I started to be even more marginalized. And I lost so much support.Cindy SheehanWhat gave me a little bit of hope was the county DA of New York indicting and arresting Donald Trump— for things I think were far less damaging and far less criminal than what the other living presidents like George Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama did. I think that if the DA can prosecute Donald Trump for something less than mass murder or genocide, then maybe my DA in my county I live in can prosecute George Bush for murdering my son.Cindy SheehanIn Case You Haven't Heard1. CNN reports that seven investigators from the Centers for Disease Control fell ill “while studying the possible health impacts” of the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. These investigators experienced sore throats, headaches, coughing and nausea, the same symptoms many residents have reported. In testimony before the Senate in March, Alan Shaw, CEO of Norfolk Southern, said “I believe that the air is safe. I believe that the water is safe.”2. A contingent of left-wing youth at the recent protests in Israel burned their IDF enlistment orders. While this exceedingly courageous act garnered much attention on social media, the sad reality is that the overwhelming majority of Israeli youth are in fact more right-wing than older Israelis and far more right-wing than young people in most every other country. A 2021 poll written up by Haaretz, revealed that “nearly half of ultra-Orthodox and national religious Israeli youth expressed hatred toward Arabs and noted support for stripping them of their citizenship, a sentiment shared by 23 percent of secular youth.”3. A new poll, published in Forbes, shows the impact of Governor Ron DeSantis' education policies: “91% of prospective college students disagree with the governor's policies, 1 in 8 graduating high school students won't attend college in Florida due to the education policy in the state, [and] 1 in 20 current college students in the state plan to transfer because of those policies.”4. The Huffington Post reports that Amazon spent $14.2 million on anti-union consultants in 2022, up nearly $10 million from 2021. This is clearly in response to the successful unionization vote at the JFK8 facility under the auspices of the independent Amazon Labor Union last year.5. In a related story, Bloomberg reports that a federal appeals court has ruled that Elon Musk “must delete his 2018 Twitter post suggesting that Tesla...workers could lose stock options if they formed a union, as it violated labor law.” The panel of 5th circuit judges unanimously opined that “Tesla's history of labor violations supports the NLRB's finding that employees would understand Musk's tweet as a threat to commit another violation by rescinding stock options as retaliation,” for union organizing.6. Rep. Rashida Tlaib is collecting signatures on an official letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland calling on him to end the Justice Department's campaign to have Julian Assange extradited to the U.S., according to the Intercept. So far, other signatories include Reps. Jamaal Bowman, Ilhan Omar, and Cori Bush, with Reps. Ro Khanna, Pramila Jayapal, and AOC expected to sign on before it is sent.7. A new report in the Intercept details the increasing size of settlements being paid out to victims of police violence in the 2020 protests, including tear gassing and “kettling” – the police tactic of trapping and surrounding protesters, usually to carry out mass arrests. Due to the legal structures in place, local taxpayers, not police departments, will foot the bill for these settlements.8. In a historic shift, the Vatican has responded to calls by Indigenous activists and repealed the so-called “Doctrine of Discovery” which “legitimized the colonial-era seizure of Native lands and form the basis of some property laws today.” The Vatican acknowledged that this doctrine “did not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of Indigenous peoples." This was reported by the indigenous-led news service Indian Country Today.9. From Reuters: The Biden Administration “plans to send Mexico an "act now or else" message in coming weeks in an attempt to break a stalemate” over Mexico's decision to nationalize energy and other key resources. Under the rules of the neo-NAFTA trade agreement signed in 2020, the U.S. is entitled to international dispute talks, but has not called for them thus far, instead opting to work with the Canadian government to threaten retaliatory measures against Mexico. U.S. Republicans meanwhile are calling for an invasion of our southern neighbor.10. Bowing to ranching and mining interests, the Intercept reports President Biden is continuing a Trump-era policy of rounding up wild horses in order to clear more land for cattle grazing and extraction. Once the horses have been corralled, the mares will be dosed with contraceptives. Manda Kalimian, president of the wild horse and environmental advocacy group Cana Foundation, is quoted saying “We feel betrayed, because we thought this was an administration that really believed in wildlife protections.”11. Mark Joseph Stern of Slate reports that Judge Reed O'Connor struck down a “major provision of the Affordable Care Act requiring insurers to cover a vast amount of preventive care cost-free.” These include contraception, cancer screening, the HIV prevention drug PrEP, and much pregnancy-related care. The ruling applies nationwide.12. Remember the egg shortage? According to CNN, Cal-Maine Foods – the largest egg producer in the nation – reported that their revenue doubled and profits surged to 718% last quarter as consumers struggled to afford the basic food item. Corporate greed, plain and simple. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

In his recent article, “What Price “Defense”? – America's Costly, Dysfunctional Approach to Security Is Making Us Ever Less Safe”, William Hartung writes, “Forging a more sensible American defense strategy […] The post William Hartung on US Defense Spending appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

