For the last thirteen years, the annual Nation Cruise has facilitated numerous opportunities for fruitful dialogue among America’s leading progressives and The Nation‘s readership. On this year’s cruise, Katrina vanden Heuvel moderated a panel featuring Lt. General Robert Gard and Nation writers Jeremy Scahill, Stephen Cohen and John Nichols, who explored just how far Obama has diverted from his promise to end the culture of fear that led the US into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to Scahill, foreign policy isn’t that different today from what it was during the Bush years—if anything, Obama has increased secrecy around issues like torture and targeted killings abroad, and has expanded the power of government to spy on US citizens.

Listen to the full panel conversation for more on how the war in Iraq is over in name only, the danger of a new Cold War on the horizon and what kind of real change we should be demanding on the foreign policy front.

—Braden Goyette

For information on the 2011 Nation Cruise, click here.
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