Andrew Bacevich – West Point grad, Vietnam and Gulf War veteran, and professor of history and international relations at Boston University – will sit down with Tom next Tuesday to tape a special interview, to be broadcast on Memorial Day. [UPDATE: the interview has been rescheduled for this Friday, 6/22. There's still time to post your questions/comments here.]
Our shows are normally broadcast live, and we take calls from listeners. Since this conversation will be pre-recorded, we want to offer you a chance to submit questions and comments ahead of time, here on this page, and we’ll select some to be read during the show.
Bacevich has appeared on On Point at key times in the show’s history, including during the pre-war debate over Iraq; during the initial invasion; as public opinion turned against the war; as the surge was announced; and after his own son, Lt. Andrew John Bacevich, was killed in action in Iraq in 2007. Professor Bacevich’s latest book, “The Limits of Power,” is dedicated to his son’s memory.
Some questions and themes we plan to address in next week’s interview: As the first Memorial Day passes during his presidency, is Mr. Obama doing right by America’s service men and women? Is President Obama living up to his promises on military matters?
In a recent interview, Bacevich drew some parallels between Presidents Bush and Obama on war policy:
[T]he Bush administration intended to begin this project of determining the fate of nations in that region by focusing on Iraq. It seems to me that the Obama administration has implicitly endorsed that notion, that we can determine the fate of nations there, albeit its focus is on Afghanistan and Pakistan. And I think that that core issue needs to be critically addressed.
Do you agree? We’re looking for your thoughts. What questions should we put to Prof. Bacevich?
Ask A.J. about William Appleman Williams, the diplomatic historian on the Left, who wrote, “The Tragedy of American Diplomacy, and other works on Empire. In one of A.J.’s books he has some positive comments on Williams. Who was a heterodox thinker who graduated from the Naval Academy, fought segregration in the post WWII era, and though on the Left, was as sour on the radical students of the late 60’s as some others on the Old Left who became Neo-Conservatives.
Posted by Michael Pugliese, on May 15th, 2009 at 10:08 am EDTMr. Bacevich: During the Second World War, the United States apparently “blundered” in its diplomacy regarding
Posted by Charlie McNamee, on May 18th, 2009 at 9:04 am EDTour position towards colonial France and Ho Chi Minh’s Independence Movement. Our OSS Intelligence advised Washington to “get out of Cochinchina” but the new President Truman overruled President Roosevelt’s albeit ambiguous position by supporting the economic recovery of France instead. Have we not made a similar mistake in Iraq, and how do we prevent such mistakes in the future?
Under Secretary of State Colin Powell, the number of allies that joined us in anything military was a big talking point. Now, in Afghanistan, we (I, that is) don’t hear about that. Did Obama lose us all allies in his trip to Europe? If Obama’s shift in Af-Pak (signaled by the new commander) is towards nation building, the sort of thing one might more successfully do AFTER winning wars (Japan, Germany), then maybe “everyone” (other states that might help us) think this is nonmilitary adventurism and not thsir business.
Posted by Ellen Dibble, on May 21st, 2009 at 9:59 pm EDTI am always listening: who is sending food and tents to the relocated Pakistani’s (a million) in the Swat Valley? Who is putting up schools for chldren (children educated and fed their food from anti-American madrassahs)? Shouldn’t someone?
Are we fighting or building? Alone or with the U.N.? Terrorism seems to be slipping into Somalia, and we’re getting behinder in trying to snare it. If we want to starve the roots, that might take a global effort of a more humanitarian bent.
Are we in diplomatic limbo?
Good questions. The interview with Professor Bacevich is being taped this afternoon, so if there are more questions out there, there’s still time to post them this morning. Many thanks.
Posted by Wen Stephenson, on May 22nd, 2009 at 5:04 am EDT