Tuesday, July 30, 2019
RPI Conference Speaker Line-Up!
Breaking Washington's Addiction to War
by The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/breaking-washingtons-addiction-to-war-tickets-62781334662?aff=odeimcmailchimp&mc_cid=f01000bb75&mc_eid=e922f50b7b
Date And Time
Sat, August 24, 2019
9:30 AM – 3:30 PM EDT
Location
Washington Dulles Airport Marriott
45020 Aviation Drive
Dulles, VA 20166
Refund Policy
Refunds up to 1 day before event
Description
Your ticket includes a hot lunch and refreshments through the day!
$80
(Partial) Speaker List for Conference. More speakers to be added!
Breaking Washington's Addiction to War
August 24th, 2019
Dulles Airport Marrriott
Dulles, VA
Daniel McAdams - Non-interventionism or "sometimes-interventionism?"
Fmr. US Rep. John Duncan, Jr. - An antiwar conservative.
Nathan Goodman (George Mason University) - The economic costs of US empire.
Rick Sanchez - (RT America news anchor, former CNN) - Lies: The dismal state of mainstream media in the US.
Larry C. Johnson (former CIA officer) - The myth of Russian interference.
Col. Douglas Macgregor - (Retired highly-decorated combat officer and frequent guest on Tucker Carlson show) - The insanity of neocon Iran war plans.
David Stockman - (Former US Congressman and Director of Management and Budget [Reagan Administration]). NATO? No!
Lew Rockwell, Founder of the Mises Institute and LewRockwell.com
Ron Paul - Keynote.
Washington is in a constant state of war frenzy. The question of how to manage global challenges seems to be always met with the same answer: threaten sanctions and move military assets. Thus, the US sends carrier strike groups toward Iran, into the Black Sea, into the South China Sea, and elsewhere to make it clear that force is the only language spoken by the United States government and its national security apparatus.
US sanctions cripple a targeted country's economy, punishing the civilian population for the alleged sins of their leaders.
"Diplomacy" means it's Mike Pompeo's State Department issuing the threats instead of the Pentagon or John Bolton.
Meanwhile, Washington's aggressive approach to the rest of the world is backfiring. Far from our becoming more engaged, sanctions and threats of war actually push former enemies to forge alliances to sidestep dealings with the US. The Europeans have been trying to create a system of trade with Iran that bypasses the US, which has reimposed sanctions. Russia and China cooperate with an eye on ending dollar hegemony. Peace talks take place among warring factions in places like Venezuela and Ukraine without the US being invited to participate.
With war drums getting louder, no one seems to really be in charge.
No longer does even the president seem to have control over the war machine. No sooner does President Trump announce that we've won in Syria and are bringing the troops home, than his national security advisor or someone else in his administration issues a "clarification" that nullifies the policy declaration.
Congress? Has anyone heard much from Congress? Or have they wasted two years on either side of "Russiagate"?
This summer the Ron Paul Institute will gather a beyond left/right group of expert speakers to take a hard look at why our foreign policy is a miserable failure and why it has been a miserable failure for US administration after administration.
In post-Mueller, post-Russiagate America, why are Beltway "experts" and their allies in the mainstream media still acting as if today's Russia is a far more deadly enemy than Stalin's Soviet Union? Who benefits and why?
After the almost complete defeat of US and allied-backed jihadists in Syria, why do the State Department and Pentagon still pursue "Assad must go" policies?
Why does Washington insist that the citizens of Iran and Venezuela must starve until their leaders capitulate to neocon demands?
Most importantly: who are the true isolationists? Are they we non-interventionists who promote America's original foreign policy of peaceful relations with all who seek the same? Or are they the sanctioners, the war-threateners, the dictat-deliverers?
Join the Ron Paul Institute and friends this August 24th and be a part of a unique Washington Beltway experience: a beyond left/right coalition of progressives, libertarians, conservatives, and beyond, who are hammering out a new foreign policy that actually benefits the United States instead of the well-connected elites. A foreign policy of peace.
Important notice: There are a limited number of rooms available for a special discounted rate of only $99/night for the August conference. Use this link to book your special room rate, or call (800) 228-9290 and say you will be attending the Ron Paul Institute event with code RPI.
