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August 16, 2008

Bill Moyers interviews Andrew J. Bacevich

From Bill Moyers' PBS webpage (via NoUtopia):

Screenhunter_02_aug_17_1350BILL MOYERS:

Welcome to the JOURNAL.

America's in a pickle. Our friends, the Russians, with whom we were about to conduct joint military exercises, decided instead to attack some of our other friends, the Georgians, who not only aspire to democracy but control access to lots of oil and pipelines in which American energy companies have huge investments. But when President Bush demands Russia go home and leave Georgia alone, his pal Vladimir Putin - the modern Russian czar - gets that sardonic smile on his face.

He knows that American troops are spread so thin in Iraq and Afghanistan that Uncle Sam more resembles Gulliver, tied down by too many commitments, too much hubris, and too many mistakes, than he does to Superman. It's a pickle and a predicament, and it's serious.

The limits of American power have never been more vividly on display. That's the subject of my conversation this week with Andrew J. Bacevich. Here is a public thinker who has been able to find an audience across the political spectrum, from THE NATION or THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE magazines, lecturing to college classes or testifying before Congress.

Bacevich speaks truth to power, no matter who's in power, which may be why those of both the left and right listen to him.

Video and transcript here.

Posted by Abbas Raza at 11:51 PM | Permalink

Comments

Thanks Abbas:

It was a brilliant interview, and unexpectedly poignant.

Bacevich is a remarkably clear and sage critic of America's epochal malaise. His arguments about the decline of the American Empire probably do not resonate more broadly because most Americans believe, quite wrongly, that the term "American Empire" is an oxymoron.

Read his book!

Posted by: KB | Aug 18, 2008 12:24:56 AM

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