Author: Daniel McAdams

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.

Ideas have consequences. Good ideas cannot be defeated by armies, or bad politicians in Washington. Right now, I’m seeing progress in the peace movement. We are truly moving in the right direction.

I believe that the end is coming for the U.S. government’s failed foreign policy. We are living in a new era with a lot of room for the correct ideology to move in. Fortunately, the ideas of peace, free markets and non-interventionism are available to people like they’ve never been available before.

Our job is to spread these ideas, and convince as many Americans as possible that liberty provides the answers, not authoritarianism.

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission has endorsed the Iran nuclear agreement, concluding that it would prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. The Commission joins dozens of former high-ranking security and intelligence personnel in Israel who agree that the deal is a net positive for Israel. Back in the US the neocons have dominated the debate, joining their ally Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in predicting doom and gloom if the world backs off its war footing against Iran. Of course Netanyahu has been predicting an Iranian atomic weapon is imminent since at least 1992, so like the neocons his credibility is low. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is beating down Iran’s door for trade opportunities now that the sanctions regime is effectively over. Everywhere but the US, that is. More on the other side of the Iran debate in today’s Liberty Report:

Daniel McAdams is director of the The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity. Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Today’s Benghazi Committee hearings will not focus on the central issue: US interventionist foreign policy which set the stage for the inevitable attack that followed. Hillary Clinton made the point in her opening statement that US embassies have been attacked many times in the past and she is right. But no one wants to question why they attack. Here’s a hint: it’s not because we are rich and free. Democrats and Republicans are out to score political points from the hearings. Both agree on the policies. Both agree on interventionism. Without major changes, neither will do a thing to change the root cause of such events: US interventionism. Today’s Liberty Report explores questions you will not hear in today’s hearing:

Daniel McAdams is director of the The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity. Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

The US House of Representatives, which never ceases sticking its nose in other people’s business, is tomorrow scheduled to take up H. Res. 348, a bill “Supporting the right of the people of Ukraine to freely elect their government and determine their future.” The bill can only increase tensions in Ukraine and threaten the fragile eight month old “Minsk II” ceasefire agreement.

The “Minsk II agreement” continues to produce relative calm in eastern Ukraine – earlier this month both Kiev and the breakaway regions of the east have agreed to withdraw remaining tanks, artillery and mortars from front line, in a move the Telegraph (UK) observed “could signal end of war.”

The US was not a party to the Minsk II talks, which took place earlier this year between Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany. US involvement from the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine – starting with open US support for the unconstitutional coup in 2014 – has been to exacerbate tensions rather than to help ameliorate them.

It is a US position that continues in H. Res. 348, a bill scheduled on the House “suspension calendar” reserved for “non-controversial” legislation. The Resolution completely distorts objective reality in Ukraine to continue the discredited story that the Ukraine unrest began not as a result of US support for a coup in February 2014, but because of a Russian invasion.

Continue reading “US House Resolution Seeks New Conflict in Ukraine”

A new US government whistleblower has come forward to share highly disturbing information about the US worldwide assassination program, deceptively called “targeted killing.” Most of those killed with bombs fired from drones were not the intended targets, we learn, but they were classified as “enemies killed in action” anyway. Today’s Liberty Report takes a look at this major new exposé of the US assassination policy – is America losing its moral compass?

Reprinted with permission from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Last year’s National Defense Authorization Act allocated half a billion dollars to train “vetted,” “moderate” rebels to attack ISIS in Syria and also to overthrow the country’s sovereign government. This schizophrenic policy goal not surprisingly produced a total (after the others were killed, captured, or willingly gave their weapons to ISIS) of four or five fighters. Even this micro force of five ultimately found itself in the depths of embarrassment as it was carjacked by al-Qaeda. Half a billion dollars to have five guys carjacked! Put ten plumbers in a room and they could craft a more workable foreign policy than the entirety of the US foreign policy establishment.

So how does Capitol Hill respond to such a total failure? Reassess the policy and cut the losses? Welcome the Russian entry into the fight against ISIS and al-Qaeda in Syria? Look at Iraq and Libya and decide that regime change is just an illicit fantasy of the perpetual adolescents of the neoconservative movement?

No!

Currently sitting on President Obama’s desk is the National Defense Authorization Act of 2016 that, as could be predicted, doubles down on a bad bet and…wait for it!…authorizes $600 million for the mythical anti-ISIS/anti-Assad fighters. As it is not their money, why not open the national credit card wide to pursue a failed policy.

Continue reading “Defense Spending Bill: $600 Million More to Train ‘Moderates’ in Syria”