Antiwar.com Blog

We were told that we had to attack Iraq because the Saddam Hussein government made us less safe. We were told we had to bomb and kill Gaddafi in Libya because his regime made us less safe. Ditto with the Taliban in Afghanistan and Assad in Syria. Now. 15 years after 9/11, Americans are seeing through the endless wars that have lasted through the Bush and Obama Administrations. Trillions spent, untold thousands killed, societies destroyed, people displaced. A new poll sponsored by the Center for the National Interest and the Charles Koch Institute has found that Americans feel less, not more safe after a decade and a half of war. We are reaching the critical mass where Americans begin to demand a change in our interventionist foreign policy. More on the encouraging poll in today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

When I was a lieutenant colonel on active duty, I supervised an officer in the U.S. Air Force who was (and is) an Iraqi-American. He came to the US as a boy after President George H.W. Bush’s call to the Shia to revolt against Saddam in the aftermath of Desert Storm, which was ruthlessly suppressed by Saddam as Bush and company did nothing.

As an Iraqi-American in uniform, he served as an interpreter attached to the 101st Airborne in Iraq in 2004, if memory serves–dangerous times indeed for US troops in Iraq.

He wrote to me, rightly outraged, after Ben Carson made his anti-Muslim comments back in September of 2015 during the presidential primary season. It made him so sad, so angry, as a US Air Force veteran and as a Muslim-American to hear such ignorance, such bias, such Islamophobia. And it made me angry as well.

Continue reading “Islamophobia Must be Fought and Defeated”

Bob Waldrop, founder of the Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House in Oklahoma City, is calling for a boycott of the 2016 national collection in Catholic churches for the Archdiocese of Military Services, accusing the military bishops of material cooperation with the objective evil of unjust war. To facilitate the boycott, he has prepared a half page document that can be printed and placed in the collection plate or offering envelope the weekend of November 5-6, 2016, when the offering is to be collected. A PDF version of the document is available at www.justpeace.org/mscollection.pdf. This has two copies on one page to facilitate distribution.

Text of the boycott call:

I am not giving to the 2016 Archdiocese for Military Services Collection.

The bishops of the Archdiocese for Military Services, together with nearly all of their brother United States Bishops, are guilty of material cooperation with the objective evil of unjust war. In 2003, both Pope John Paul II and then Cardinal Ratzinger, who later became Benedict XVI, condemned our attack on Iraq as an unjust war. In spite of the Pope’s opposition, the Most Rev. Edwin O’Brien, then Archbishop for the Military Services advised Catholic members of the US Armed Forces: “Given the complexity of factors involved, many of which understandably remain confidential, it is altogether appropriate for members of our armed forces to presume the integrity of our leadership and its judgments and therefore to carry out their military duties in good conscience.”

Continue reading “Oklahoma City Catholic Worker Calls for Boycott of the 2016 National Collection for the Archdiocese of Military Services”

Much is being made of Hillary Clinton’s private email server, which she used when she was Secretary of State. To me, the real issue is not that Hillary endangered national security by sending classified information in the clear. No – the real issue is that the Clintons act as if they are above the rules and laws that apply to “the little people.” They are superior and smug, totally devoted to themselves and their pursuit of power and the privileges that come with it. It’s a matter of character, in other words. Hillary’s evasiveness, her lack of transparency, her self-righteousness, her strong sense of her own rectitude, make her a dangerous candidate for the presidency.

My second point is this: The issue of classification should be turned on its head. The real issue is not that Hillary potentially revealed secrets. No – the real issue is that our government keeps far too much from us. Our government uses security classification not so much to keep us safe, but to keep the national security state safe – safe from the eyes of the American people.

Continue reading “Two Points About the Hillary Clinton Email Fiasco”

Yesterday was the 15th anniversary of President George W. Bush signing the PATRIOT Act into law. It was supposed to be only a temporary measure to address the emergency situation caused by the attacks of 9/11. Fifteen years later it has been re-authorized many times and last year some of its worst parts were codified into law in the USA FREEDOM Act. From the War Powers Resolution, to the FISA Court, to the “reform” USA FREEDOM Act, bills that were designed to rein in government abuses end up just giving government more power. Is there anything we can do about it? Ron Paul Institute Senior Fellow Adam Dick joins today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report to discuss:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Virginia State Senator Richard Black was curious about why the US seemed to be attacking only secular countries in the Middle East. Why attack Libya? Why Syria? So he decided to go over to Syria and see for himself. After meeting Syrian president Assad and speaking favorably about the situation with Christians under his rule, Sen. Black earned himself a place on ISIS’s “enemy list.” For not taking the Washington line that “Assad must go” he also earned a place on the Washington Post’s “enemy list.” Are we on the wrong side in Syria? Today, with Sen. Black, on the Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.