Military and Defence Policy Archives - KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show

You may have thought it began after 9/11. But it really all started in 1947, as National Security Archive Scoville Fellow Rachel Santarsiero explains. The focus of our huge arsenal then quickly shifted from Germany and Japan to the perceived The post 75 Years of National Security State: America? appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

Private Security Firms; just part of doing business, right? Blackwater was America’s version in Iraq; The Wagner Group is Russia’s today in Ukraine and Africa. Atrocities in the Donbass region of Ukraine? Russia cynically said, that’s not us, it’s “little The post Outsourcing War: Making Atrocities Invisible appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast &...

Of all the motivations for war, nostalgia is at the top. Longing for an imagined glorious past. We see it not only in Ukraine but in many former empires, like France. And this nostalgia plays itself out in racist nationalist The post The Murderous Power of Imperial Nostalgia appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

There are concentric circles: innermost being the destruction of Ukraine. But the increased insecurity of so many essential factors as a result of the war is starting to disrupt and bring increased misery to the poor of the world. On The post The Worldwide Effects of the Ukraine War appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

Why does it have to be us or them? Bush II tried to use Iraq to force nonaligned nations to choose; it failed. And it’s not working today on Ukraine. Why do so many nations still insist on not choosing The post Ukraine War: Trying to Bifurcate a Non-Aligned World appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

Both establishment parties are competing to be toughest on the Ukraine crisis. But the fact is America’s founders were solidly non-interventionist. Our constant search for new monsters to destroy; where has that gotten us? More peace and justice? Our republic The post Ukraine: A Conservative Take appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

A dangerous addiction to war is a result of what our guest retired Lt Col. William Astore calls victory disease. He actually served at the nuclear trigger under 2000 feet of granite. Reagan fired up the desire for conquest, but The post New Cold War Same as the Old One appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

How can one have optimum performance at your job when you have to hide your identity? There was fear of disruption by having openly trans troops in our military.  But the truth is the only disruption was from people in The post Why the Fear of Trans Troops in the Military? appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

It’s easy to be all for cutting “waste” in the Pentagon budget but that enables continuing plans to spend 7.5 trillion over ten years. And on what? Could shoveling money to the military make us less secure? On this show The post Slice A Trillion From Defense: Bring Greater Security? appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

They’ve save countless human lives in many wars. Military working dogs have a new monument at the Navy Memorial in Washington DC and it’s about time. Dogs are an essential asset deserving recognition. On this show first up is 20 The post Remembering the Dogs on Veterans Day appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

It’s not like displaying a large red cross protects doctors from attack anymore. Yesterday’s Covid heroes are today vilified by some. Across the globe, health care workers have become routinely targeted. For example in Myanmar, since it is not an The post From Heroes to Targets: Medical Workers Under Attack appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

With violence so deeply embedded into America’s foreign policy, it’s become invisible. But who does it harm more; us of them? On this show global religion teacher and author Kelly Denton-Borhaug says it is time to grow up and face The post The Harmful Naivete of A Foreign Policy of Violence appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

They’re doing it again. Remember the Peace Dividend after Vietnam? Right, it never happened. Now with another war finally ended, here we are again. On this show, retired USAF Lieutenant Colonel William Astore says the amount of money shoveled to The post Even When It Loses, the Pentagon Wins appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

It’s so easy for the national security state to just paint the same old picture for Americans: Russia and China are military threats. But in truth they are not. They are rising economically in large part because we have wasted The post Must We Do the Cold War Again? appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

Have we learned that the military is not necessarily the best tool for the job? On this show New Republic journalist Jordan Michael Smith talks about the self imposed failures, squandering America’s power.  Right after the attack, the world was The post 20 Years after 9/11: Are We Any Smarter? appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

Here we are well into the 21st century and we’re stuck on imperialism, a 19th century western idea. Meanwhile a new non-western, non-American, nonaligned world is emerging. And perhaps it’s a very good thing. On this show international journalist Patrick The post The Emerging Post-American Non-West Order appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

They come to us as they were from millions of years ago and today they are vital to fighting Covid and other diseases. On part one, Author William Sargent talks about his new book Crab Wars. The demand is outstripping The post Horseshoe Crabs and Covid//Biden’s Options for China Policy appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

Great stone monuments to the glory of war serve to silence the pain. Currently four times as many troops and veterans die by suicide as in combat. Our guest on today’s show is  Moravian University professor of religion Kelly Denton-Borhaug. The post Veterans and Suicide: The “Moral Injury” We Don’t Want to See appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radi...

Regime change in Iraq was on Bush’s agenda since 1998, September 11 merely enabled it. On this show is historian Larry Hartenian whose new book is titled George W Bush Administration Propaganda for an Invasion of Iraq, subtitled Absence of The post 9/11 At 20: So, Why Did We Attack Iraq? appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

President Biden is doing what presidents rarely do: seeing reality and making a change. At no small political risk. Are we abandoning the women to Taliban brutality? Doug Bandow, senior fellow at the conservative Cato Institute, former assistant to President The post Afghanistan: We’re Outta There, Now What? appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

Women in the military know they are more likely to be attacked by men of their own company than by an enemy. It’s been a long tradition that reports of sexual abuse are crushed. Commanders protecting their own reputation takes The post Sexual Assault in the Military: Foxes Guarding the Henhouse appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

Self-professed “patriots” stormed the US Capitol Building January 6th, but it was Vietnam Veterans Against the War in late April 1971 who were the real patriots. They came for what they considered another tour of duty, after serving in the The post In Military Gear, Patriots Invade the Capital: 50 Years Ago appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

He came in as a macho Cold War president but after the reality of near nuclear war, John Kennedy became a changed man. He gave an important speech about peace in June 1963. Now the Cold War is back and The post Can Biden Complete JFK’s Start at Peace? appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

It’s so easy for the national security state to just paint the same old picture for Americans: Russia and China are military threats. But in truth they are not. They are rising economically in large part because we have wasted The post The Cold War Again? appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .