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Episode 238 - Whose War is it Anyway? (w/ Stephen Semler) (Patreon)

Published:
2022-12-29 11:58:17
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2026-06
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Content

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast

Briahna speaks to Security Policy Reform Institute co-founder Stephen Semler, about his thorough and viral analysis of the 2023 Omnibus bill. No. one is breaking down military spending like Stephen. We discuss how the bill undermines Biden's climate "victories," increased spending on the Ukraine/Russia conflict, the complacency of elected progressives, and whether the American dream exists outside of the military.

Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod).

Produced by Armand Aviram.

Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Comments

Anonymous

Vaush is not worth Bri's time. He is as insincere as it gets.

Anonymous

Ok, broken clock is right twice a day. Vaush is right about Jimmy now. He's changed sides.

Michelle B

Great episode! The lack of protest from the squad over this budget and increased American militarization in general is shocking. Particularly with military leaders who are coming out and making statements like " Ukraine is just a warm-up". I definitely question the narrative around America definitely winning a war unless it was nuclear... This idea that military spending equates to winning has always been dubious at best. So much of the money that we attribute to this is going into the pockets of the same ruling class elites that are taking the majority of money in the rest of the economy. The privatization of a significant amount of military roles through companies like XE represented a significant upshift of cost per soldier while cutting those social safety net programs. A significant amount of money from America has been used on "updating" and expanding nuclear weapons... Which makes me think again that we are the country who is the most likely to use them since Russia has said that strategically it doesn't make sense for them. At least in Ukraine. Which just fundamentally makes sense if you understand fallout. That talking point has always been I think more of a fear-mongering tactic and way to make Americans accept the future use of nuclear weapons by America. But in terms of winning wars... Which ones have we won exactly? I'm 100% positive that America is the number one nation at supporting right-wing coups and destabilizing countries that pose a threat to its hegemonic control of industry and currency. But winning? It seems like what we've done is made everyone in the world's lives worse, obliterated advancements in places like Syria, Libya, Iraq and basically bombed places like Afghanistan back into the stone age. And I can see how American capitalists who want to sell their oil think bombing nordstream and starving Russia is to their advantage... I struggle to see how it's either humanitarian or to anyone else's advantage - Definitely not to the advantage of any working class person anywhere. In terms of land wars fought in other people's countries, we actually haven't done much of what I would call winning. We basically just created a ton of quagmires that extend forever. Troop enlistments are waaaay down. We know that their plan was to make college insanely expensive so kids had to do it - That's how I ended up in the military - But the idea that going in actually results in stability or being able to go to college and really utilize that benefit is ...let's say it just doesn't pan out that way. Suicide rates are through the roof. The training that you go through is pretty much equivalent to Synanon or Troubled Kid industry shit you hear about. The goal is to break people down ...and many people don't recover. Many more see what we're actually doing in other countries and lose faith in the country overall because they realize most of what's being sold as "helping" is actually doing anything but. I imagine if soldiers go over and see what's actually happening in Ukraine in terms of the war crimes and human rights abuses by the government against the people of the Donbas region by the "good side" which now includes full Nazi battalions American propaganda about how that's not an issue isn't going to be working on them. Once you see that the idea of letting the region be separate is going to seem like the only logical and ethical answer to a country so divided. America talked a lot of shit about Russian's fleeing the draft, but the exact same thing happened in Ukraine and I wonder if people have really given much thought to the idea that when we run out of proxies to die for America's imperialist project the same thing could very well happen here. I would assume that's why they are building up the benefits for soldiers right now and destroying the economy for everyone else who is a private citizen ... They need something better to sell if their goal is neverending war with China and Ukraine and anyone else who opposes American Hedgemony. They desperately need bodies and I think they're trying to force them down this path that they pretend is voluntary. But if that doesn't work, do you actually think they will reconsider their goal? Because I doubt it. I don't think either a draft or some kind of prison to army pipeline would be off the table. Maybe they go full mercenary army... But if that's the case what that means for the world with heavily armed extremists who don't actually have any loyalty to a country is another nightmare all together. And it seems like we should be considering the impact that that's going to have on generations of people if they do succeed. We still haven't been able to undo the hate American were sold towards middleastern cultures who "hated our freedom"... Although most liberals, at least understand by this point that the war was misrepresented. With Ukraine, either Americans will figure out that this war was misrepresented and largely caused by us or we will have a really radicalized dangerous population that makes insane statements like "nuke and pave" that we heard during the Iraq and Afghanistan invasion - Which tragically I already hear being paraded by some liberals on social media. Either way seems like a loss to me. The only metric by which we "won" World War II was because every other country was obliterated and suffered huge losses and then we capitalized on them having to rebuild while America did not suffer any damage to it's homeland. That's probably what they're going for here... But I think it's naive to think that that will continue if America pursues full war with Russia. What they have said is that they have plenty of conventional non-nuclear weapons that are capable of doing immense damage and they CAN reach us. And keeping in mind that when that happens, the world has been forced by America to take sides and it wouldn't just be Russia we'd be fighting. We are also targeting China. 90% of the world was not on our side this time according to Newsweek so... What does that look like exactly? I would just say that confidence seems unfounded and it scares me when I hear people say that. It scares me in the same way I get scared when I hear Americans confidently declaring that Ukraine is going to beat Russia. To me it just sounds like a lot of unnecessary death that would result in either a humanitarian crisis if Ukraine takes back these territories that don't want to be with them and moves forward with proposals that strip those citizens of full rights and promote "reeducation camps" or a negotiation that basically results in the same outcome we would have had without any war at all. There is nothing to be cocky about. This is an avoidable tragedy all around. Also, since the capitalists de-industrialized so much of the country and pretty much the majority of our population that hasn't been completely stripped down lives in a few big cities along the coasts. So if it gets to that place... And I would hope to god we wouldn't let it... Anyone who felt that they were in a corner so much that they needed to attack would be aware of that. Russia and China and other countries know that considering what we've done to every other country that we go after in terms of basically wiping out all of their key infrastructure before any ground war starts, they would probably feel they need that attack to be decisive up front. I'm not saying that any of them want to do this or are the aggressors because I don't think that's true at all. But I do question what situation we are all walking into if America does decide to continue to escalate.

