WBAI-FM Program Highlight

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Of General Interest

PHYLLIS BENNIS REFLECTS ON THE ENDLESS WAR ON TERROR

Friday, March 20, 2015   12:00 AM - --:-- PM

In this next segment, we take a moment to reflect on the 12th Anniversary of the start of the U.S. war on Iraq, which began in the late night hours of March 19th as Washington’s Shock and Awe campaign over Baghdad was launched.

The major networks began their 24-hour non-stop coverage of the fireworks over Baghdad, facilitated by the PR coup that was the Pentagon’s embedded journalist program. This allowed reporters to see first-hand how the war was to be carried out.

By the early morning hours of March 20th, the streets of the capital of Iraq were under clouds of smoke and rubble, and what has become one of the most tragic foreign policy disasters in U.S. history was underway.

A lot has been said and written about the war in Iraq. But what is most ironic, yet not so surprising, is that the war has never ended, not for the people of Iraq, not for the tens of thousands of veterans and their families who will live with the scars of this military intervention for the rest of their lives. And it’s not over in real terms, as the internal situation in Iraq and Syria continues to deteriorate and draw the U.S. in once again.

Last week, as part of Globalization Day – an annual event Mario Murillo coordinated at Hofstra University – author and researcher Phyllis Bennis, a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, talked about the war. In front of a packed auditorium of students, faculty and community, Phyllis addressed the war on terror and described its consequences as a fundamental component of the phenomenon of globalization.