With the General Election just six weeks off, serious discussion about the current trend of U.S. foreign policy isn’t happening. We’re certainly not hearing it from the candidates. The two major parties differ on fine points but they agree on the overall thrust: the escalation of troops in Iraq is related to a decrease in violence. More troops need to go to Afghanistan. And cross-border assassination raids into Pakistan are ok if the targets are high-value terrorists.

What’s missing is any real debate. But go out into the world and the lines of debate are pretty clear:

To some, the US and its allies are waging war on terrorism and tyranny, for the sake of democratization and good governance? To others, the so called war on terror’s nothing but a front for a desperate push by Western powers to shore up the economic system they have built.

Today we host two very different views of US foreign policy — its origins and rationales. Former NY Times reporter Judith Miller, left that paper under attack for giving too much credence to the administration’s rationale for the Iraq invasion. She is currently an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor to their magazine, City Journal. We’re also joined by journalist, historian and novelist Tariq Ali. Born in Lahore, Pakistan and now living in London, Tariq’s latest book is, The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power.

This week’s GOT DOCS? is Lone Soldier, about non-Israeli men and women who choose to serve as volunteers in the Israeli Defense Force. We have an essay from the American News Project’s Nick Penniman about the men behind the investment giants that teeter on collapse, the CEOs who got very rich while their firms crumbled.

Then, our media roundtable on the highs and lows of recent coverage – the fact checks buried on page 23 compared to the front pages heard round the world, the bungled financial reporting, and the big big week where conservatives are suddenly talking about sexism. With PBS’s MARIA HINOJOSA, the Guardian’s  IAN WILLIAMS and Pacifica Radio’s AARON GLANZ who’s just published a book based on the Winter Soldier Hearings convened by IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR earlier this year. 

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