Author: Daniel McAdams

“I will not put US boots on the ground in Syria.” That was President Obama’s unequivocal statement to the American people just two years ago when he first planned to bomb Syria. He has repeated the statement several times, as he has also repeated his promise that he “will not pursue a long air campaign” in Syria and Iraq.

Obama lied. And he lied again. And he lied again yesterday, when it was announced that he was putting US boots on the ground in Syria.

This move encapsulates neocon-occupied Washington’s response to foreign policy failure: if an intervention is failing, escalate.

Continue reading “Obama Puts US Boots in Syria – Where is Congress?”

It’s bad enough that the US government feels the need to back any state in the Middle East, but of all states to back why Saudi Arabia? This head-chopping champion state tells the US it must back head-choppers in Syria against a secular leader — in the name of democracy which doesn’t exist in Saudi Arabia — and the US dutifully signs on. Iran is certainly no angel, but is its civil liberties record any worse than the Saudis? Our “allies” in the Middle East today in the Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

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.

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.