Catherine A. Lutz (/lʌts/; born 1952) is an American anthropologist and Thomas J. Watson, Jr. Family Professor of Anthropology and International Studies at Brown University.
One from April 11, 2008, on Antiwar Radio:[6] This interview discussed the United States’ presence in Iraq and other countries throughout the world.
She says the U.S. maintains permanent bases throughout the world to establish a “global military stance” and to create the ability to control events in all areas of the world.The second took place on September 10, 2011, on Open Source Radio Arts, Ideas and Politics:[7] The interview was about research Lutz, and a team of other academics conducted about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The study estimates a body count of 6,000 US troops and a total of 260,000 people who died directly from violence.
The study also notes that the money that has been spent on the wars has diverted resources from “building basics of modern economy” like education, infrastructure of transit and so on.
Lutz says that 800,000 jobs would have been created if that money would have been spent on healthcare or in education, and in addition, these sectors have suffered.
In addition to massive spending, civil liberties and human rights violations have been excused on the basis of national security.
The idea of promoting national security also relates to the fact that the US continues to invest in military bases where it does not make good sense.
Lutz says there is a “magical thinking” in which people assume that if something bad did not happen to us, it must be because we developed military forces in the Middle East."
Lutz stresses the importance of examination and reflection of these wars.Other interests include race and gender, democracy, automobiles in a global perspective, subjectivity and power, photography and cultural history, critical theory, anthropological methods, sociocultural contexts of science, U.S. twentieth-century history and ethnography, and Asia-Pacific.