Anonymous

Infuriating. Thanks BJG this was another great one.

Anonymous
>>98492546

Appreciate this. Being that the public is the most propagandized anywhere, they will never know the true reality of the conflict..and it's inching closer to nuclear at worst, widening at best to other fronts (since it's clearly not working out for the west there). And like you said, we haven't even started the China side of the suicidal strategy. Wild stuff

Anonymous

Every day I am more convinced that the USA is Rome/British Empire without the comfy togas or fancy Victorian-style houses. We spread nothing but death & destruction. ... and Bernie, AOC, the Squad, the "Progressive" or Black caucuses, are not only assisting the Death Merchants - they ARE members of the DEATH MERCHANT Caucus. Now Marianne Williamson thinks she can squeeze out the last dollar from poor people so she pretend to be The Left Candidate vs Biden. Marianne is a Warmonger, as well! Watch RBN's take on Ms. Marianne. If you still support these people, YOU are part if the problem. Dems AND Repubs are ONE PARTY. They work FOR War, Corporations & Billionaires. YOU don't care about the Climate Crisis. YOU don't care about women, children, minorities, poverty, homeless, etc. YOU support increased surveillance & censorship. The USA is the real Fascist Empire. We have ROTC being forced on teens in school. Voting D/R means YOU support growing children in the US to become soldiers for the meatgrinder. YOU are a War Pig, and the sad thing is... it doesn't even bother you. Peace is the only way.

Anonymous

Rotating Hero/Villain. AOC or any Squad member, voting against a War bill is a fucking joke. She deserves ZERO credit. She's not.even a good actress anymore. One always votes NO on a bad bill, one votes present and the rest vote YES. It's the same game, over and over. But why should they even bother? AOC & the Squad have pensions, lifelong healthcare and future book deals/speaking fees. They played us all for fools.

Anonymous

Don't start stumping for Marianne, Brie. She's just another "pretty progressive" PRO Israel/PRO War Celebrity Candidate. Have on Nick & Sabby from RBN on to talk about Marianne. It's sickening to hear people praising Marianne as if she's the Next Bernie. Putting more time into Krystal Ball's Pet Candidate Project is a massive WASTE of money & energy. I would have thought that Bernie & AOC would have inoculated people against the illusion that a Candidate Savior is coming to lead the Left to victory. Marianne is just another sheepdog, leading the sheep to slaughter. WHEN she loses the primaries to Biden, she'll tell everyone to vote for him anyways. If by some miracle she was elected, she wouldn't do one goddamn thing to stop the War Machine. Even if Marianne & Krystal still believe in this game, I think you know otherwise. Don't be a dupe.

Adam Burch

It’s too bad that Bri is so swooned by RCV when it is absolutely useless and doesn’t do for independent politics what ppl that support think it does. I worked on a campaign that had it with two dems, a green and a socialist alternative candidate and the dem won after the socialist alternative candidate was leading after the first two rounds. It didn’t hurt, but it didn’t do anything to help either. RCV is a apolitical and technocratic orientation to electoralism and does nothing to advance independent working class politics. Literally anything else is better worth your time.