December 22 - Soudan Sudan Dividing Along Tribal Lines; The Battle for the Soul and Direction of the Democratic Party; A Syrian Doctor Speaks Out at Perilous Risk

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an update on the tragic portent of a civil war in the world’s newest country South Sudan, and speak with Sondra Hale, a professor of anthropology at UCLA who has been studying, doing field work, and living in Sudan for over fifty years. We discuss the growing chaos in South Sudan where three U.S. military aircraft came under fire wounding four U.S. service members attempting to evacuate American citizens, as the feud between the president and the former vice president that has divided the country along tribal lines now threatens to explode into a wider war.

Part 2

Then we look into a brewing battle for the soul and the future direction of the Democratic Party that erupted following criticism of New York’s new mayor Bill de Blasio and Senator Elizabeth Warren’s economic populism from a centrist group Third Way. Adam Green, the cofounder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee that helps progressive candidates run progressive campaigns and win, joins us to discuss a battle that will have implications for how the Democrats will frame their 2014 campaign and who will be the Democratic presidential candidate in 2016.

Part 3

Then finally we are joined in the studio by Syrian doctor who fled her country and will be speaking to us using the name of “Damas” because her Alawite family will be tortured and murdered by the Assad regime if her real identity is revealed. We discuss the latest indications that after both Obama and Hillary Clinton confidently stated Assad would fall, while doing nothing to make that happen, the U.S. now appears to be maneuvering to accept Assad’s continuing dictatorship as “the least worst option”.