Dave Smith knows how to have fun and be funny...while making a good point! He is not only a libertarian stand-up comic, but he is host of the very popular Part of the Problem podcast. How did Dave come around to embrace the libertarian movement? The Giuliani Moment! Dave Smith dropped by the Ron Paul Liberty Report studio to talk about his conversion to libertarianism and what he's doing with it on this very special episode of the program... read on...
Here's a perfect example of how convoluted our Middle East policy is: our Turkish NATO allies attacked our Kurdish anti-ISIS ground forces in Iraq and Syria this week, killing as many as 70 fighters. The Kurdish YPG fighters make up the bulk of the US-backed "Syrian Democratic Forces" who are leading the US fight against ISIS in eastern Syria. How will the Kurds respond to the fact that their chief sponsor's close ally keeps killing them? And how does the US expect the Kurds to take over Raqqa once it's "liberated" when the Turks keep killing them? And how will the Turks respond to the US at least tacitly pushing the Kurds toward de facto statehood? And...what is our Syria policy? Tune in to today's Liberty Report... read on...
President Trump has yet to provide any credible evidence that the gas attack in Syria earlier this month was carried out by Assad, and in the meantime very serious questions about the veracity of White House claims are arising from very credible experts. Yet the Administration seems ever more determined now that it has done a 180 degree turn and demanded regime change for Syria. Late last week the White House announced sanctions on 271 Syrian scientists who Trump claims are working on chemical weapons. The proof? None. How to explain this sudden embrace of the neocon line on Syria and elsewhere? It might be telling that according to recent press reports the architect of the disastrous Iraq war, Paul Wolfowitz, is lending advice on the Middle East to Defense Secretary Mattis and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster. They have all apparently been friends for years. More in today's Liberty Report... read on...
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson yesterday accused Iran of sending troops to fight in Syria and of destabilizing the region. He did not mention that Iranian troops were invited into the country while US troops are in Syria illegally. Tillerson condemned Iran as a leading human rights abuser while praising Saudi Arabia -- the kings of head-chopping -- as a great US ally. The Secretary of State vowed that the US would solve the Iran problem once and for all instead of leaving it to the next US Administration. Is Trump gunning for yet another major war in the Middle East? Will US allies follow Washington in new sanctions on Iran even as Trump has reluctantly admitted that Iran is living up to its end of the nuclear deal? This and more in today's Liberty Report... read on...
In late 2009, President Obama brought US troop levels in Afghanistan up to 100,000. This "surge" was modeled after the "successful" US surge in Iraq. Ultimately both failed, but the surge planners like General Petraeus are still being listened to as "serious" figures. Now, 16 years into the war in Afghanistan, we are witnessing a slow-motion surge. Some 300 US Marines are on their way to the "graveyard of empires" and the Commander of US troops in Afghanistan is on record requesting a "few thousand" more. Will another surge achieve what the previous surges have failed to achieve? We take a look at why the war on Afghanistan was lost long ago in today's Liberty Report... read on...
John Kiriakou remains the only CIA officer to be jailed over the Agency's illegal torture program -- and he was the whistleblower who exposed it! But the story of how the FBI was able to send Kiriakou to prison on a 30 month sentence is fascinating, shocking, chilling. We discuss this dark chapter in our recent history as well as Mr. Kiriakou's fascinating upcoming book, Doing Time Like A Spy: How the CIA Taught Me to Survive and Thrive in Prison, in today's very special Liberty Report... read on...
President Trump's National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster said over the weekend that North Korea's behavior is "provocative and destabilizing" in the region. This while the US is in the process of parking an "armada" of warships off of North Korea's coast. President Trump has shown that he will not hesitate to use military force as a first option when facing what he views as threats overseas and he shows little interest in involving Congress in the matter. But who is really provoking whom? We discuss in today's Liberty Report... read on...
After steadily-increasing tension under the Obama Administration, candidate Trump wondered why it was a bad thing to get along with Russia. Hillary Clinton promised more of the confrontational Obama approach. More conflict. The people chose Trump. What happened? President Trump has thus far brought us closer to war with Russia than at any time since the height of the Cold War. Does Trump have a Russia policy and if so what is it? We discuss in today's Liberty Report... read on...
It was supposed to be different with Trump. Dozens of times as candidate and even early on as president, he stated that it would be a big mistake to go into Syria. He also finally cancelled Obama's "Assad must go" policy. Then came reports of a gas attack in Syria which was blamed on Assad with no evidence given. Suddenly missiles are flying, US boots are on the ground, and again we hear "Assad must go." Is it our role to determine who can and cannot rule foreign countries? We are joined in-studio today by Mises Institute founder Lew Rockwell to discuss... read on...
House and Senate Republican leaders McConnell and Ryan are praising President Trump's missile strike on Syria last week in retaliation for an alleged chemical attack on civilians, while when President Obama proposed the same thing in 2013 they strongly opposed the plan. Meanwhile, the mainstream media and even many "progressives" are turning pro-Trump after the US attack. Few are the true progressives like Tulsi Gabbard, who is questioning the claims that Assad gassed his own people. So are we all neocons now? Not so fast! While earning praise from the establishment, Trump's base and the opinion-makers around his base are furious. We discuss the changing political environment -- and whether the accepted narrative makes any sense in today's Liberty Report... read on...