This does not support the desired narrative!
https://theintercept.com/2019/07/29/pentagon-study-africom-africa-violence/
The ACSS is a good research shop so of course it's inexpensive and under appreciated.
Saturday, July 6, 2019
The Ingraham Angle 7/5/2019
How the Haters Misread Trump's Foreign Policy
Media Can't Let Go of Their Russia Obsession
https://youtu.be/uw7K71XGfek
Thursday, July 4, 2019
Of Interest: What Is Trump’s Military Parade Actually Celebrating?
Thursday's rally will feature tanks, flyovers and soldiers. But after 17 years of failed war policies, there's not much to salute.
By GIL BARNDOLLAR • July 4, 2019
Presidential Inaugural Parade in Washington, D.C., January 20, 2017. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. George Huley)
Washington is getting Trump’s martial parade after all. Today the capital will see fighter jet flyovers, marching Marines, and a pair of Abrams tanks squatting like mastiffs on the National Mall. It will surely be politicized and cost millions. But this “Salute to Service” has a far bigger problem: what the hell are we celebrating?
Certainly not victory in the GWOT (Global War on Terrorism). For all the unquestioned valor and dedication of our servicemen, our military is 0 – 2 in wars against ill-equipped insurgents since 9/11. Toss in the crusade to kill Qaddafi and we’re 0 – 3 above the tactical level. The jury is still out on Syria.
America has spent nearly $6 trillion in the war on terror. The cost to the countries we broke is incalculable. Afghanistan and Libya will continue their civil wars for years, if not decades. Iraq could easily join them again.
Okay, so how about celebrating the force itself? Today’s tributes, honestly, will come off as empty as any Starbucks salute. Since 9/11, we have lost nearly 7,000 men and women in combat and have returned at least 350,000 mentally and physically damaged veterans to their communities. Yet the VA remains a work in progress, at best.
The All-Volunteer Force is struggling. The Army failed to meet its recruiting goal last year, for the first time since 2005. The Marine Corps is throwing up to $280,000 at pilots to keep them from fleeing to the airlines. The Army’s Training and Doctrine Command admits that our current micro-managed operations are eroding the decision-making abilities of junior leaders. Those in uniform are only too aware that “special trust and confidence” and “mission command” are empty pronouncements. And they also know that most Americans have no skin in the game.
The gear is in worse shape than the guys. The F-18s overheard today will presumably be fully mission capable but most Super Hornets aren’t—the result of unanticipated operating hours spent chasing ghosts in the Greater Middle East. The United States could use more F-22s in the air than MRAPs, absurdly, in the hands of American policemen. The U.S. Navy may be too small to check the Chinese—and its ships keep running into things.
True, we haven’t had a major attack on “the homeland,” but one can’t help suspecting that there were cheaper ways to get that result.
So taken it all in, there seems little to really celebrate by way of the military. For Washington, though, there have been some wins. The machine churns on. Eisenhower, that Cassandra, has been dead for fifty years and the Soviet Union packed up shop almost three decades ago but the military industrial complex hasn’t missed a beat. Tyson’s Corner is booming, the defense budget climbs steadily upwards, and the revolving door is in rude good health. It turns out there is at least one industry where trickle down economics works.
Best of all, there’s no accountability. No one has to pull a Profumo and atone. The architects of the Iraq War don’t even have to stop talking. You can see them around DC on a weekly basis, if you know where to look. Paul Wolfowitz gets slapped on the back by journalists at charity dinners. Max Boot descends from the Council on Foreign Relations, the high church of the foreign policy establishment, when he has a new book to hawk. John Bolton even gets a final round in the arena, blowing up accords and agitating for war, though his days in this administration may finally be numbered.
The generals get it best of all. Vince Lombardi had it backwards. Winning isn’t everything —it isn’t even anything. You can find David Petraeus on stage these days, bragging about his cycling mileage and joking about his private equity sinecure. H. R. McMaster has a think tank perch, where the fabled victor of Tal Afar can decry American war-weariness while doing his best to find us new wars. Those further down the food chain, with only a star or two in their shadow boxes, can at least pick up a second career hawking weapons and services for Raytheon, Boeing, or one of the many other payers of McLean mortgages.
