News and Views
This week marks 16 years since the US attacked an Iraq that had neither attacked nor threatened us. Claims that Iraq had WMDs were lies and the Bush Administration knew they were lies. So 16 years later who is coming out on top after the US attack? Here’s a hint: the most unintended of consequences. Today on the Ron Paul Liberty Report:
Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.
Less than a month after Brazil made it clear that it wants no part in a military invasion of neighboring Venezuela, its president, Jair Bolsonaro, is in Washington this week to be feted by Trump and his neocon advisors. First stop was an unprecedented visit to the CIA for a “briefing” on Venezuela. Then it was off to a visit with Trump, where the US president promised at the least a path to NATO membership for the South American country. Are the neocons turning Bolsonaro in favor of an attack on Venezuela? Tune in to today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:
Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.
The Trump Administration has requested a huge increase in the US spy budget, including a whopping $23 billion for the “black” budget. The reasons given are the increasing threats from Russia and China. Does all this spy spending really protect us…or is it just welfare for the Beltway bandits and scaremongers? Tune in to today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:
Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.
Originally appeared on The American Conservative.
The Trump administration’s destructive Iran policy may be about to get even worse:
Under plans recommended by Mr. Pompeo and some White House officials, the State Department would designate Iran’s military Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization. It would be a first instance of the United States designating a unit of another government’s military as a terrorist group; American officials said it could put United States troops and intelligence officers at risk of similar actions by foreign governments.
The plans also would designate some Iraqi Shiite militias as foreign terrorist organizations. As a result, the Iranian-trained militias – and Iraqi officials who support them – would be subject to new economic sanctions and travel restrictions.
The administration’s plans would be guaranteed to increase tensions with Iran and sour relations with the Iraqi government. The designation of the IRGC and Iraqi militias could very well provoke attacks on U.S. forces by those same groups. Previous proposals to designate the IRGC have prompted some of their officers to threaten to do just that. The designation could also provide a pretext for the administration to initiate hostilities against Iran and the armed groups that it supports in Iraq and Syria. When this bad idea first start cropping up over ten years ago, then-Sen. Obama opposed it because he argued that it could be used as an excuse for an attack on Iran. It is potentially very dangerous, and it isn’t going to achieve anything, so it is very much like the rest of the administration’s bankrupt Iran policy.
The president has backpedaled yet again. Instead of seeing American troops return home from Syria “very soon,” as President Trump promised, his neocon advisors have made sure that it’s not going to happen. On today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:
Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.
The Senate has passed “war powers” legislation ordering the president to cease and desist his cooperation with Saudi Arabia in the destruction of Yemen. A House vote is expected soon, which would throw the issue to the president who has promised a veto. Will there be political fallout for a president failing to accede to the will of Congress on matters of war and peace? Tune in to the Ron Paul Liberty Report:
Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.