More Important Than Jailing Trump, the Jan. 6 Hearings Cry Out For Us to Fix Our Fragile Electoral System That He Exploited | Just the $80 Billion Increase From Last Year's Defense Budget to Today's $858 Billion is More Than Germany, Japan, France and the UK Spend on Defense | As Putin Makes His Last Stand, We Assess the Promise and Peril of Russian Defeat backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

On this edition of Parallax Views, the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft's Dr. Annelle Sheline and William Hartung return to discuss their recent The Nation article "It's Time to Cut Off Arms Sales to the Saudi Regime". Among the topics covered in this conversation: - Saudi Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al-Saud granted legal immunity by the U.S. in lawsuit concerning the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi - The argument for suspension of arms sales to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - OPEC+ cutting oil production - The U.S.-Saudi relationship, oil production, and arms sales; Saudi Arabia is the largest customer of U.S. weapons; vested interests like the military-industrial complex and the U.S.-Saudi relationship - The Yemen War; potential for Congress to pass a Yemen War Powers resolution; where the Yemen War has been since the truce struck up earlier in the year - Statistics on arms sold to Saudi Arabia under the Obama, Trump, and Biden Presidencies - Lobbying by companies like Raytheon - Addressing the argument that the arms industry provides jobs to American citizens and thus the arms sales to Saudi Arabia are necessary - The move of the world towards a multipolar order and how this effects our relationship with other countries; countries like Saudi Arabia don't feel the need to bend to U.S. demands/whims; the consequences of a multipolar world (ie: less stability); adjusting to the changing order (ie: relying more on diplomacy) - America still has the best-funded military; how then is the U.S.'s dominance in question? - The U.S. as overdeveloped in military force and underdeveloped in other areas vital to playing a role in a world where power is more diffuse - What leverage does the U.S. have against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? - Decoupling the arms industry from U.S. foreign policy - How the U.S. arms industry effects the broader Middle East - Saudia Arabia, the UAE, Israel, Iran, and the Abraham Accords - Weakening the power of the arms industry in the U.S.; alternatives to employment; investment in areas other than weapons; green technology and green investments vs. the arms industry - The revolving door between the arms industry and policy-making institutions - The American people's perceptions of U.S. arms sales - What are the biggest misconceptions people have about Yemen and, more broadly, the Middle East in general - And much, much more! In the second segment of the show, Doug Bandow, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan, returns to the program to discuss current geopolitical happenings and the hubris of the foreign policy establishment aka the Blob. Among the topics in this conversation: - Why the Ukraine/Russia war is still the number foreign policy issue in the immediate term and how dangerous the situation is right now - Discussing the Reagan Presidency and the Able Archer 83 NATO/military exercise that could've triggered a nuclear war; this historical incident is often underdiscussed or forgotten today and scared Reagan (for more information on the incident please check out Nate Jones's Able Archer 83: The Secret History of the NATO Exercise That Almost Triggered Nuclear War) - Hubris and sanctimony in the Washington foreign policy establishment - The U.S., human rights, double standards, Saudi Arabia, and Iran - North Korea's latest ICBM test and the failure of the U.S.'s current policy on the DPRK; negotiating with North Korea on arms-related issues using sanctions release as leverage - The crisis in Haiti, the history of U.S. interventions in Haiti, and the calls for a new U.S. intervention in Haiti; Doug's recent American Conservative article "Stop Invading Haiti" - Rising tensions between the U.S. and China; the issue of Taiwan; the Philippines; the South China Sea; the economic front of the U.S. tensions with China, especially in terms of China's hi-tech economy; Doug's recent CATO piece ""The Wages of Washington's Economic War on China Are Not Cheap" - The role of the Global South's relationship with the U.S. and the Global South's perspective on issues like the Ukraine/Russia war - The importance of diplomacy and talks even with our adversaries - The hangover of the U.S.'s time as the post-Cold War unipower - And more!

