December 10
GUEST: Matthew Hoh, US Marine veteran with two deployments to Iraq, former Department of Defense and State Department war analyst, and writer for the Guardian, the Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, talks about the empire and how veterans suffer as a result of our endless wars abroad.
About Me - Matt Hoh
This picture of Matt Hoh says it all (he is the Marine on the left). With several tours in Iraq, and then a war analyst job with the State Department and the Department of Defense, Matt knows the empire from the inside out.
We talked a lot about how the American empire works. Why do the citizens of this country put up with its endless wars, especially since they are designed to make the billionaires richer and the rest of us poorer? How do parents send their sons and daughters to die making profits for Big Oil?
Matt refers to what he calls the "myth of redemptive violence." Our patriotic narratives are all about using aggression to solve moral problems. Hollywood is the Pentagon's most effective propaganda device. Our nation's movies and TV shows are literally written and financed by the war industry. Is it any wonder that Americans shoot each other at such an astounding rate? Or that we spend such an obscene amount of money on weaponry and foreign occupations? At some point, nations always have to choose between their democracies and their war machines.
Matt's journey from a Marine to an activist and writer for peace and social justice holds a lesson for us all. We collectively can begin to loosen the grip of our empire on the minds of its people.
