Month: March 2016

It is going to cost the US $3.4 billion, but Commander of NATO’s European Command Gen. Philip Breedlove announced that the US will be sending thousands of additional troops to deploy on Russia’s border in the Baltics, as well as in Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria. This “European Reassurance Initiative” is said to protect NATO’s eastern borders from “Russian aggression.” But isn’t putting you troops on the border of another country thousands of miles away itself an aggressive act? And what about helping overthrow the elected leaders of another country, as the US did in Ukraine? Is that not aggressive? Who is the real aggressor here — today in the Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

All of us at Antiwar.com are pleased to announce the appointment of Angela Keaton as our new Executive Director. Keaton has been with Antiwar.com since 2008 and is now expanding her portfolio from her previous positions of Development Director and Director of Operations to focus on our long term vision of ending militarism, war and torture. Keaton, who has collaborated with our opinions editor Scott Horton in news and public affairs broadcasting since 1999, was station manager of the controversial KOOP 91.7 FM in Austin Texas. She also served on the Libertarian National Committee where she spearheaded action to retain the traditional libertarian stance against war.

Keaton, a second generation libertarian, has an MA and JD from the University of Florida. In addition to her extensive duties at Antiwar.com, she is a legal researcher at a West Hollywood based law firm, worked as a script doctor on audio books and ghost written materials on such eclectic areas from voting rights to celebrity gossip. She plans to use her diverse background to continue building non-partisan alliances against state sponsored mass murder. A summary of her world view on can be found at The Daily Bell.

We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank former executive director Alexia Gilmore who is our comptroller and overseer of the Randolph Bourne Institute, the parent organization of Antiwar.com.

Iraq, the failed state that over 4,600 (and counting…) Americans died to free from some evil tyrant 13 years ago, is still ranking high internationally in something. Unfortunately, that something is corruption.

A couple of other places where America has been intervening for freedom also made the list.

Germany’s Transparency International released its newest corruption index for 2015, and as usual Iraq was on the list. The ten worst countries in its new study were Somalia, North Korea, Afghanistan, Sudan, South Sudan, Angola, Libya, Iraq, Venezuela, and Guinea-Bissau.

Continue reading “Iraq Ranks In Ten Most Corrupt Countries In World, Again”

The media focuses like a laser on terror attacks like we saw in Brussels last week. The endless news cycle pores over every detail, every angle. But what happens when US-backed Saudi jets bomb a market in Yemen, killing five times as many as died in Brussels? Silence. What about the million people who died directly or indirectly because of the US-led attack on Iraq, which was illegal and based on lies? One million people. Is this the greatest terrorist attack in modern times — and why is it not looked at in this manner? Shouldn’t those responsible for the carnage be brought to justice? More on the media’s selective coverage of terrorism in today’s Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Donald Trump recently gave a lengthy interview to The New York Timeson the all-important subject of foreign policy. During the campaign thus far, Trump has distinguished himself among the other presidential candidates for his willingness to be the most outrageously horrible on this subject in some cases, while also being the sharpest voice of reason against the conventional wisdom in others. So in the aftermath of the Brussels Attacks, Trump bizarrely suggested that torture could be part of the solution to terrorism. Yet Trump has also harshly criticized the Iraq War to Republican audiences, going so far as to state (correctly) that the Bush Administration deliberately went to war under false pretenses. Thus, you never know which Trump you’re going to get when it comes to foreign policy. And anytime he speaks publicly on the matter, it ought to be cause for both dread and hope, in roughly equal proportions.

Fortunately, in this most recent interview with The New York Times, it was mostly the reasonable Trump that came through. He was still bad on many issues and revealed substantial ignorance in some spots. But he made a coherent, economical case in favor of reducing American involvement around the globe. In essence, he suggested that the US is subsidizing the defense of many of its allies, and that, unless these allies are willing to reimburse America for the trouble, US troops should come home. Indeed, he even proudly adopted the label of “America First” for his worldview, a reference to the prominent US antiwar / noninterventionist movement prior to World War II.

Continue reading “Trump’s Foreign Policy Interview: The Good, the Bad, and the Passive Aggressive”

Your State Department loves loves loves #socialmedia. They will use it now to defeat ISIS, maybe also the Taliban, by making a #TeeVee show for Afghans saying ISIS, and maybe the Taliban, is bad.

It will only cost $1.5 million of your taxpayer dineros, so be sure to pay the IRS on time this year.

And the show will star Taylor Swift.

#Old People

No, no, just kidding about Taylor Swift, but the other stuff is sadly, pathetically true.

To understand this, you need to understand the State Department. The Department is made up of a few old people in senior positions, and lots of young people (“millennials.”) Think of the old people as your sad, old dad after a divorce, bugging you to explain to him stuff like Tindr and Molly that wasn’t around when he was “dating” but now suddenly seems like something he needs to “get down with.”

Continue reading “State Department: Let’s Fight ISIS With the #TeeVee”