Empire and Interventionism vs. Republic and Noninterventionism by Jacob G. Hornberger October 17, 2019 The chaos arising from U.S. interventionism in Syria provides an excellent opportunity to explore the interventionist mind. Consider the terminology being employed by interventionists: President Trump’s actions in Syria have left a “power vacuum,” one that Russia and Iran are now filling. The United States will no longer have “influence” in the region. “Allies” will no longer be able to trust the U.S. to come to their assistance. Trump’s actions have threatened “national security.” It is now possible that ISIS will reformulate and threaten to take over lands and even regimes in the Middle East. This verbiage is classic empire-speak. It is the language of the interventionist and the imperialist. Amidst all the interventionist chaos in the Middle East, it is important to keep in mind one critically important fact: None of it will mean a violent takeover of the U.S. government or an invasion and conquest of the United States. The federal government will go on. American life will go on. ...
Bravo Donald! A War Washington Might Finally Leave by David Stockman October 17, 2019 Just when you think the Donald has lost his marbles completely, he pulls a rabbit of rationality out of the hat of Imperial Washington’s Forever Wars madness. We are referring, of course, to his sensible decision to decline the opportunity to put American soldiers in harms’ way in an impending showdown between Turks and Kurds on the northern border of Syria. To our recollection, that particular tribal enmity has been going on for centuries and needs no help from Washington to fester on for years to come. But already he is being monkey-hammered by the bipartisan War Party because by standing down and removing US forces from the contested towns along the border Trump is basically sounding the death knell for the neocons’ failed, bloody, illegal and demented regime change project in Syria. Now – and very soon – the Kurds will have to make a deal with Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies to counter Turkey’s incursion, including the creation ...
John Lennon vs. the Deep State by John W. Whitehead October 8, 2019 “You gotta remember, establishment, it’s just a name for evil. The monster doesn’t care whether it kills all the students or whether there’s a revolution. It’s not thinking logically, it’s out of control.”—John Lennon (1969) John Lennon, born 79 years ago on October 9, 1940, was a musical genius and pop cultural icon. He was also a vocal peace protester and anti-war activist and a high-profile example of the lengths to which the Deep State will go to persecute those who dare to challenge its authority. Long before Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning were being castigated for blowing the whistle on the government’s war crimes and the National Security Agency’s abuse of its surveillance powers, it was Lennon who was being singled out for daring to speak truth to power about the government’s warmongering, his phone calls monitored and data files illegally collected on ...
Guns for Hire by John W. Whitehead October 4, 2019 “Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes… known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of ...
Monsters and U.S. Foreign Policy by Laurence M. Vance October 1, 2019 It looks like the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity will be having some competition. The formation of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft was recently announced. The think tank gets its name from John Quincy Adams. According to the organization’s website, The Quincy Institute promotes ideas that move U.S. foreign policy away from endless war and toward vigorous diplomacy ...
Foreign Aid for Dictators by Jacob G. Hornberger September 30, 2019 Notice something important about the hoopla regarding President’s Trump withholding of U.S. foreign aid to Ukraine while he was requesting Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden for possible corruption: Nobody in Washington, D.C., or within the establishment press is questioning the concept of foreign aid itself. Foreign aid has become such an established and ...
Trump, FDR, and War by Jacob G. Hornberger September 20, 2019 President Trump’s campaign of “maximum pressure” against Iran reminds me of President Franklin Roosevelt’s similar campaign against Japan prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. After England declared war on Germany, owing to the latter’s invasion of Poland, the American people were overwhelmingly opposed to entry ...
The Safe-Haven Argument for Staying in Afghanistan by Jacob G. Hornberger September 19, 2019 Of all the ridiculous and false arguments for keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan, where they continue to kill and die for nothing, the “safe-haven” argument has to rank among the worst. The argument holds that if U.S. troops are withdrawn from the country, the Taliban will end up winning the civil war, take control over the national government, and ...
A Renowned and Heroic Surgeon Passes Away by Jacob G. Hornberger September 17, 2019 Dr. Robert McClelland has recently passed away. He was one of the treating physicians when President Kennedy was brought into Parkland Hospital after being shot in Dallas. He was about 33 years old at the time. He went on to become one the most renowned surgeons in Texas. At the time he passed away, he was a retired professor ...
The Bill of Rights Turns 230, and What Do We Have to Show for It? Nothing Good by John W. Whitehead September 11, 2019 “That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on.”—Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale It’s been 230 years since James Madison drafted the Bill of Rights—the first ...
Friends of Freedom, Do Not Despair by Richard M. Ebeling September 5, 2019 Friends of freedom can easily become despondent when they look at what appear to be the ideological and political trends that fill the media day in and day out. Government spending keeps growing, national debts pile up, and regulations and redistributions seem to be narrowing the arenas of market and personal freedoms of choice. Anti-liberal demagogues abound, seemingly everywhere. ...
The Sham of Government Transparency by James Bovard September 1, 2019 The Supreme Court in June ruled that the federal government can keep secret the food-stamp sales totals of grocery stores. By a 6 to 3 vote, the Court declared that such business records are exempt from disclosure under the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This case, started eight years ago by the Argus Leader, a South Dakotan newspaper, ...