Den svenska vapenindustrin blomstrar i spåren av Ukrainakriget, men svensk vapenexport har historiskt varit nära sammanflätad med landets neutralitet. Så hur blir det när Sverige vill gå med i Nato? Den globala upprustningen Världen lägger rekordmycket pengar på upprustning och försvar. 2021 spenderade världens länder 2,1 biljoner dollar på militära utgifter, enligt fredsforskningsinstitutet SIPRI:s data. Mycket på grund av att länder som Ryssland, Kina och Indien satsat allt mer på sina militärer, och USA, som lägger ojämförligt mest. Mycket pekar på ett nytt rekordår, efter Rysslands invasion av Ukraina, då också många europeiska länder anslutit sig till rutningen.Vapenförsäljningen blomstrar Konflikt besöker en vapenmässa i Polen dit köpare och säljare från stora delar av världen möts. Trycket är hårt och industrin blomstrar. Det gör den också i Sverige, det blir tydligt när Konflikt besöker Saabs vapenfabrik i Karlskoga. Där vittnar chefer om en stolthet nu, att svenska vapen, som Nlaw, Carl Gustaf och pansarskottet AT4, kan vara med och göra skillnad och hjälpa Ukraina att försvara sig. Men alla i Karlskoga känner inte samma stolthet.Svenska vapen i Ukraina I Ukraina träffar radions korrespondent en ukrainsk soldat som lärt sig använda det svensktillverkade vapnet Carl Gustaf på Youtube. Han ger en bild av krigets blodiga och brutala verklighet och hur de svenska vapnen används i strid. Sverige på väg in i Nato hur blir det då med vapenexporten? Den svenska vapenexporten är historiskt tätt sammanflätad med Sveriges neutralitet och alliansfrihet. Nu, när Sverige tar snabba steg mot Nato, tycker Svenska Freds att Sverige borde ha en seriös debatt om vapenexporten. Den kommer med ett högt pris, menar fredsorganisationen, som har som mål att vapenexporten ska avvecklas. Men när Konflikt träffar Saabs VD Micael Johansson så ser han snarare möjligheter som öppnar sig för företagets affärer om Sverige går med i Nato. Sveriges nya försvarsminister Pål Jonsson (M) har inte tid med en intervju med Konflikt.Medverkande: "Kuzma", prickskytt i Ukraina som använder granatgeväret Carl Gustaf, Mats Fagerberg, marknadschef Saab i Karlskoga, Michael Höglund, chef för Ground Combat, Saab i Karlskoga, Jonatan Edlund, präst i Karlskoga, Micael Johansson, VD Saab, Linda Åkerström, policychef Svenska Freds, William Hartung, försvarsanalytiker vid Quincy Institute for responsible statecraft, Nan Tian, fredsforskare vid SIPRI mflReportrar: Lubna El-Shanti, Kristian ÅströmTekniker: Adam Alvin och Joar JonssonProgramledare: Robin Olin robin.olin@sr.se Producent: Anja Sahlberg anja.sahlberg@sr.se

Scott speaks with William Hartung from the Quincy Institute about ways the arms industry is ripping off American taxpayers. They take a close look at a few cases such as the F-35 and the Littoral Combat Ship. Both weapons systems don't work, but have made the manufacturers and their friends a lot of money. Scott and Hartung also take a step back and examine the overall dynamics of the military-industrial-congressional complex and how they use threat inflation and bad economic arguments to keep the money flowing into their pockets.   Discussed on the show: “How the Arms Industry Scams the Taxpayer” (Antiwar.com) The Iron Triangle by Gordon Adams Scott's interview with Michael Tracey William Hartung is a Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and the author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex. Find him on Twitter @WilliamHartung. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Thc Hemp Spot. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 Download Episode. Scott speaks with William Hartung from the Quincy Institute about ways the arms industry is ripping off American taxpayers. They take a close look at a few cases such as the F-35 and the Littoral Combat Ship. Both weapons systems don't work, but have made the manufacturers and their friends a lot of money. Scott and Hartung also take a step back and examine the overall dynamics of the military-industrial-congressional complex and how they use threat inflation and bad economic arguments to keep the money flowing into their pockets.   Discussed on the show: “How the Arms Industry Scams the Taxpayer” (Antiwar.com) The Iron Triangle by Gordon Adams Scott's interview with Michael Tracey William Hartung is a Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and the author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex. Find him on Twitter @WilliamHartung. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Thc Hemp Spot. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

William Hartung is a national security and foreign policy expert at the Quincy Institute, author of “Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex.” *Follow him on Twitter: @WilliamHartung

Yanis Varoufakis on the war in Ukraine and why the West would be “playing with fire” by pursuing regime change in Russia; Foreign policy expert William Hartung on ending the war in Yemen and why hawks in Washington are pushing for even more military spending; Colombian environmentalist and vice-presidential candidate Francia Márquez says “a new form of government is possible” in the country. Get Democracy Now! delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for the Daily Digest: democracynow.org/subscribe

Yanis Varoufakis on the war in Ukraine and why the West would be “playing with fire” by pursuing regime change in Russia; Foreign policy expert William Hartung on ending the war in Yemen and why hawks in Washington are pushing for even more military spending; Colombian environmentalist and vice-presidential candidate Francia Márquez says “a new form of government is possible” in the country. Get Democracy Now! delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for the Daily Digest: democracynow.org/subscribe

