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<blockquote data-quote="rickyb" data-source="post: 5240158" data-attributes="member: 56035">Ralph Nader: Let&#039;s talk a little geographically. Chris, tell us the names of the countries on theRussian border that have now joined NATO and they were asked to buy friend-16s, friend-15s, all kindsof military-industrial complex goodies. What are some of the names of the countries?Chris Hedges: Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia.Ralph Nader: So they are now part of a military alliance that was created against the SovietUnion. The Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s. There was a great opportunity - which GeorgeKennan, the preeminent expert on Russian strategy - as a great opportunity to bring the Russianpeople in. Yeltsin was there after Gorbachev. And it looks like the US blew it.Chris Hedges: Well, they blew it . . . yes, they did from . . . it made no geopolitical sense. Itmakes sense only if you&#039;re Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. Poland just signed a $6 billion dealto buy M1 Abrams tanks. So, it made sense from commercial interests, but of course it was adisaster in terms of geopolitical interests. But this is not uncommon. The whole reason weperpetuated the war in Afghanistan. We know from the Afghan papers that were released by theWashington Post that the policymakers and military leaders understood that this is a quagmire.They weren&#039;t going to dominate Afghanistan. But the war kept perpetuating itself. It was alsotrue in Vietnam, as the Pentagon Papers revealed, because for these corporations, it&#039;s a very, verylucrative business[URL unfurl=&quot;true&quot;]https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.111/c03.434.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Ralph-Nader-Radio-Hour-Ep-423-Transcript.pdf[/URL]</blockquote>

[QUOTE="rickyb, post: 5240158, member: 56035"] Ralph Nader: Let's talk a little geographically. Chris, tell us the names of the countries on the Russian border that have now joined NATO and they were asked to buy friend-16s, friend-15s, all kinds of military-industrial complex goodies. What are some of the names of the countries? Chris Hedges: Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia. Ralph Nader: So they are now part of a military alliance that was created against the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s. There was a great opportunity - which George Kennan, the preeminent expert on Russian strategy - as a great opportunity to bring the Russian people in. Yeltsin was there after Gorbachev. And it looks like the US blew it. Chris Hedges: Well, they blew it . . . yes, they did from . . . it made no geopolitical sense. It makes sense only if you're Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. Poland just signed a $6 billion deal to buy M1 Abrams tanks. So, it made sense from commercial interests, but of course it was a disaster in terms of geopolitical interests. But this is not uncommon. The whole reason we perpetuated the war in Afghanistan. We know from the Afghan papers that were released by the Washington Post that the policymakers and military leaders understood that this is a quagmire. They weren't going to dominate Afghanistan. But the war kept perpetuating itself. It was also true in Vietnam, as the Pentagon Papers revealed, because for these corporations, it's a very, very lucrative business [URL unfurl="true"]https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.111/c03.434.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Ralph-Nader-Radio-Hour-Ep-423-Transcript.pdf[/URL] [/QUOTE]

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