When Turkey found itself in a bit of trouble in Idlib, Syria last week - a Syrian army advance had taken back much of the province and a Syrian air force strike had killed Turkish soldiers embedded with jihadist fighters - Ankara signaled to Washington that it needed help, including Patriot Missile batteries on Turk soil. The response was cool from the Pentagon, but Pompeo's State Department is all for it - even if it means war with Russia and Iran. Today on the Liberty Report... read on...
It's always important from the standpoint of peace that America and Russia, two major nuclear powers, continue to practice diplomacy. The 20th century, with hundreds of millions dead as a result of government wars, provides us all with valuable lessons on the importance of diplomacy. read on...
The tragedy of Benghazi can be attributed to stupidity and bad ideology. The much talked about Hillary Clinton testimony does not challenge the ideology of interventionism. The hearing is merely a challenging of the management of interventionism. So both sides agree on intervening in foreign countries, they merely disagree on how it is to be managed.
I believe that the argument must be ideological and the notion of interventionism itself must be challenged. The problem of Benghazi is not one of management. Both sides endorsed and supported the intervention in Libya. Since that time, there has been an expansion into Syria and other parts of the Middle East. read on...
On today's Liberty Report, we covered the US government's assassination program. You'll surely recall when President Obama issued an executive order that said the President has the authority to assassinate even American citizens at his own discretion.
Well, a very important report was issued by The Intercept that gave us a view at how horrendous the US drone program is in practice. The report was from a whistleblower who showed that during a five month period of drone strikes in Afghanistan, 90 percent of the people killed were not the intended targets.
This is very dangerous territory. The immorality should be extremely obvious. But there are also the unintended consequences and blowback that end up flying back like boomerangs. read on...
Twelve years ago today, the US government unleashed "shock and awe" on Iraq. We were assured the invasion would be a cakewalk, wouldn't cost much if anything at all, and that democracy would break out all over the Middle East after Iraq's "liberation." We all know how that worked out. read on...
In Washington DC, consistency is considered a vice, never a virtue. It is for this reason that many in Washington, especially the neoconservatives, consider their foreign policy one of virtue. You would think that our political leaders, both in the Republican and Democratic parties, would learn something from the devastating effects of our very inconsistent foreign policy, especially after the last 15 years. The chaos that we have brought to Iraq and Afghanistan should be a loud and clear message to anyone who has ears to hear.
We now get the message from our current Secretary of State John Kerry that it’s time to “reignite” negotiations with Assad for the purpose of ending the conflict in Syria. I guess it’s better late than never, but after more than four years of us needlessly meddling in the internal affairs of Syria, it’s about time. Of course we as Americans, as well as the entire Middle East, would have been better off if we had never adopted the policy in August 2011 that “Assad must go.” What is never realized is that, no matter whether we’re intervening with good intentions or not, our involvement in countries halfway around the world only makes things worse. read on...
Today the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a non-elected federal government agency, voted three-to-two to reclassify broadband Internet as a common carrier service under Title II of the Communications Act. This means that – without the vote of Congress, the peoples’ branch of government – a federal agency now claims the power to regulate the Internet. I am surprised that even among civil liberties groups, some claim the federal government increasing regulation of the Internet somehow increases our freedom and liberty. read on...
If Eddie Ray Routh had never served in the military, I'm of the opinion that he would probably not have killed anybody. He would not be imprisoned for life and Chris Kyle would be alive today. Much of the blame should lie with our foreign policy of interventionism and the VA's faulty reliance on psychotropic drugs for treating the guilt associated with preemptive wars. read on...
Richard Fisher, the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank president, is once again going after everyone who supports an audit of the Federal Reserve System. In particular he has been hitting at Sen. Rand Paul for having introduced Senate Bill 264, which calls for a full audit of the Fed. Fisher has no new arguments against the audit. He repeats the same old clichés that have come from the Federal Reserve for the past several decades. I certainly have heard them all several times recited by Federal Reserve Board chairmen as they testified before the House Financial Services Committee. read on...
