The Spoils of War
Power, Profit and the American War Machine
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Narrated by:
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Qarie Marshall
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By:
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Andrew Cockburn
About this listen
In the last decades, America has gone to war as supposed defenders of democracy. The War on Terror was waged to protect the West from the dangers of Islamists. US soldiers are stationed in more than 800 locations across the world to act as the righteous arbiters of the rule of law. In this book, Andrew Cockburn brilliantly dissects the intentions behind Washington's martial appetites.
The American war machine can only be understood in terms of the private passions and interests of those who control it - principally a passionate interest in money. Thus, as Cockburn witheringly reports, Washington expanded NATO to satisfy an arms manufacturer's urgent financial requirements; the US Navy's Pacific fleet deployments were for years dictated by a corrupt contractor who bribed high-ranking officers with cash and prostitutes; senior marine commanders agreed to a troop surge in Afghanistan in 2017 because it will do us good at budget time. After years of wide-ranging research, Cockburn lays bare the ugly reality of the largest military machine in history: squalid and, at the same time, terrifyingly dangerous.
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Trickle Down Tyranny is the single book you need to stop Obama's emerging dictatorship before we lose all of our constitutional, God-given rights. These pages show you the dangerous laws and powergrabs of the Obama administration… and what we can do to stop this leftist gang from seizing another term in office. Obama is transforming us into a second-class nation, with communists and Islamists given free rein to expand their power.
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Brings Clarity to the Obama charade.
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The Profiteers
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The tale of the Bechtel family dynasty is a classic American business story. It begins with Warren A. "Dad" Bechtel, who led a consortium that constructed the Hoover Dam. From that auspicious start, the family and its eponymous company would go on to build the world, from the construction of airports in Hong Kong and Doha to pipelines and tunnels in Alaska and Europe to mining and energy operations around the globe.
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Your Liberal Bias is showing
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The Plot to Betray America
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In The Plot to Betray America, New York Times best-selling author and renowned intelligence expert Malcolm Nance reveals exactly how President Trump and his inner circle conspired, coordinated, communicated, and eventually strategized to commit the greatest acts of treachery in the history of the United States: Compromising the presidential oath of office in exchange for power and personal enrichment.
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Fantastic Read
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The Iran Wars is an absorbing account of a battle waged on many levels - military, financial, and covert. Jay Solomon’s book is the product of extensive in-depth reporting and interviews with all the key players in the conflict - from high-ranking Iranian officials to Secretary of State John Kerry and his negotiating team. With a reporter’s masterly investigative eye and the narrative dexterity of a great historian, Solomon shows how Iran’s nuclear development went unnoticed for years by the international community only to become its top security concern.
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Titled Towards Confrontation
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The Best Worst President
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Political analyst and Democratic campaign veteran Mark Hannah gives Barack Obama the victory lap he deserves in this compendium that takes the president's critics head-on and celebrates the president's many underappreciated triumphs.
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Thought-provoking
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In the Shadows of the American Century
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In a completely original analysis, prizewinning historian Alfred W. McCoy explores America's rise as a world power - from the 1890s through the Cold War - and its bid to extend its hegemony deep into the 21st century through a fusion of cyberwar, space warfare, trade pacts, and military alliances. McCoy then analyzes the marquee instruments of US hegemony - covert intervention, client elites, psychological torture, and worldwide surveillance. Peeling back layers of secrecy, McCoy exposes a military and economic battle for global domination fought in the shadows.
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Covert war history, frameworks, tech, dark sides
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Pakistan on the Brink
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What are the possibilities—and hazards—facing America as it withdraws from Afghanistan and reviews its long engagement in Pakistan? Where is the Taliban now in both of these countries? What does the immediate future hold, and what are America’s choices going forward? These are some of the crucial questions that Ahmed Rashid—Pakistan’s preeminent journalist—takes on in this follow-up to his acclaimed Descent into Chaos.
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A Very Long NPR-like Interview and History Lesson
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Putin's Kleptocracy
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The raging question in the world today is who is the real Vladimir Putin and what are his intentions. Karen Dawisha’s brilliant Putin’s Kleptocracy provides an answer, describing how Putin got to power, the cabal he brought with him, the billions they have looted, and his plan to restore the Greater Russia.
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Who owns Russia
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The War State
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Today when you factor in the interest on the national debt from past wars and total defense expenditures the United States spends almost 40% of its federal budget on the military. It accounts for over 46% of total world arms spending. Before World War II it spent almost nothing on defense and hardly anyone paid any income taxes. You can't have big wars without big government. Such big expenditures are now threatening to harm the national economy.
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Surprisingly Good
- By ohmie on 04-22-14
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What listeners say about The Spoils of War
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- Babaluau11
- 07-03-22
Mind numbing truths!
This exposee leaves you searching for hope on the whole putrid/hopeless business of war and the war of global financial greed and corruption which robs all of humanity of any semblamce of dignity or kidness.
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- Ron Romans
- 03-06-22
Sad... I mean, I knew there was corruption....
it's hard to believe the amount of corruption that is both on the Democratic and Republican side of the United States. If every American read this book it would be a revolution next week
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3 people found this helpful
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- Raymond L. Daniels
- 03-17-22
Truth
This book answered the questions Americans are asking, what happened to our country. And why it has happened so pervasively.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-28-21
MUST READ
Excellent researched book with ample evidence that 'Merikkka is the most corrupt regime in the world and in all history. Thanks to its rapacious capitalistic nature and under the leadership of psychopaths and sociopaths in has been a menace to peace loving peoples since its foundation. An evil empire that sees ills in the world when they are simply projections of themselves.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Cory Brickner
- 03-17-22
This is fantastic!
The author has some great data and the narrator has a very clear and pleasant voice. There was so much relevant information, especially with respect to what's happening now with NATO and the Ukraine and Russia that this is literally a must read! I have one complaint and that is the last chapter. Its about financial institutions and derivatives with a very tenuous tie to the theme of the book -- almost like it was an afterthought. The information wasn't bad nor uninteresting -- I just kept wondering how this was tied to the military industrial complex the whole time and I never saw the connection other than some brief mentions of Malaysia and no longer supporting North Korea.
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2 people found this helpful
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- John
- 10-16-22
the title is incorrect
so, there are a lot of statements as a matter of fact but not much by way of reference matter to verify fact. some strange things too like making the A-10 reference about how it will be decommissioned in 2015 but then no mention immediately of current day bases still employing the A-10 such as the 25th in osan. but there was reference to how it stuck around later but.... did the audi le narrators mis some lines? maybe I skipped forward so smoothly I couldn't tell I missed content? there were some good points that I have seen personally from being in the military for ten years but lots of this book is expanded emotional hyperbole.... less backed up fact. also the title is wrong. it's, sure, the spoils of war but it's missing "and what I think about the economic mechanisms in government" not tied to war or the military outside of the fact that there are dollars in the military and dollars in the banks. lots of talk bout the mid 00's but just no military connections. housing bubble and Saudi money ...... with no connection to how they are the spoils of war, military or otherwise.
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- Christopher Doyle
- 04-11-23
Strange
I’m generally a big Cockburn fan and agree with most of what he says here, but this feels like a very disjointed book. The sudden pivot to high finance in the last few chapters after a near-exclusive focus on military industrial malfeasance for the first 75% of the book is jarring. It feels like it lacks any kind of coherent thesis and is kind of just Cockburn “playing the hits”. Overall a worthwhile read, but if you’ve been following Cockburn’s career there won’t be much new here.
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