February 19 - The Serial Disasters of Recent U.S. Foreign Policy; More Suicidal Antics on Capital Hill; Climate Intervention?

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an overview of recent disasters, setbacks and reversals that has U.S. foreign policy blowing up in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Russia, Ukraine, Somalia and Yemen. Roger Morris, who served on the National Security Council under presidents Johnson and Nixon and is the author of “Between the Graves: America, Afghanistan and the Politics of Intervention” and “Kindred Rivals: America, Russia and their Failed Ideals”, joins us to discuss the failure upon failure of our foreign policies, particularly in the Middle East where the legacy of the ill-fated Bush/Cheney intervention continues to haunt us.

Part 2

Then we look into the partisan folly in Washington that promises more gridlock, dysfunction and possibly another government shutdown, only weeks after the new Republican majority in Congress promised that they were going to get things done. Veteran Capitol Hill staffer Mike Lofgren, who was a senior analyst on the House and Senate Budget Committees, and is the author of “The Party is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless and the Middle Class Got Shafted”, joins us to discuss the ineptitude of House Speaker Boehner and the paralysis of Senate Majority Leader McConnell.

Part 3

Then finally we examine a recent report by the `National Academy of Sciences, “Climate Intervention”, and speak with Peter Frumhoff, the director of science policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists where he is also chief scientist on climate change. We assess the viability of proposals to inject millions of tons of sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight and cool the earth, as well as less drastic and far more beneficial ways to reduce CO2 by using solar power in the third world to electrify rural areas and improve living standards and literacy.