After 14 years, more than a trillion dollars, tens of thousands of lives lost on all sides, the US/NATO mission in Afghanistan is more adrift than ever. Next month NATO member state ministers will meet to determine the next steps in Afghanistan. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg claims there will be no future combat mission for NATO, but NATO generals admit that if NATO leaves there will be an even swifter collapse. In today's Liberty Report, Ron Paul offers some advice to NATO leaders... read on...
As the US State Department goes around the world lecturing other countries about how they must adhere to the rule of law, the White House again proves it is one of the most lawless entities on earth. The Constitution is clear; the War Powers Resolution is clear: the president is not allowed to commit the US military to combat without a Congressional declaration or at least authorization. Yet the president has been bombing Syria for a year and now is sending in US ground troops with no legal authority to do so. Congress is the president's partner in crime and we are the victims - today on the Liberty Report... read on...
Hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Africa, even western Asia are pouring into western Europe through central Europe as Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has laid down a welcome mat. Meanwhile political pressure within Germany builds, as villages of just 100 or more residents are told they must house thousands of refugees who know neither the language nor the customs of the area. Parties like the Alternative for Germany are enjoying increased popularity and electoral success. Is Germany -- and the EU -- headed for a crack-up? More today in the Liberty Report... read on...
With creation of the Central Intelligence Agency came a secret government that was unaccountable to the American people. It assassinated foreign leaders, journalists, and others who it determined were enemies. It overthrew governments it felt were not toeing the US line to the required degree. There were minor smack-downs like the Church Committee in the 1970s, but in all the "secret government" has continued to amass power and defy the American people. What role did this secret government have in major events like the assassination of President Kennedy? Today's Liberty Report is joined by David Talbot, author of the explosive new book, "The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government." read on...
The apparent downing of a Russian passenger plane over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula over the weekend has, as could be predicted, produced no shortage of theories as to who or what is behind it. Was it ISIS-affiliated Islamist terrorists who control much of the area? They took "credit" for the attack but do not seem to have the technical means to carry it out. A bomb on board? Blowback for Russian bombs on Syria? Today's Liberty Report takes a look at the various theories and at the bigger picture... read on...
It's bad enough that the US government feels the need to back any state in the Middle East, but of all states to back why Saudi Arabia? This head-chopping champion state tells the US it must back head-choppers in Syria against a secular leader -- in the name of democracy which doesn't exist in Saudi Arabia -- and the US dutifully signs on. Iran is certainly no angel, but is its civil liberties record any worse than the Saudis? Our "allies" in the Middle East today in the Liberty Report... read on...
"I will not put US boots on the ground in Syria." That was President Obama's unequivocal statement to the American people just two years ago when he first planned to bomb Syria. He has repeated the statement several times, as he has also repeated his promise that he "will not pursue a long air campaign" in Syria.
This move encapsulates neocon-occupied Washington's response to foreign policy failure: if an intervention is failing, escalate.
The year-long US bombing campaign to "degrade and ultimately destroy ISIS" has produced little result; the "train and equip" program produced a handful of fighters who immediately were captured by or defected to al-Qaeda and/or ISIS; US airdrops of weapons ended up in the hands of ISIS eight times out of ten, according to University of Oklahoma Syria expert Joshua Landis.
The solution to this failed policy is not to abandon the US regime change plans for Syria and let the Russians mop up the ISIS and al-Qaeda problem for us. No! The answer is to put US boots on the ground! read on...
Economic and foreign interventionism have led us to the edge of the abyss. The Federal Reserve bails out the connected elite and the neocon interventions enrich the military-industrial complex. In both cases the middle class suffers. The interventionists are intellectually bankrupt. Thankfully there are more resources available than ever to help educate us on the ideas of liberty, which offer the only real alternative to the failed policies of the past. Today's Ron Paul Liberty Report is joined by RonPaulLibertyReport.com editor Chris Rossini to discuss our next moves... read on...
Today the House is expected to vote on the budget "compromise" bill -- outgoing Speaker John Boehner's swan song before retirement. The budget agreement tears up the "sequester" of 2011, which was supposed to limit spending but of course never operated as advertised, and opens the floodgates for billions more to the warfare state and the welfare state. The warfare state doesn't keep us safe and the welfare state doesn't help those in need. Both help Washington above all. Campaign for Liberty's Norman Singleton joins the Ron Paul Liberty Report for a behind-the-scenes look at today's Hill action... read on...
The US guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen ventured into the 12 mile exclusion set up by the Chinese around two islands it is constructing in the South China Sea. The stated purpose of the US "violation" of Chinese territory was to establish a precedent so as to keep shipping lanes open in the area. Considering that 80 percent of Chinese exports pass through the area, however, it seems unlikely that China would take the economically suicidal move of restricting shipping. So is this just more US saber-rattling thousands of miles from home? Tune in to today's Ron Paul Liberty Report... read on...
