President Obama is the president who understands current global situation  . He is definitely not a hawk and knows limitations of any military engagements.

I completely support his leading from behind strategy. What did previous president’s aggressive “leading from front” bring us…other than headaches and loss of respect in the world.

We should work with allies and parties involved in resolving middle-east and Iran issue. 

Obama may be feigning a move away from Israel, but the Al CIAda bogey man machine is gearing up again with this strange group of canadians in Algeria,  Frances grab for Uranium mines in Mali, and the BBC – mercenary onslaught of Syria. 

Mercenaries are presented as Jihadi, although there may actually be a few misguided religious extremists included in these Mossad-led adventures. 

Pearl, Wolfowitz, Pipes, Kristol, Kagan and the other Neocons and their Plan for the New American Century haven’t missed a beat. They have just stepped out of the limelight for a while.

look at all the military men and women who supported Ron Paul…and look at the reasons…

If the Security Council could act more unanimously — i.e., if China and Russia could coordinate with the USA more often — wouldn’t a more global strategy for global stability be more attainable?  Anyone heard from Putin lately?  Or don’t nuclear weapons matter anymore, there being no grand two-sided standoff in place.

Please, Tom, refrain from interrupting your guest(s) in mid-sentence.

Wohlforth is speculating on possibilities without offering any empiridal evidence that those possibilites are in any way likely to occur.

To the thought that our economy would suffer without the defense stimulus – build a rocket ship.  Seriously, build 10, the logistiscs and training of those things would be worth far more than killing machines.

I think the time has come for the U.S. to stop spending so much money abroad on military operations.  There are many domestic issues that could benefit tremendously from even a fraction of the money we’ve spent in the last 12 years on defense.  The problem becomes though, if we shrink our overseas military operations and reduce the size of our fighting forces, what happens to all the soldiers, airmen, sailors, marines that move from the service to the private sector at home?  Will this create a lot more unemployment and need for government services? I hate the thought that our servicemen and servicewomen won’t be able to support themselves in our current economy once they’re out of uniform. That’s not how we should treat our soliders.

Who are we kidding? Most of U.S. foreign policy and military intervention is, and has been for many decades, designed to manipulate if not control outright conditions to be favorable to the ruling elite and the corporations that employ them. 

Look at revolving door politician>corporate CEO/president >cycles over the years. Look at Wall Street involvement in 9/11. Look at politicians’ connections to military contractors. Look at decades of U.S. subversion or outright overthrow of democratically elected governments when they didn’t play our game. Look at U.S. support of dictatorships when they did our bidding.

Why isn’t this documented history represented on this program?!

.

I would like to Pohsen: “We have huge infrastructure expenditures to make” w.r.t. not spending it on the military side, that there’s “no difference”.

There is a difference: The multiplier effect of almost every other way to spend a federal dollar is greater than when it’s spent on the military.

 Who’s gonna win the Super Bowl. I see you got your foam finger ready. USA! USA! USA!

Thank you for providing all of the interesting topics and format that you present on your show.  I very much enjoy having the opportunity to learn about these issues, and usually I am satisfied with what I hear.  However, at times I find myself distressed about how guests are interrupted in a challenging (and sometimes disrespectful) way when they are in mid sentence.  I realize that there are times when interruption is important to the
goal of disseminating information on your show or having breaks , but I
find that your show relative to other NPR programs (e.g. Fresh Air and others) interrupts more and is less respectful.  Please, Tom, rethink the degree to which guests are interrupted, and when they are interrupted, please soften the language and tone.

I appreciate having this opportunity to provide you feedback, and I understand the challenge of providing a show that

- Provides accurate & interesting information
- Is entertaining (sometimes this can err on the side of disrespectful controversy, which is the source of my concern)
- Is respectful to listeners & guest.

Best of luck and continued success with your program!!

Ron Paul was a lone courageous voice in the GOP and presidential debates in 2007 advocating that the US should stop be the world’s policeman and involved in regime change. Five years later we can see how right Dr. Paul’s position was, with NPR now finally discussing this issue in a backdoor method with Mr. Posen. Dr. Paul was deliberately labeled as isolationist, when in fact he encouraged diplomacy and trade among nations. But no one like his idea of NOT having the US throw its weight around with carrier fleets (which are designed to project force), fly overs, and military occupations to make the world safe for democracy–While making a handsome profit for the military industrial complex.

The US has been using the CIA for decades in dirty covert operations to effect policy changes, as well a the US military as a blunt instrument to instill “democracy”. It has failed miserably at a great cost of lives and treasure.

Stop for a moment and imagine how any of us would feel if the same policy of convert and overt force from another country was applied here domestically to get us to do what is in our–or others– best interests?  Would we not resent it, even resist? Of course we would. Its only human nature to do so.

But US foreign policy does not threat the people in other counties as humans only as political materiel to shape them into our image as a American “mini me”. We apply aid and force in equal measures to do this, and yet somehow surprised that our subjects do not respond favorably to our recipe.

How about converting our military industries to production of restoration and replacement parts for our infrastructure and buildings including houses–to redeploy our troops in domestic public reconstruction?

As Howard Fineman pointed out to Chris Matthews today, Sec. Hillary Clinton’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees could be viewed as both the final event of the 2012 Presidential election, and the first event of the 2016 US Presidential campaign.

Clinton masterfully flicked aside the arguments and statements of the Benghazi obsessives, like Sen. (Ayn) Rand Paul, who hilariously imagined himself as President and firing Sec. Clinton; and Sen. Johnson who accused Sec. Clinton of using the ongoing FBI investigation as “a good excuse” and who claimed that Sec. Clinton was “purposefully misleading the American people.”

Then there was the finger-wagging fool from South Carolina, Rep. Jeff Duncan, who accused the Secretary of “national security malpractice” and suggested that she should have resigned as a result of the attacks.

My suggestion to Sec. Clinton – save these tapes.  They are akin to how NBA players “posterize” an opponent by dunking over them in spectacular fashion.

For more:

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/clinton-benghazi-testimony-86611.html#ixzz2IqGADFIK

http://dailycaller.com/2013/01/23/clinton-on-benghazi-story-confusion-what-difference-does-it-make-video/

While the deaths of 4 Americans in Benghazi is certainly important, this attempt at a 20/20 hindsight-filled blame game is beyond the pale.  The focus should be on tracking down and prosecuting with extreme prejudice those invloved in the attack, and on preventing similar attacks in the future.

BTW:  Americans killed by firearms since Newtown – at least 1173, nearly 300 times the Benghazi death toll.

Source:http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2012/12/gun_death_tally_every_american_gun_death_since_newtown_sandy_hook_shooting.html

Tom,
This is a fantastic topic. I think what we need in this country is to enact a law that says we should not be borrowing money to pay for a war. And the we need to have an itemized federal tax for every war we go into. I would love to see how much the American public is interested in world engagement.

Raj

Why not bring our resourses back home, remember in the fifties the ninties it’s time, we could do some thing simple like a bike hike trail from the east coast to the west coast promoting commrence along the trail and healthy living imagine all the fresh gardens you could grow along the trail and tourism that you could promote yea a trans conteintail trail.