Antiwar.com Blog

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.

The recent deaths of three U.S. soldiers near the Jordanian-Syrian border made me reflect on an obvious fact: It would be hard to kill U.S. soldiers in the Middle East if they weren’t based and deployed there.

When we hear that U.S. troops are killed overseas, rarely do most Americans ask the question, What exactly were they doing in Jordan, or Syria, or Iraq, or Qatar, or the UAE, or Saudi Arabia, and so on. Why does America still have roughly 30,000 U.S. troops in the Middle East, not counting ex-military “civilian” contractors? Why are there still so many U.S. military bases in the area, even in countries like Iraq that say they don’t want them? And what about U.S. bases Syria, the presence of which constitutes an act of (undeclared, of course) war? Continue reading “They Hate Us for Our Bases and Bombs”

Hal Brands repeats a very popular lie about U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East:

Every recent president gets their Middle Eastern war, whether they want it or not. Since Ronald Reagan’s time, each administration has engaged in at least one significant military conflict in the region. Even presidents who wanted nothing more than to escape the Middle East were, almost ineluctably, dragged back in. Now it’s Joe Biden’s turn.

Every time that the U.S. has involved itself in wars in the Middle East, it has done so by choice. There was no vital interest that compelled the U.S. to send troops to Lebanon or to support Iraq in its war with Iran. The U.S. then chose to intervene to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait, and then it chose to keep a significant military presence in the region after the war. Clinton’s military operations in Iraq were relatively minor, but they were far from being obligatory.

Continue reading “The US Has Never Been ‘Dragged’ Into the Middle East”

On today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

The Biden Administration’s attacks on Syria and Iraq over the weekend was supposed to deter the various militias from continuing to attack US military outposts in the two countries. But it hasn’t worked. And it won’t work. As Doug Macgregor writes in the American Conservative, Biden’s bombing is “pointless…virtue signalling.” Also today: Senate border bill is DOA in the House. Speaker Johnson moves to fund Israel in a standalone bill.

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

On COI #536, Kyle Anzalone discusses the latest news from Ukraine, Israel, and the Middle East.

Subscribe on YouTube and audio-only.

Awhile back, President Biden, responding to over 150 attacks on US troops defiling Iraq and Syria, advised he’d start bombing if any soldier was killed. Didn’t take long as within a few days three were blown up in Jordan near the Syrian border.

Friday Biden dropped over a hundred bombs on Shi’ite militias in Iraq and Syria. Saturday he launched his 12th bombing run on Houthi targets in Yemen in retaliation for the Houthi blockade of Red Sea shipping in support of Palestinians being ethnically destroyed by Israel in Gaza.

Continue reading “Mad Bomber Joe Strikes Again”

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.

There they go again. The geniuses inside the DC Beltway are bombing the Middle East again, specifically 85+ targets in Iraq and Syria allegedly supported by Iran. It’s funny: I don’t recall a Congressional declaration of war against Iraq and Syria (or Iran, for that matter), but who needs to be limited by the U.S. Constitution, am I right?

After the recent attack that killed three U.S. soldiers, I heard again that hackneyed expression from DC that “all options are on the table” in response. Amazing how the option that’s always picked by U.S. presidents is the military one. If it’s not “bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran,” as John McCain once jokingly sang, it’s bomb Iranian-backed units in Iraq and Syria, because that’s the best way toward greater stability and peace in the Middle East. Perfectly logical.

Continue reading “‘All Options Are on the Table’”