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In his farewell address forty-three years ago President  and former General Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the potentially disastrous consequences to American liberty posed by an unchecked, all-powerful alliance of the military, elected officials and the defense industry:

�In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the �military industrial complex.�  The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.� (for full text of speech, click here.)

Has President Eisenhower�s warning become prophetic?   Four decades later the US military has troops deployed in over 70% of the world�s countries, supplied by a defense industry with a annual budget of $400 billion dollars.  CEOs from the major military defense contractors, including Halliburton, Kellogg, Bechtel and Northrup Grumman are regularly drawn from high-ranking government positions through a well established �revolving door�  between industry and government.   In Iraq alone, the costs of the current war are currently in excess of  $111 billion US dollars � tax dollars that some believe should be spent on vital social services.   Meanwhile, with troop levels currently high and, in the view of many, overextended, an increasingly corporate and �privatized�  US military is putting more responsibility in the hands of private industry.   Following recent statements by Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb), discussions about the real possibility of a new  national draft are being taken more seriously.  

This installment of The Active Opposition examines the forces that are influencing our current military and foreign policies, and how the growing military budget is changing priorities for America at home.  Host Peter Coyote and guests examine how the redeployment of our military since the fall of communism reflects our shifting national interests amidst new threats from different corners of the world.

Click here to view a stream of this program.

GUESTS INCLUDE:

NOAM CHOMSKY (taped interview)
Noam Chomsky is one of America's most prominent political dissidents. A renowned professor of linguistics at MIT, he has authored over 30 political books dissecting such issues as U.S. interventionism in the developing world, the political economy of human rights and the propaganda role of corporate media.

LAWRENCE KORB (taped interview)
Lawrence Korb is director of national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He served as assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration and has also held positions at the Brookings Institution, Georgetown University, the University of Pittsburgh, and the U.S. Naval War College.

LT. COL. (RET.)  KAREN KWIATKOWSKI
Recently retired from the U.S. Air Force Lt. Col Kwiatkowski spent her final four and a half years in uniform working at the Pentagon, including the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans.  Since her retirement in early 2003, she has been an outspoken critic of the current neo-conservative influence in the Pentagon.  To see a compilation of articles written by Ms. Kwiatkowski, click here. 

LARRY EVEREST
Journalist and Author Larry Everest has covered the Middle East and Central Asia for over 20 years.  Mr. Everest�s latest book is �Oil, Power & Empire: Iraq and the U.S. Global Agenda,� a history of US intervention against Iraq and the devastating consequences for the people and the region.

JOSHUA MURAVCHIK
Joshua Muravchik, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, has researched and written about the United Nations, neo-conservatism, the history of socialism, the Arab- Israeli conflict, global democracy, terrorism, and the Bush Doctrine. 

ERIC MILLER
Eric Miller is a senior defense investigator for the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), a non-partisan, non-profit government watchdog group in Washington D.C.  Before joining POGO in September, 2000, Mr. Miller worked as a reporter and editor for more than 20 years at numerous publications.

REESE ERLICH
Reese Erlich is a freelance journalist for National Public Radio, Marketplace Radio, Latino USA, Deutsche Welle Radio, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Radio, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.  To review stories written by Reese Erlich, click here.