In December, the Pentagon got a $768 billion budget approved, despite the withdrawal from Afghanistan, with the aim to counter China and build Ukraine's military strength. This has been a bonanza for arms makers like Raytheon, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Northrup Gruman. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, we saw a spike in these companies' stock prices. In our latest episode, we talk about arms manufacturers with William Hartung of the Quincy Institute. We discuss how the war in Ukraine, potential conflict in the South China Sea and wars in Yemen and other parts of the world are critical to their business model. We also talk about how the bureaucracy of the Pentagon and Washington D.C. gives these companies so much influence. William D. Hartung is Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and an expert on the arms trade, Pentagon spending and strategy, and nuclear weapons policy. His most recent book is Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex. Outro- 1 Trillion Dollars by Anti-Flag ---------------------------- Links// Pathways to Pentagon Spending Reductions: Removing the Obstacles (https://bit.ly/3ugnWmN) Ukraine has will, but Russia has might: How their military forces match up (https://bit.ly/3wuuKAh) Hartung: “Arming Repression: U.S. Military Support for Saudi Arabia, from Trump to Biden.”(https://bit.ly/3L4IoxJ) Follow Green and Red// https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast Check out our new and improved website: https://greenandredpodcast.org/ Join our Discord Party: https://bit.ly/36hqx7X Donate to Green and Red Podcast// Become a recurring donor at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast Or make a one time donation here: https://bit.ly/DonateGandR This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). “Green and Red Blues" by Moody. Editing by Isaac

William Hartung, Director of Arms and Security Program at Center for International Policy, discusses the US currently witnessing of the realignment of Allies and reevaluating the United States' European strategy and global strategy. Hartung explains that the Russian invasion of Ukraine changing the European Union and NATO dynamics “is inevitable”, and that he hopes this will mean Europe doing more its own defense and being better about coordination among European NATO members”. His fears is that it will become more about relying on the U.S. to continue the “global expansion” of the US military and becoming the world-wide watchdog, ready to commit “to fight almost anywhere” in the world.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Institute for Responsible Statecraft's William Hartung:  Dangers of Enforcing Ukraine 'No Fly Zone' and Urgent Need for Viable War Exit StrategyStand.earth's Nathan Taft: Amid Ukraine War, Climate Groups Call on Biden to Invoke Defense Production Act for RenewablesClimate Psychiatry Alliance's Lise Van Susteren: Climate Anxiety: Addressing the Psychological Effects of Global Warming Bob Nixon's Under-reported News Summary • U.S. thaws on Venezuelan oil sanctions while banning Russian oil • Clean energy demands could set off  environmentally damaging mining booms• Turbo Tax maker Intuit facing mass consumer arbitration cases

Institute for Responsible Statecraft's William Hartung:  Dangers of Enforcing Ukraine 'No Fly Zone' and Urgent Need for Viable War Exit StrategyStand.earth's Nathan Taft: Amid Ukraine War, Climate Groups Call on Biden to Invoke Defense Production Act for RenewablesClimate Psychiatry Alliance's Lise Van Susteren: Climate Anxiety: Addressing the Psychological Effects of Global WarmingBob Nixon's Under-reported News Summary • U.S. thaws on Venezuelan oil sanctions while banning Russian oil • Clean energy demands could set off  environmentally damaging mining booms• Turbo Tax maker Intuit facing mass consumer arbitration cases

The world is witnessing the horrors of war live on TV including its impact on civilian populations. According to the UN there have been 636 civilian casualties and 1, 125 injured. As the war drags on, more humanitarian corridors have opened most recently in a Province in North-Eastern Ukraine close to the Russian border. Over two million Ukrainians have fled, most are in neighboring Poland where the welcome mat has been laid out for them. There are reports however, that Black and other refugees of color fleeing the Ukraine are having a difficult time getting out of Ukraine and are being denied entrance to Poland or treated in a racist manner on the one hand by Ukrainian police and on the other hand by Polish guards. Today we dig deeper into the crisis, with our guests, historian and Professor Gerald Horne who has recently written an article in Monthly Review on the Ukraine/Russia conflict, and scholar William Hartung, senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. His work focuses on the arms industry and the U.S. military budget. What are the historic routes, why would a no-fly zone lead to widening the war, what has been the role of NATO and the US?

The world is witnessing the horrors of war live on TV including its impact on civilian populations. According to the UN there have been 636 civilian casualties and 1, 125 injured. As the war drags on, more humanitarian corridors have opened most recently in a Province in North-Eastern Ukraine close to the Russian border. Over two million Ukrainians have fled, most are in neighboring Poland where the welcome mat has been laid out for them. There are reports however, that Black and other refugees of color fleeing the Ukraine are having a difficult time getting out of Ukraine and are being denied entrance to Poland or treated in a racist manner on the one hand by Ukrainian police and on the other hand by Polish guards. Today we dig deeper into the crisis, with our guests, historian and Professor Gerald Horne who has recently written an article in Monthly Review on the Ukraine/Russia conflict, and scholar William Hartung, senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. His work focuses on the arms industry and the U.S. military budget. What are the historic routes, why would a no-fly zone lead to widening the war, what has been the role of NATO and the US?

