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September 8 - The Use of Military Force for Humanitarian Ends; A Profile of Bashar Al Assad; AIPAC Rounds Up Votes for Obama; The Ghosts of Interventions Past
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We begin with Daniel Serwer, a former mediator in the Bosnian war who participated in the Dayton peace talks, and discuss comparisons between the previous use of American military force based on humanitarian grounds and the current threat to bomb Syria because of the regime’s use of chemical weapons against its own people. |  |
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Then we get an analysis of who the Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad is, and how his so-called “reforms” that deviated from Ba’athist socialism towards neo-liberal crony capitalism, led to the rebellion that has now metastasized into a brutal civil war. An Iranian-Syrian scholar and political analyst whose uncle was close to the regime, Dr. Majid Rafizedeh joins us to discuss how the Western educated ophthalmologist who threatens to ignite the region unless he rules over Syria, continues to argue it is either him or the “terrorists”. |
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Then we look into the uphill battle the president has to get the House to approve his war resolution which an overwhelming majority of Americans oppose. M.J. Rosenberg, a special correspondent for the Washington Spectator who worked as a senior House and Senate staffer for 15 years, joins us to discuss the role that AIPAC, the so-called Israel lobby is playing in rounding up votes for Obama. |
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Then finally long time staff writer for The New Yorker and a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books, Mark Danner, joins us to discuss the evolution of the R 2 P doctrine, the responsibility to protect, in international relations and how it could be applied to the Syrian situation as we await the U.N. report on the August 21 chemical weapons attack expected at the end of next week and while a group of Nobel Laureates, “the elders” call for a referral to the International Criminal Court. |
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September 5 - How the Syrian Chemical Attacks Were Delivered; What is on the G-20 Summit Agenda; The Kingmaker Rupert Murdoch Shames Australia's Election
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We begin with an analysis of the type of delivery systems used in the August 21st chemical weapons attack in Syria that killed over 1400 people including 426 children. Theodore Postol, an expert on rockets and missiles at MIT, joins us to discuss his findings that indicate a much greater quantity of Sarin gas, up to fifty times more than was previously estimated, were delivered per rocket, thus explaining a greater number of victims than there were from previous chemical attacks |
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Then, with much of the world’s attention on Syria, we discuss what is on the agenda at the G-20 summit underway in St Petersburg, Russia, where the host Vladimir Putin began the meeting by announcing that Syria was not on the agenda focused on reviving the global economy, but he did allow that some talk about Syria may happen over dinner. Dean Baker, the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research joins us to discuss what can be done to reverse the global downturn, with the engine of the global economy, the United States hamstrung by Republican obstructionists likely soon to again hold hostage the full faith and credit of the United States. |
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Then finally we discuss Saturday’s elections in Australia, the outcome of which media baron Rupert Murdoch, who owns over 60% of the country’s newspapers, is shaping to make sure the Tea Party-like right wing party he is backing wins. Salvatore Babones, a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney joins us to discuss the tabloid trashing of the incumbent Labor Party by the ex-Australian kingmaker who already tried to put his man in the White House when he attempted to recruit General Petraeus to run against Barack Obama in the last election. |
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September 4 - Syria's Chemical Arsenal; Talking to Russia and Iran About Syria; The Shadow of Bush and Cheney Over Intervening on WMD's
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We begin with an expert on chemical weapons and look into why the Syrian regime has them, what they have, and who is in charge of them. Gregory Koblentz, a professor in the Department of Public and International Affairs and a member of the Scientist Working Group on Chemical and Biological Weapons at the Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation in Washington D.C. joins us to discuss the impending U.S. strike on Syria over its use of chemical weapons against its own civilian population.
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Then we explore alternative scenarios to the punitive use of force in Syria and the possibility of President Obama using his visit to Russia for the G-20 summit to sit down with Putin and find a way to end the bloody civil war in Syria rather than escalate it. Asher Kaufman, a professor of History and Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame joins us to discuss what might end the bloodshed and destruction of Syria, short of a partition of the country that is not likely to produce viable states if the rebels end up with a landlocked rump state with no access to the Mediterranean |
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Then finally we discuss the shadow of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney hanging over the Syrian intervention and the peculiar alliances between Democratic interventionists and Republican neoconservatives on one side, and liberal Democrats and libertarian Republicans who are against the Syrian intervention on the other. Roger Morris, who served on the Senior Staff of the National Security Council under presidents Johnson and Nixon, joins us to discuss today’s strange political bedfellows and W’s legacy of lies. |
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September 3 - Toby Miller Sits In for Ian Masters
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Today we begin and speak with UCLA historian James Gelvin to discuss the emerging Syria situation where Obama’s plan for limited strikes to punish President Bashar al-Assad for his suspected use of chemical weapons against civilians has just won support from key members of congress. |
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Then we go to Medellin to speak with Anamaria Tamayo Duque, a professor at Universidad de Antioquía, about the extraordinary nationwide strikes against free trade ideology that are underway in Columbia. |
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Finally, we are joined by Sara Ayech, a campaigner with Greenpeace UK. We discuss attempts to save the Arctic from oil exploration as well as the use of spectacle in getting civil society engaged in the climate change debate. |
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September 2 - "The State of Working America"; "Who Are the Long-Term Unemployed?"; Women Hold Up Half The World, but Not in Corporate America
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We begin with this Labor Day weekend’s celebrations and examine the state of working America with the author of the annual report by that name that is considered the authoritative text on the American workforce. Lawrence Mishel, the president of the Economic Policy Institute and principal author of “The State of Working America” joins us to discuss his latest report “A Decade of Flat Wages: The Key Barrier to Shared Prosperity and a Rising Middle Class”.
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Then we speak with Matthew O’Brien, an associate editor at The Atlantic where he covers business and economics. We discuss his article at The Atlantic “Who Are the Long-Term Unemployed?” and profile the four million people who are the long-term unemployed, Americans who can’t find work for six months or more, who tend to be more educated but a little older and can’t even get companies to look at their resumes anymore. |
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Then finally we examine the status of women in the labor force with Heidi Hartmann, the President of the Washington-based Institute for Women’s Policy Research and discuss the paradox that women are now the primary breadwinners in almost half of America’s households, but at the top, in the boardrooms of corporate America, the glass ceiling is firmly intact. |
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