BBC Obamas America 1of2 The Price of Freedom H264 AAC dokus4alle mp4

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Simon Schama examines some of the daunting challenges facing Barack Obama, both on the world stage and at home. 2 parts series.


* Episode 1 of 2 : The Price of Freedom  ---> http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00q08qh

A year on from Barack Obama's inauguration, Simon Schama examines the issue that more than any other will determine the fate of his presidency: Afghanistan. It's a war which Obama inherited but which he has pledged to continue fighting - a conflict that will cost many more American and British lives.

As Simon Schama explains, it wasn't just a political miscalculation which landed the US and its allies in military crisis, but a historical miscalculation - a refusal to learn from the conflicts of the past. By committing America and its allies to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, George Bush and the neocons allowed the battle against the Taliban to slide. The neocons were obsessed with World War Two, and persuaded themselves that both wars would - like the Second World War - be glorious liberations; decisive military victories.

However, as Schama discovers, it's not to World War II, but to America's forgotten war in Korea, that US policymakers should have looked if they wanted to understand the thorny reality of America's twentieth-century conflicts. The president who took America into Korea was Harry Truman. As Simon Schama explains, in Truman's handling of this bloody war, and in his statesmanship at a time of international crisis, there are profound lessons for Obama today.

First Broadcast : Tue 12 Jan 2010, 21:00, on BBC Two.


* Episode 2 of 2 : The End of the Dream?  ---> http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00q08wy

In the second of two films to mark the anniversary of Barack Obama's inauguration, Simon Schama asks what has happened to the fabled American Dream - the promise of prosperity for all.

At the start of 2009, Obama took office in the midst of an economic and financial crisis unparalleled since the Great Depression. One of his key election pledges was to make the American money machine work for everyone. To many, the United States is synonymous with freebooting capitalism, but, as Schama discovers, since the birth of the republic there's been confusion over the role of banks. Are they the creators or the destroyers of the American Dream?

President Obama now finds himself confronting what is not just a historical but also a political dilemma. Will he act decisively to rein in Wall Street and end the cycle of boom and bust which has destroyed the lives of ordinary Americans, or is he too timid to tamper with the goose which lays golden eggs? It's a question which will determine whether the President is a political radical or a cautious pragmatist, and how he responds will shape America - and the face of capitalism - for years to come.

First Broadcast : Thu 14 Jan 2010, 21:00, on BBC Two.


Links and Screenshots :
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- BBC programme page.

- Wikipedia page, War in Afghanistan.

- BBC News Profile, Barack Obama.


Technical Specs :
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File Name ..........: BBC.Obamas.America.1of2.The.Price.of.Freedom.H264.AAC.dokus4alle.mp4
File Size (Bytes)...: 685,477,891
Duration (hh:mm:ss).: 59:30.040
 
Video Codec ........: avc1, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution .........: 832 x 468
Aspect Ratio .......: 1.778 : 1
Video Bitrate ......: 1536 Kb/s
Framerate ..........: 25.000 FPS
Quality Factor .....: 0.158 (bits/pixel)/frame
 
Audio Codec ........: mp4a: MPEG-4 AAC LC
Audio Bitrate ......: 125 Kb/s VBR
Audio Sample Rate ..: 48000 Hz
Audio Channels .....: 2
Subtitles ..........: English .srt included. 
 
Source .............: iPlayer stream, capped by l0thar, a dokus4alle release.

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