To seek more insight on the Ukraine and Russia conflict, Todd is joined by William Hartung, who is the director of the arms and security project at the center for international policy. Todd gets William's insight and perspective as the world awaits to see how the Ukraine conflict will unfold. Todd is then joined by Chris Powell to speak on his latest article. Tune in weekdays 3-6 PM EST on WTIC Newstalk 1080 ;or on the Audacy app!

Mark Sleboda, Moscow-based international relations security analyst, joins us to discuss Kazakhstan. Multilateral peacekeeping forces have begun arriving in Kazakhstan to stop the violent uprisings and stabilize the situation. The troops include security and protection for Russia's space center and related facilities.Dr. Yolandra Hancock, board-certified pediatrician and obesity medicine specialist, joins us to discuss COVID-19. A critical increase in Omicron infections is having a dramatic impact on the economy as many businesses are unable to field enough employees to operate. Ajamu Baraka, 2016 US vice presidential candidate for the Green Party, joins us to discuss Ukraine. Baraka explains the situation in Ukraine, and argues that those who desire peace should be motivated to try and halt this potentially extinction-level disaster foisted upon the world by the Biden administration. George Koo, journalist, social activist, and international business consultant, joins us to discuss Asia. In another move to increase tension in the Asia Pacific region, Japan and Australia have signed a defense treaty that will allow their militaries to enter and leave each other's nations with much less effort. Also, North Korea began the year with another missile test.Laith Marouf, broadcaster and journalist based in Beirut, joins us to discuss the Middle East. For the third day in a row, US bases came under attack in Iraq. While no one was injured, it appears that 2022 will be a year of continuous attacks against US troops in Iraq and Syria.Leo Flores, Latin America coordinator for Code Pink, joins us to discuss the Global South. The neoliberal economic model in Brazil is producing miserable working conditions and pay for most workers. Therefore, it appears that the nation will follow the rest of the continent in a leftward direction when, and if, former leader Lula De Silva is swept back into office.Nick Davies, peace activist and author of "Blood on Our Hands: The American Invasion of Iraq," joins us to discuss the Pentagon budget. William Hartung writes about many of the issues that are created by selling weapons to despotic regimes. He explains why these moves undermine US security interests worldwide.Dan Lazare, investigative journalist and author of "America's Undeclared War," joins us to discuss the upcoming meeting between US and Russian diplomats regarding Russia's security demands.

On this edition of Parallax Views, we have a double-header episode. First, free speech is an issue often discussed in American politics. One aspect of that discussion involves a movement called BDS, or Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions. The BDS movement seeks to pressure Israel on issues related to Palestinian human rights vis-a-vis the three measures of its initials. This has caused backlash from Israel and its supporters, including many evangelicals Christians in the United States. In an attempt to quash the BDS movement, the conservative organization ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) and certain states within the U.S. are seeking to put anti-BDS laws on the books. This led to Arkansas Times publisher Alan Leverett being asked to sign a pledge that his publication would make a pledge to Israel against BDS. Leverett refused on the grounds that the publication is neither for or against Israel, is focused on local issues of significance to Arkansas rather than the Middle East, and that said the state forcing such a pledge from the Arkansas Times violates both the 1st and 14th amendments. This has not only cost the publication in advertising revenue, but has also led to a court case in which the Arkansas Times is being supported by the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). The case, Leverett says, is not so much about Israel/Palestine (Leverett's publication has no stance on this issue) but rather free speech. The case will likely go to the Supreme Court and has ramification for freedom of speech across America. Alan Leverett  joins us to discuss this case and its implications, which has gained more attention thanks to his November op-ed in the New York Times entitled "We're a Small Arkansas Newspaper. Why is the State Making Us Sign a Pledge About Israel?" Then, the Center for International Policy's William Hartung joined me to discuss the war in Yemen and how U.S. arms sales from the Obama, Trump, and Biden Presidencies have enabled the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to carry out deadly blockades and bombings on the Yemeni people. President Biden had promised to end the U.S. support for the war in Yemen. However, he is now signing off on an arms sale worth $650 million. Congress, both Senate and the House, are seeking way to block the sales from happening. Said attempt to block the sale has received bipartisan support with its proponents including Bernie Sanders, Rand Paul, Ilhan Omar, and Ro Khanna. William and I discuss all of this as well as the problem with Washington's foreign policy establishment aka the D.C. "Blob", the changing consensus around U.S. involvement in the Middle East, the arms race with China, progressives and conservatives working together on issues pertaining to war and peace, countering the slur of "isolationism" when criticizing U.S. foreign policy, and more. Arming Repression: U.S. Military Support for Saudi Arabia, from Trump to Biden by William D. Hartung - Center for International Policy, Arms and Security Program - December 2021 "The Biden Administration's Missile Sale to Saudi Arabia Is Offensive, and Must Be Stopped" by William Hartung - Forbes 11/28/21 "Congress Should Cut Off U.S. Military Support for Saudi Arabia" by William Hartung - Forbes 11/8/21

William Hartung conta como os grandes ganhadores das guerras norte-americanas têm sido empresas de armamento, logística, construção e mercenários. Para além de figuras como o ex-vice-presidente dos EUA Dick Cheney que, quando foi secretário da Defesa, contratou a Halliburton para privatizar o apoio ao exército e depois se tornou o seu administrador antes de voltar à política. Um artigo lido por Carlos Carujo.

