President Obama’s trip to Cuba is making history: it has been nearly a century since an American president set foot on Cuban soil. But if the trip is to lead to a real normalization in relations, both governments need to back off and let people-to-people diplomacy take over. Today’s Liberty Report on the good news and bad news of Obama’s Cuban visit:
Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.
Anyone wondering just how bad is US foreign policy need only turn to the daily press briefing by the US State Department for an answer. And let me tell you, the answer is it’s really, really bad. Yesterday’s briefing was at the same time one for the record books and par for the course, as State Department Spokesman Admiral John Kirby tried to explain Washington’s uber-incoherent Syria policy.
First, AP diplomatic reporter Matt Lee – an excellent journalist – asked Kirby to explain Washington’s opposition to a Kurdish group in Syria announcing the creation of an autonomous Kurdish area inside Syria. After all, observed Lee, Washington does not believe Assad has the legitimacy to govern Syria so the Kurds are not encouraged to put themselves under the control of the current government in Damascus.
State Department Spokesman Kirby agreed.
But Washington opposes the creation of any autonomous areas inside Syria, so they cannot self-govern.
Continue reading “Syrians Free to Choose Future…As Long As Washington Likes Their Choice”
The US Army recently announced that they are accepting contract bids for the production of microdrones to be carried along by deployed soldiers in their kits. Needless to say, the idea was painted as undeniably good: to help protect “our troops”. Characterized in such a way, the idea could not possibly be met with resistance by any legislator. Companies will be contracted, and funds lavished upon the developers and builders of the new microdrones, having been made to seem as essential to a brave soldier as a Kevlar vest or an armored Humvee – and a bargain to boot! The fact that microdrones will be just as good – if not better – for asymmetrical, factional fighters is best left unsaid, at least from the perspective of all of the many parties likely to profit from the initiative, including the experts who assess the costs and benefits of the plan.
Microdrones, which weigh only 150 grams or so, are already being produced, and DARPA solicited bids earlier for its Fast Lightweight Autonomy (FLA) program. The idea pitched at that time was to produce a drone which could enter buildings – such as homes – and snoop around to see what’s going on. On a not unrelated note, a recently released report revealed that “a handful of” US military drones have spent some time hovering in homeland skies, “in support of civilian authorities”. The military drones operating above US soil have been used for surveillance purposes only – so far. Connecting a few dots, and extrapolating from the slippery slope which the US government continues to slide down, I predict that in the not-too-distant future, microdrones will be used in the homeland to snoop on US citizen suspects, after which larger drones will be used to kill them. Does that sound too far-fetched?
Continue reading “Microdrones and What to Expect Next From the ‘Smart Warriors’”
“No one left behind” sounds nice, but in America’s wars it usually only refers to Americans. Foreigners who risked their own and their family’s lives to help the United States are optional.
But a small victory. After extraordinary outside pressure from Congress and veterans’ groups, the State Department agreed to undo a change to visa procedure that would have condemned even more Afghan translators to their deaths.
The idea was that Afghans translators who loyally served the United States and who were at risk in their own country could apply for visas for themselves, their spouses and their children, to live in the U.S. These were never called refugee visas or anything that might imply our freedom war was not fully successful, but were pitched as a kind of parting gift for good work.
And so we learn that the latest blunder in the government’s management of a special visa program for Afghan interpreters was fixed this week.
Continue reading “State Department Partially Fixes Unfair Afghan Translator Visa Change”
Yesterday’s surprising announcement by Syrian Kurds that they consider themselves in an autonomous region is either a bold move to solidify their self-determination before the fog of war clears, or perhaps it is John Kerry’s “Plan B” to break up Syria if the US cannot overthrow Assad. Or perhaps it is a reaction to US insistence that the Kurds do not deserve a place at the Geneva table where a political solution to the war in Syria is being discussed. Whatever the case, it adds a hugely significant variable to the already complicated situation. For example, how long before Turkish president Erdogan pounces on “autonomous” Kurdish Syria? We try to connect the dots in today’s Liberty Report:
Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.
Antiwar.com columnist Dan Sanchez spoke to Liberty on the Rocks in downtown Los Angeles Saturday evening at Casey’s Irish Pub. Dan was introduced by long time antiwar activist Andrew Walker. Dan explains how the cycle of violence must end for all people to realize the right to life, liberty and property.
