251 Interventions in 30 Years: A System Addicted to War w/ Ben Norton
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 6 October 2022
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The United States has acknowledged almost 500 military interventions, listed in detail in a report by congressional researchers. More than 200 were just in the last 31 years, since the fall of the Soviet Union, representing a significant increase over the hundreds of years prior. What does this explain about the nature of capitalism, war, and imperialism?
Brian is joined by Ben Norton, an investigative journalist based in Latin America, and editor of the independent news website Multipolarista, which you can find at multipolarista.com.
Ben’s article that Ben and Brian discuss is here on his website: https://multipolarista.com/2022/09/13/us-251-military-interventions-1991.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today we are talking about the U.S. war machine. |
| 0:05.0 | When he became president of the United States, Ronald Reagan said he was going to get rid of the U.S. welfare state. |
| 0:12.0 | Well, it wasn't a welfare state. It wasn't a welfare state then. It's not a welfare state now. |
| 0:18.0 | The U.S. is, in fact, a warfare state. We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand that which may have sounded |
| 0:27.6 | impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. Welcome to this week's episode of the Socialist Program. |
| 0:59.9 | I'm your host, Brian Becker. |
| 1:02.1 | Today we are talking with investigative journalist Ben Norton. |
| 1:05.5 | He is with the website multipolarista.com. |
| 1:08.7 | He has written a recent article on U.S. military interventions all around the world, |
| 1:15.3 | starting in 1798. Ben Norton, welcome back to the Socialist Program. |
| 1:20.8 | Thanks for having me, Brian. It's one of my favorite shows. It's always a real pleasure being here. |
| 1:24.6 | Well, thank you so much. Thank you. It's a great honor for us to have you. |
| 1:28.9 | Ben, I want to start. This is an incredible article that you have written, and it's on your website, |
| 1:34.7 | multipolarista.com. The headline is very straightforward. U.S. launched 251 military interventions, |
| 1:52.6 | not since 1798, but since 1991, and 469 since 1798. |
| 1:59.4 | Now, many people hearing these numbers will say, wait a second, the Socialist Program or Ben Norton, |
| 2:02.9 | somebody here is making these numbers up, but the numbers don't come from you. |
| 2:04.0 | They don't come from multipolarista. |
| 2:06.4 | They don't come from the socialist program. |
| 2:08.6 | They don't come from breakthrough news. |
| 2:10.7 | These numbers about U.S. military intervention come from the U.S. government. |
| 2:15.5 | Yeah, absolutely. |
... |
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