On this edition of Parallax Views, we have a double-header episode. First, free speech is an issue often discussed in American politics. One aspect of that discussion involves a movement called BDS, or Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions. The BDS movement seeks to pressure Israel on issues related to Palestinian human rights vis-a-vis the three measures of its initials. This has caused backlash from Israel and its supporters, including many evangelicals Christians in the United States. In an attempt to quash the BDS movement, the conservative organization ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) and certain states within the U.S. are seeking to put anti-BDS laws on the books. This led to Arkansas Times publisher Alan Leverett being asked to sign a pledge that his publication would make a pledge to Israel against BDS. Leverett refused on the grounds that the publication is neither for or against Israel, is focused on local issues of significance to Arkansas rather than the Middle East, and that said the state forcing such a pledge from the Arkansas Times violates both the 1st and 14th amendments. This has not only cost the publication in advertising revenue, but has also led to a court case in which the Arkansas Times is being supported by the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). The case, Leverett says, is not so much about Israel/Palestine (Leverett's publication has no stance on this issue) but rather free speech. The case will likely go to the Supreme Court and has ramification for freedom of speech across America. Alan Leverett  joins us to discuss this case and its implications, which has gained more attention thanks to his November op-ed in the New York Times entitled "We're a Small Arkansas Newspaper. Why is the State Making Us Sign a Pledge About Israel?" Then, the Center for International Policy's William Hartung joined me to discuss the war in Yemen and how U.S. arms sales from the Obama, Trump, and Biden Presidencies have enabled the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to carry out deadly blockades and bombings on the Yemeni people. President Biden had promised to end the U.S. support for the war in Yemen. However, he is now signing off on an arms sale worth $650 million. Congress, both Senate and the House, are seeking way to block the sales from happening. Said attempt to block the sale has received bipartisan support with its proponents including Bernie Sanders, Rand Paul, Ilhan Omar, and Ro Khanna. William and I discuss all of this as well as the problem with Washington's foreign policy establishment aka the D.C. "Blob", the changing consensus around U.S. involvement in the Middle East, the arms race with China, progressives and conservatives working together on issues pertaining to war and peace, countering the slur of "isolationism" when criticizing U.S. foreign policy, and more. Arming Repression: U.S. Military Support for Saudi Arabia, from Trump to Biden by William D. Hartung - Center for International Policy, Arms and Security Program - December 2021 "The Biden Administration's Missile Sale to Saudi Arabia Is Offensive, and Must Be Stopped" by William Hartung - Forbes 11/28/21 "Congress Should Cut Off U.S. Military Support for Saudi Arabia" by William Hartung - Forbes 11/8/21

The U.S. military budget is larger than those of the next 11 highest spenders combined. William Hartung, Director of the Arms & Security Program at the Center for International Policy discusses what cuts would make military spending more efficient. William D. Hartung bio William D. Hartung, “Profits of War: Corporate Beneficiaries of the Post-9/11 Pentagon Spending Surge,” Watson Institute of Public and International Affairs, September 13, 2021. William D. Hartung, “Profiteers of Armageddon: Explaining the Money Behind the Pentagon's Nuclear Weapon Build Up,” Inkstick Media, October 12, 2021. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

William Hartung returns to the show for a quick episode about a press release he published at the Institute for Public Accuracy. Hartung describes the current setup of America's ICBMs. The missiles are spread across the country, sitting on hair-trigger alert. It's a setup that many experts admit is dangerous, and unnecessary. Yet any effort to roll back the program has been blocked by the Senators who's states benefit the most from the presence of silos, as well as the companies that build them. Hartung explains what's at stake if the status quo is allowed to continue.  Discussed on the show: “How the ICBM Lobby is Threatening Armageddon” (Institute for Public Accuracy) “To Avoid Armageddon, Don't Modernize Missiles—Eliminate Them” (The Nation)  “Inside the ICBM Lobby: Special Interests Or the National Interest?” (Arms Control Association)  William Hartung is director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, and the author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex. Find him on Twitter @WilliamHartung. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Dröm; Free Range Feeder; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

