Citations Needed14 Huhti 2021

Episode 133: The Art of Fake-Ending Wars

"Yemen war: Joe Biden ends support for operations in foreign policy reset," reports the BBC. "Trump: US will be out of Afghanistan by Christmas 2020," cheered Military Times. "Trump Orders Withdrawal of U.S. Troops From Northern Syria," the New York Times told us. For decades, the United States has very often appeared to have "ended" wars that do not, in fact, end at all. Open-ended jargon like "residual counter terror forces," "Vietnamization," "military advisors," along with deliberately ambiguous timetables, process criticisms––all are used to confuse the average media consumer. America's politicians know the American public broadly dislikes war and empire––and thus wants to see it restrained––but these same politicians don't really want to end wars so they have a frequent PR problem: How do you make it look like you're ending a war or occupation without really doing so? To solve this conundrum, American political leaders have perfected the art of fake-ending a war. Which is to say, announcing a war is going to end, typically around election time, only to––once the headlines make a big splash––backtrack, obfuscate, claim the "situation on the ground has changed" or the military involvement will only be in a "limited" or "defensive" capacity, shuffle troops around or find other thin pretexts to continue the war or occupation. In this episode, we discuss the United States' history of fake-ending wars, who these pronouncements are meant to please, why troops levels are often impossible to know, and why so many of our so-called "wars" are not really wars at all, but military occupations that are never really meant to end. Our guest is Shireen Al-Adeimi, assistant professor at Michigan State University.

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(387)

Ep 245: The Authenticity Affect (Part III) - Left Politics as Effete, College Kid Artifice

In part 3 of our three-part series on the uses and misuses of "authenticity" in political media, we examine the popular media trope that progressive politics are exogenous to core Democratic constitue...

7 Loka 1h 20min

News Brief: 2028, Israel's Progressive Rebrand and the Risk of "Genocide" as Rhetorical Box Check

6 Loka 30min

Ep 244: The Authenticity Affect (Part II) - The Dopey, Power-Flattering, Media-Created "Maverick" Politician

In Part 2 of our 3-part series on the uses and misuses of "authenticity," we examine the media obsession with "political mavericks" who "buck party orthodoxy"—almost aways with either trivial interven...

30 Syys 1h 8min

Ep 243: The Authenticity Affect (Part I) — Whistlestop Tours, Smarm, and the Art of Channeling 'Folk'

In part 1 of our 3-part series on the uses and misuses of "authenticity," we examine the Real America "listening tour," its propaganda utility, and how it uses the superficial aesthetics of rural simp...

23 Syys 1h 26min

Ep 242 - The Disempowering Politics of 'Inevitability' Part 2: US Empire as Mysterious, Teleological Force

In this episode, we discuss how circular "inevitability" arguments have been used for centuries to justify war, expansionism and perpetual hostility — most recently against China. Our guest is organiz...

19 Elo 1h 16min

Ep 241 - The Disempowering Politics of 'Inevitability' Part 1: Data Centers and LLM as 'The Future'

In this episode, we breakdown the popular "inevitability" argument AI companies are using to bulldoze over democracy and how the "inevitability" line has been used to sell everything from Manifest Des...

12 Elo 1h 28min

News Brief: Very Serious New Yorker Article Launders Biden Officials' Responsibility for Gaza Genocide

In this News Brief, we are joined by Kaleem Hawa to discuss David K Kirkpatrick's 10,000 word PR job that feigns criticism of Biden officials, but ultimately serves to distance them from the horrors o...

29 Heinä 41min

News Brief: Why US Media Has Evoked Israel's "Right to Exist" 1,001 Times vs Only 6 For Palestine

In this News Brief, we dissect the Orwellian phrase "right to exist," why it only applies to Israel, what purpose it serves, and why Palestinians are never said to have such a right.

15 Heinä 28min