Antiwar.com Blog

Have we become a welfare state for the military-industrial complex? In August, 2018, Congress passed the Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) with overwhelming bi-partisan support. It authorized a whopping $717 BILLION in military expenditures, a $98 Billion increase over the 2017 NDAA. Only ten senators voted against this bill, and neither of Iowa’s two senators was among the ten.

Why is this important?

First, and most easily understood, is that the FY 2019 military budget translates into about $2,200 per person in the United States. Repeat, $2,200 per person. Of course, that is not proportionally reflected in the taxes that we pay. This gargantuan expenditure is mostly funded by new Federal debt. The deficit for FY 2018 was $782 billion, and is projected to be over $1 trillion in FY 2019. So, we will let our grandchildren carry that burden.

Second, with funding for the military consuming 58% of total Federal discretionary spending, all other programs are suffocated. For example, military funding is 81.5 times more than the budget for the Environmental Protection Agency.

Continue reading “Evaluate War’s True Costs, Including Massive Debt”

A shock call from President Trump to head of the “Libyan National Army,” Khalifa Hafter, praising him for keeping the oil safe in eastern Libya, has upended US policy. Now the US supports both the UN-appointed government in Tripoli and Hafter’s forces fighting against it. What’s it all about? Iran, sanctions, Saudi Arabia, oil, and Israel. Who wins in this international proxy war…? Tune in to the Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

After the neocons blew up President Trump’s February meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un by actually proposing the “Libya scenario,” Kim finds himself meeting tomorrow for the first time with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Instead of being pushed around and given a list of demands, Kim is expected to sign trade deals and improve relations. Is this the end of hope for a US/North Korea deal? If so…who is to blame? On today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

On Tuesday April 23rd, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia put to death 37 men on charges of terrorism, in their largest mass execution since 2016. One of the prisoners was crucified after being beheaded. Most of the prisoners were of the Shia minority, and according to Amnesty International the trials were shams that relied on information gained through torture and forced confessions.

One of the men executed was arrested for a crime he committed when he was only 16 years old. Abdulkareem al-Hawaj was arrested January 16th 2014 at a checkpoint in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, for his involvement in anti-government protests in 2012. He was allegedly tortured and forced to sign a confession that would seal his fate of capital punishment.

Continue reading “Saudis Execute 37 in the Kingdom’s Largest Mass Execution Since 2016”

Originally appeared on The American Conservative.

CNN reports that Trump may decide to cancel more sanctions waivers, and this time they affect ongoing work to implement provisions of the nuclear deal:

President Donald Trump and his advisers are considering revoking sanctions waivers that have allowed several countries to collaborate with Iran on civil nuclear projects, including those intended to restrict Iran’s nuclear production capabilities, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Trump administration officials have held several meetings in recent weeks to discuss eliminating some or all of the nuclear sanctions waivers, but a decision has not yet been reached, an administration official and source familiar with the discussions told CNN. National security adviser John Bolton, a longtime Iran hawk, has been among those pushing for the US to take this next step and eliminate the waivers, the sources said.

The most hard-line opponents of the nuclear deal have been agitating for Trump to do this for months, and they have a natural ally in Bolton, who has never seen an arms control or nonproliferation deal that he didn’t want to destroy. The Trump administration had previously been willing to grant these sanctions waivers that allow some nonproliferation work to go ahead at Fordow and Arak:

Continue reading “The Nuclear Deal Saboteurs Aren’t Finished Yet”

The liberals are bent on impeaching Trump. Utilitarian electoral calculations are their only considerations.

But how to impeach after he just got no-billed by the grand jury on the big collusion plot that never was, and no more than half-assed recommended for future possible charges on obstruction in the case of the big collusion plot that never was.

That’s some pretty thin gruel.

But I sympathize. All presidents should be impeached. And Trump is certainly no exception to that. But after the complete implosion of Russiagate, demands to impeach the president certainly ring partisan and shallow.

If you really want to remove Trump, there’s only one way to do it right and do it for real:

The Democrats are going to have to call for the prosecution of Barack H. Obama for waging an unauthorized, illegal, literally treasonous, genocidal war in Yemen.

Continue reading “Impeaching Trump”