William Hartung returns to the show for a quick episode about a press release he published at the Institute for Public Accuracy. Hartung describes the current setup of America's ICBMs. The missiles are spread across the country, sitting on hair-trigger alert. It's a setup that many experts admit is dangerous, and unnecessary. Yet any effort to roll back the program has been blocked by the Senators who's states benefit the most from the presence of silos, as well as the companies that build them. Hartung explains what's at stake if the status quo is allowed to continue.  Discussed on the show: “How the ICBM Lobby is Threatening Armageddon” (Institute for Public Accuracy) “To Avoid Armageddon, Don't Modernize Missiles—Eliminate Them” (The Nation)  “Inside the ICBM Lobby: Special Interests Or the National Interest?” (Arms Control Association)  William Hartung is director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, and the author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex. Find him on Twitter @WilliamHartung. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Dröm; Free Range Feeder; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

Texas Puts Constitutional Rights Up For Sale With a Soviet-Style Regime of Informants | The Bitter Bankruptcy Deal That Allows the Sackler Family to Keep Their Ill-Gotten Gains | Afghanistan as the Latest Example of U.S. Arms Ending Up With U.S. Adversaries backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Scott talks to William Hartung about America's nuclear policy and the shocking profit motives that end up determining it. Hartung draws particular attention to land-based ICBMs, which, he explains, aren't nearly as effective, since they're fixed in one place, and for that same reason are especially vulnerable to the possibility of an accidental launch. When a country's government thinks their missile silos are being attacked, they have very little time to decide whether to launch those missiles in a counter-strike before losing the opportunity forever. This is why cutting back on ICBMs is one of the most important steps in reducing the risk of nuclear war. Unfortunately, leading voices in the U.S. government actually want to expand the nuclear arsenal, and since the money for such programs is often spread out in local political districts, opposition can be nearly impossible. Discussed on the show: "Inside the ICBM Lobby: Special Interests Or the National Interest?" (Arms Control Association) "George Carlin: Jammin' in New York (TV Special 1992)" (IMDb) William Hartung is director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, and the author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex. Find him on Twitter @WilliamHartung. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

Scott talks to William Hartung about America's nuclear policy and the shocking profit motives that end up determining it. Hartung draws particular attention to land-based ICBMs, which, he explains, aren't nearly as effective, since they're fixed in one place, and for that same reason are especially vulnerable to the possibility of an accidental launch. When a country's government thinks their missile silos are being attacked, they have very little time to decide whether to launch those missiles in a counter-strike before losing the opportunity forever. This is why cutting back on ICBMs is one of the most important steps in reducing the risk of nuclear war. Unfortunately, leading voices in the U.S. government actually want to expand the nuclear arsenal, and since the money for such programs is often spread out in local political districts, opposition can be nearly impossible. Discussed on the show: "Inside the ICBM Lobby: Special Interests Or the National Interest?" (Arms Control Association) "George Carlin: Jammin' in New York (TV Special 1992)" (IMDb) William Hartung is director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, and the author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex. Find him on Twitter @WilliamHartung. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

It’s all about bragging. Trump said his “deal” between the UAE and Israel would create a half million new jobs. The true number is less than a tenth of that. On this show Pentagon arms expert William Hartung explains how The post Trump Floods the Mid-East with US Weapons appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.

Dr. James Acton of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace joins Press the Button for an in-depth discussion on what secret nuclear weapons program President Donald Trump was referring to in his recent interview with journalist Bob Woodward, and what could happen if nuclear and non-nuclear capabilities continue to become increasingly entangled. Early Warning features William Hartung of the Center for International Policy on the Pentagon's $13.3 billion contract award to Northrop Grumman for a new nuclear weapon.

The Trump administration's budget request for 2021 is out, and it calls for an eye-popping $75 billion in nuclear weapons spending. William Hartung of the Center for International Policy returns to Press the Button to discuss the exploding nuclear budget: why it's happening, what it means for spending on other things, and why it's so dangerous. Early Warning features our policy director Tom Collina and Erica Fein of Win Without War discussing the winners and losers of the budget request, and recent legislation introduced by Rep. Ilhan Omar that aims to outline a progressive foreign policy vision for the United States.   Read more about the exploding military budget: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/pentagon-military-spending/

Today, a conversation with Louis Fisher on the 1973 War Powers Act, designed to limit the U.S. president's ability to initiate or escalate military actions abroad. Louis Fisher is a scholar at The Constitution Project. Then, Mitch Jeserich talks to arms specialist William Hartung about the economics and who makes money during a war. He is the director of the Arms and Security Project at Center for International Policy and author Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex. The post The War Powers Act and The Making Money on War appeared first on KPFA.

