Month: October 2015

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair over the weekend offered an apology of sorts over the disaster produced by the 2003 US/UK invasion of Iraq. He’s “sorry” that the intelligence was wrong, he said, but he’s not at all sorry that Saddam Hussein was overthrown. This “apology” comes on the heels of the White House leaked document showing that while Blair was claiming to the British public that he was dedicated to diplomacy with Iraq, he was making deals with President George W. Bush to push the war option. Today’s Liberty Report takes a look at Tony “Phony” Blair:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

“These are people who had been working hard for months, nonstop for the past week. They had not gone home, they had not seen their families, they had just been working in the hospital to help people… and now they are dead. These people are friends, close friends. I have no words to express this. It is unspeakable.

“The hospital, it has been my workplace and home for several months. Yes, it is just a building. But it is so much more than that. It is healthcare for Kunduz. Now it is gone.

“What is in my heart since this morning is that this is completely unacceptable. How can this happen? What is the benefit of this? Destroying a hospital and so many lives, for nothing. I cannot find words for this.”

~ Lajos Zoltan Jecs

Lajos Zoltan Jecs survived October 3^rd in the Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, which the U.S. bombed for well over an hour, at fifteen minute intervals. The bombing continued, despite frantic communication by the hospital staff who told US, NATO and Afghan officials that their hospital was under attack. Afterwards Jecs reported the indescribable horror of seeing patients burning in their intensive care unit beds.

US people have much to bear in mind as the Pentagon prepares to release its investigation of the attack.

One consideration is that the MSF staff, as a matter of humanitarian policy, treated anyone needing care that was brought to the hospital. The US may have regarded some of the patients as enemies of the US, but this does not justify bombing a hospital. Recent leaks of US drone assassination policy, published by the online journal, The Intercept, clarify that the safety of US people and the elimination of US enemies have long overridden concern on Washington’s part for the preservation of other peoples’ lives, including civilians.

Continue reading “Kathy Kelly on Killing Blind”

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.

Tall, lanky, cheerful and confident, Esmatullah easily engages his young students at the Street Kids School, a project of Kabul’s “Afghan Peace Volunteers,” an antiwar community with a focus on service to the poor. Esmatullah teaches child laborers to read. He feels particularly motivated to teach at the Street Kids School because, as he puts it, “I was once one of these children.” Esmatullah began working to support his family when he was 9 years old. Now, at age 18, he is catching up: he has reached the tenth grade, takes pride in having learned English well enough to teach a course in a local academy, and knows that his family appreciates his dedicated, hard work.

When Esmatullah was nine, the Taliban came to his house looking for his older brother. Esmatullah’s father wouldn’t divulge information they wanted. The Taliban then tortured his father by beating his feet so severely that he has never walked since. Esmatullah’s dad, now 48, had never learnt to read or write; there are no jobs for him. For the past decade, Esmatullah has been the family’s main breadwinner, having begun to work, at age nine, in a mechanics workshop. He would attend school in the early morning hours, but at 11:00 a.m., he would start his workday with the mechanics, continuing to work until nightfall. During winter months, he worked full time, earning 50 Afghanis each week, a sum he always gave his mother to buy bread. Now, thinking back on his experiences as a child laborer, Esmatullah has second thoughts. “As I grew up, I saw that it was not good to work as a child and miss many lessons in school. I wonder how active my brain was at that time, and how much I could have learnt! When children work full time, it can ruin their future. I was in an environment where many people were addicted to heroin. Luckily I didn’t start, even though others at the workshop suggested that I try using heroin. I was very small. I would ask ‘What is this?’ and they would say it’s a drug, it’s good for back pain.”

“Fortunately, my uncle helped me buy materials for school and pay for courses. When I was in grade 7, I thought about leaving school, but he wouldn’t let me. My uncle works as a watchman in Karte Chahar. I wish I can help him someday.”

Continue reading “Learn Your Lessons Well: An Afghan Teenager Makes Up His Mind”

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.

When I can’t sleep at night I have the bad habit of listening to world news on the radio. This seems to be a family trait that I inherited from my father. The wave of refugees trying to find safety in European countries continues unabated. The numbers are staggering. As someone from the U.S., I am shamed by our lack of response and indifference, as well as our inability to acknowledge our responsibility in unleashing the chaos and violence in the Middle East through our war making,

My thoughts go to the recent perilous journey of a close Iraqi friend (I will call him Mohammed) and his son (whom I will call Omar). Already the survivor of an assassination attempt, this trusted translator, driver, guide and confidant received a death threat on his gate in early August. He fled under cover of the night, taking Omar with him. On that same day, 15 men were kidnapped in his village. He left a wife and six other children.

Having lived with this dear family, I too felt as if I were on the hazardous exhausting, 42-day journey with them.

From Baghdad they fled to Kurdistan. From Kurdistan they went to Turkey. Next, they boarded a boat from Turkey to a Greek island, just miles from the Turkish shore. From there they went to another Greek island, and finally to a third island. Much to their relief, they were at last able to get on a ferry to Athens.

Continue reading “To Find a Happy Day: Cathy Breen”