Daniel McAdams

January 27, 2017

How did the US empire begin? In his important new book, The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire, Stephen Kinzer tells the story of the nationwide debate in 1898 over whether the US should attempt to intervene in the affairs of the rest of the world. Is that debate […]

Peter Van Buren

January 27, 2017

Yesterday (Thursday) at the State Department five officials resigned or retired. Another one today. The media has gone near-insane, claiming State is crumbling in protest under the Trump administration. This is not true. What happened at State is very routine. Leaving the Department are head of the Management Bureau Pat Kennedy (above), Assistant Secretary of […]

Daniel McAdams

January 25, 2017

Washington is talking about military spending reform…again. Much of the noise emanating from the think tanks on this subject is intended to maintain the policy status quo at all costs while giving the impression that money is being spent more carefully. But the issue is not whether the practice of charging $800 for hammer can […]

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard

January 25, 2017

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02) returned to Washington, DC after a week-long visit to Damascus, Aleppo, and Beirut to see and hear firsthand the impact of the war in Syria directly from the Syrian people. She heard stories of suffering, pain, courage and hope from people all across the country. She met with refugees, Syrian opposition […]

Daniel McAdams

January 24, 2017

Over the weekend, President Trump indicated that he would continue in his predecessor’s foreign policy. The US conducted some 31 airstrikes in Syria and Iraq and two drone strikes in Yemen. Will we achieve different results doing the same thing over and over? More in today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report: Reprinted from The Ron Paul […]

Peter Van Buren

January 20, 2017

One of my favorite quotes includes the lines “I awoke this morning to find that it was not judgment day – only morning. Morning: excellent and fair.” I think that sums up a part of my thinking, but certainly not all. A nuclear reckoning, war with China, or anything else quite so violently apocalyptic is […]

Daniel McAdams

January 19, 2017

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) wants to spend five trillion dollars over the next five years in a massive build-up of the US military. Dozens of ships will be be built, as well as more than a hundred new fighter jets — including the problem-plagued F-35. The Army and Marines will greatly expand. McCain’s goal is […]

Chris Ernesto

January 19, 2017

In the final days of his presidency, Barack Obama deployed 3,500 US troops, 87 tanks and 144 Bradley fighting vehicles to Poland, and 330 Marines to Norway. He also signed "milestone" agreements with Estonia and Lithuania enabling a broad range of defense-related activities. For Poland, this marks the first time forces from the West will have a continuous presence on NATO’s […]

Electronic Frontier Foundation

January 18, 2017

From the Electronic Frontier Foundation: With mere days left before President-elect Donald Trump takes the White House, President Barack Obama’s administration just finalized rules to make it easier for the nation’s intelligence agencies to share unfiltered information about innocent people. New rules issued by the Obama administration under Executive Order 12333 will let the NSA […]

Peter Van Buren

January 17, 2017

Chelsea will be free in May! With more than a little irony, while I was in Iraq working for the State Department, Chelsea Manning’s office was across the hall from mine. While I was winning the war by writing emails to the embassy, Manning was across the hall capturing the texts of hundreds of thousands […]