William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, sits down with Joe Cirincione to discuss the corporate connection to US arms sales abroad, and whether or not companies manufacturing weapons of war should bear responsibility for the casualties incurred as a result of their use. Joe Cirincione hosts Early Warning with Ploughshares Fund Deputy Director of Policy Mary Kaszynski and Jessica Lee, Senior Director at Council of Korean Americans. Also, Michelle Dover and Joe Cirincione answer a question from Melissa about the differences in US policy toward Iran and North Korea. U.S. Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia: The Corporate Connection, William Hartung's new report: https://static.wixstatic.com/ugd/fb6c59_7fa031bf808544b69083470227cc59fb.pdf Have a question about nuclear issues? Email us at pressthebutton@ploughshares.org

William Hartung joins me to discuss his book, Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex. In the episode, we discuss many of the defining moments of the defense industrial base, including: contract terms and cost overruns on the C-5A during the 1960s; the Lockheed bail out and international bribery scandals of the 1970s; the spare-parts pricing scandals of the 1980s, such as the $600 toilet seat; and the industry consolidation in the post-Cold War 1990s. We also touch on how Congress gets involved in weapon systems decisions; why a dollar spent on the defense industry doesn't produce as many jobs as investments in healthcare, education, and infrastructure; whether contractors can be considered specialists in government compliance; and much more. I'd like to thank Bill for joining me on Acquisition Talk. Be sure to check out some of other work, such as his Twitter feed, articles at The Nation, Defense One, The Mises Institute,  his other books on Amazon. Check out his official page at the Center for International Policy. This podcast was produced by Eric Lofgren. Soundtrack by urmymuse: "reflections of u". You can follow us on Twitter @AcqTalk and find more information at AcquisitionTalk.com.

An expert panel discusses the risks and tradeoffs of the Trump administration’s proposed military buildup and budget rebalancing away from international assistance and foreign aid. Speakers: Sarah Chayes, Bridget Conley, William Hartung, Mark Thompson. (Recorded: Apr 05, 2017)

https://onthegroundshow.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/OTG-MAY27-2016.mp3 The third day of the historic Breaking Though Power mobilization held in DC focused on war. The organizer, Ralph Nader, said that the day was dedicated to "enhancing the waging of peace over the waging of war...the horrors of war, its huge costs here and abroad to innocents and the weakening blow backs of Empire amidst a collapse of constitutional and international law." We feature author and activist William Hartung. Also, journalist E.R. Shipp joins us to talk about the acquittal of one of six Baltimore police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray and activist Kymone Freeman discusses a "Displacement-Free Zone" economic forum happening in Wards 7 and 8 in DC. Headlines: -Veteran consumer and civic engagement advocate Ralph Nader sponsored the 'Breaking Through Power' gathering this week, which brought together an array of those working for social justice to the nation's capital. -The fight for $15 took to the streets yesterday as McDonald's held its annual meeting outside Chicago in Oak Brook, Illinois. -A national strike is ongoing in France. As protests against President François Hollande's controversial set of labor reforms deepened, workers in France's nuclear plants joined the nationwide action. -In Brazil, suspicions have been confirmed that the ouster of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff is, in fact, a coup designed to eradicate a wide corruption probe, Brazil's largest newspaper on Monday published evidence of a "national pact" between a top government official and oil executive. -This week’s Black Lives Matter news comes from Baltimore, where Police Officer Edward Nero was acquitted of all charges in the death of an unarmed African American man, Freddie Gray. Journalist E.R. Shipp joins us to discuss the case. Links: BreakingThroughPower.org Displacement-Free Zone Equitable Economic Development Forum

William Hartung, the director of the Arms and Security Project the the Center for International Policy and author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex, talks about the history and current state of nuclear arms development around the world.Download mp3 at www.archive.org

This page and podcast are produced and paid for by Tell Somebody. A new report entitled “Bombs vs. Budgets” examines the nuclear weapons lobby.  According to Study author William Hartung: “…the nuclear arms lobby and its allies on Capitol Hill are seeking to block reductions in systems we don’t need at prices we can’t afford.　 This unnecessary spending is being pressed by some of the very same members of Congress who have argued that deficit reduction and greater spending discipline should be our top priorities.”   On the June 19, 2012 edition of Tell Somebody this Tuesday at 6pm, William Hartung talks about the report and the role of the Kansas City Plant in the nuclear weapons complex.   Also, in the wake of the Kansas City, Missouri city council's resoulution in support of KC Move To Amend's call to overturn Citizens United, Mark Hays, campaign coordinator for Public Citizen’s Democracy Is For People campaign talks about  Resolutions Week, a push by Public Citizen and partner organizations to pass local and state resolutions nationwide.   Click on the pod icon above or the .mp3 filename below to listen to the show, or right-click and choose "save target as" to save a copy of the audio file to your computer.  You can also subscribe to the podcast, for free, at the iTunes store or your podcast directory. If you have any comments or questions about the show or any problems accessing the files, send an email to: mail@tellsomebody.us

William Hartung of the New America Foundation assesses the debate over nuclear proliferation.