Empire - Iraq to Mali: The changing calculus of war

How much has America's calculus of war really changed?

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It has been 10 years since the US-led invasion of Iraq, which marked a turning point in the West's so-called war on terror. The pretext of the Iraq war was security and freedom, but the bombastic and openly pronounced objective was no less than remaking the greater Middle East region. For the US, Iraq became a quagmire and a humiliation - a strategic and moral failure that the country has spent the last four years trying to forget. As Africa now becomes the new front line in the 'war on terror', Empire asks: have the Europeans learned from America's mistakes?

Guests:
John Nagl: retired Lieutenant Colonel and co-author of US army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual
Jean Marie Guehenno: director of the Center of International Conflict Resolution at Columbia University and and former United Nations under secretary general for Peacekeeping Operations
Barbara Bodine: professor and former US Ambassador to the Republic of Yemen
Christopher Hedges: Former New York Times Middle East bureau chief and author of "Empire of Illusion"

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[John Lee Hudson]

Mali is the 3rd largest producer of Gold in Africa. France is a #1 exporter of energy produced from Yellow Cake Uranium from Northern Mali & Niger. Oil is involved as well in Mali. Terrorist of the general people in these counties are those making them live on less than $2 a day, while stealing all their natural resources, & while the Terrorist owned News

Media never explains how hungry the people are.♠

[gopalannarayanan]

Used to be we got these levels of quality and balance in BBC video and audio publications. Sigh! I miss those times when when the 'Beeb' was the standard of journalism in all areas. Glad orgs like Al Jazeera are now carrying the torch. Thanks.

[Giovanni Ramirez]

This guy tried to use gender in the last bit? Men violent and women peaceful? In reality it's men who dominate both peace and war, women just flow with whoever is in charge. From Queen Elizabeth, Margaret Thatcher, Hilary Clinton etc. we see women are very capable of ordering troops to do violence for their empires. So that liberal/feminist mindset doesn't float. The sooner we end this need to police the world the sooner body bags stop coming home.

[Snootpelt1]

Right on. Politics in Europe is littered with Neville Chamberlains (and nobody remembers who he was or what he almost managed to lose) and none of them recognize the new Nazis.

[ciaran97]

aye no bother, sorry I called you a racist. It's not actually racist to be anti Islamist.

[CptBritish]

I agree the Politicians who "represent" us are only in it to line their own pockets... Driving the world to the edge of the abyss for their own gain.

Sorry I came off a bit combative...

[ciaran97]

Right listen man your mistaking me for a docile fucking liberal. I hate Governments, I hate religions. Old men with with selfish agendas have sent the world spiraling into chaos and corrupted the minds of the masses. I actually agree with you on just about everything you're saying. but we still have the technology, and resources to stop the shit hitting the fan. what we need to do is get rid of the people who make the big decisions for us. But thats not going to happen. so in short we are fucked

[CptBritish]

(Cont) Even if we all just sit down and sing kumbaya for the next 60-70 years whats going to happen when the oil runs out?

Lets see how fucking liberal and peace loving you'll be when your family is starving and cold. Humanity may have taken a step back from the edge in the Cold war but the swords are still drawn sadly our children will suffer because of todays liberal Governments...

[CptBritish]

The thing is humans are violent, I would happily love to live out my days in the UK not caring about the world around me, but sorry but when there are holy books saying I should be killed just because I don't believe in their imaginary Skyman, I get a bit offended, even worse when there are plenty of shits who agree with it. No I admit not ALL muslims agree but there are more radicals than the press lets on you can tell just by attending one of there demos... (cont)

[astienback]

The pullizer awarded journalist is FAR AHEAD each and every attendees on this debate. What he's saying IS RIGHT! The others ARE ON AN OBSOLETE PLANET that doesn't exist anymore: LACK OF REALISM and on the top SOME KIND OF FASCIST TEMPTATION to reduce all human issues to JUST "BAD GUYS SHOULD BE DESTROYED AND SHOT DEAD". The reality is much more sophisticated and SIMPLISTIC ideologies ARE ALL BUT REALISTIC. By the way, had the french wary president SOLVED france's FRIGHTFUL ECONOMICAL ISSUES? NO!

[astienback]

And in many respects, france IS A PARASITE OF AFRICA! But time is running out for her because france HAS NO MORE GRIPS OVER AFRICANS, subsahelian Africans, than she's used to benefit of. THERE'S A TREMENDOUS SHIFT OF POWER and sooner or later, france will REALIZE than she becomes an ORDINARY AVERAGE power, one among the trillion-GDP powers including newcomers like Brazil, Russia, South Korea and likely Turkey in the coming decade. who's going to FEAR A DWARF who's showing his lilla muscles? who?

[astienback]

It's really amusing to hear the french man arguing that france has interests in Africa which do not contradict African interests.

Simply insane when one knows HOW DEPENDENT on its former colonies france remains, regarding the only places where france could outperform the German bulldozer - not for a long time though. Chinese are doing much better than france over there, bringing capital and know-how to fulfill African desires of development that NEVER france had taken seriously in account.