So enjoy the celebration. Most TAC readers, myself included, will be at more prosaic parades, far from Versailles on the Potomac. For those in D.C., go and enjoy the event if you can stomach it. One hopes that today’s crowd will include a few from that great sardonic breed of GWOT veteran—skinny Vonnegut completists who eschew the de rigueur vet beard—wearing one of the decade’s better black jokes: the “We Were Winning When I Left” t-shirt. Talk to those guys instead of just thanking them for their service.
Gil Barndollar is the Military Fellow-in-Residence at the Catholic University of America’s Center for the Study of Statesmanship. He served as a U.S. Marine infantry officer from 2009 to 2016, deploying to Afghanistan twice.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/what-is-trumps-military-parade-actually-celebrating/
Certainly not victory in the GWOT (Global War on Terrorism). For all the unquestioned valor and dedication of our servicemen, our military is 0 – 2 in wars against ill-equipped insurgents since 9/11. Toss in the crusade to kill Qaddafi and we’re 0 – 3 above the tactical level. The jury is still out on Syria.
America has spent nearly $6 trillion in the war on terror. The cost to the countries we broke is incalculable. Afghanistan and Libya will continue their civil wars for years, if not decades. Iraq could easily join them again.
Okay, so how about celebrating the force itself? Today’s tributes, honestly, will come off as empty as any Starbucks salute. Since 9/11, we have lost nearly 7,000 men and women in combat and have returned at least 350,000 mentally and physically damaged veterans to their communities. Yet the VA remains a work in progress, at best.
The All-Volunteer Force is struggling. The Army failed to meet its recruiting goal last year, for the first time since 2005. The Marine Corps is throwing up to $280,000 at pilots to keep them from fleeing to the airlines. The Army’s Training and Doctrine Command admits that our current micro-managed operations are eroding the decision-making abilities of junior leaders. Those in uniform are only too aware that “special trust and confidence” and “mission command” are empty pronouncements. And they also know that most Americans have no skin in the game.
The gear is in worse shape than the guys. The F-18s overheard today will presumably be fully mission capable but most Super Hornets aren’t—the result of unanticipated operating hours spent chasing ghosts in the Greater Middle East. The United States could use more F-22s in the air than MRAPs, absurdly, in the hands of American policemen. The U.S. Navy may be too small to check the Chinese—and its ships keep running into things.
True, we haven’t had a major attack on “the homeland,” but one can’t help suspecting that there were cheaper ways to get that result.
So taken it all in, there seems little to really celebrate by way of the military. For Washington, though, there have been some wins. The machine churns on. Eisenhower, that Cassandra, has been dead for fifty years and the Soviet Union packed up shop almost three decades ago but the military industrial complex hasn’t missed a beat. Tyson’s Corner is booming, the defense budget climbs steadily upwards, and the revolving door is in rude good health. It turns out there is at least one industry where trickle down economics works.
Best of all, there’s no accountability. No one has to pull a Profumo and atone. The architects of the Iraq War don’t even have to stop talking. You can see them around DC on a weekly basis, if you know where to look. Paul Wolfowitz gets slapped on the back by journalists at charity dinners. Max Boot descends from the Council on Foreign Relations, the high church of the foreign policy establishment, when he has a new book to hawk. John Bolton even gets a final round in the arena, blowing up accords and agitating for war, though his days in this administration may finally be numbered.
The generals get it best of all. Vince Lombardi had it backwards. Winning isn’t everything —it isn’t even anything. You can find David Petraeus on stage these days, bragging about his cycling mileage and joking about his private equity sinecure. H. R. McMaster has a think tank perch, where the fabled victor of Tal Afar can decry American war-weariness while doing his best to find us new wars. Those further down the food chain, with only a star or two in their shadow boxes, can at least pick up a second career hawking weapons and services for Raytheon, Boeing, or one of the many other payers of McLean mortgages.
So enjoy the celebration. Most TAC readers, myself included, will be at more prosaic parades, far from Versailles on the Potomac. For those in D.C., go and enjoy the event if you can stomach it. One hopes that today’s crowd will include a few from that great sardonic breed of GWOT veteran—skinny Vonnegut completists who eschew the de rigueur vet beard—wearing one of the decade’s better black jokes: the “We Were Winning When I Left” t-shirt. Talk to those guys instead of just thanking them for their service.
Gil Barndollar is the Military Fellow-in-Residence at the Catholic University of America’s Center for the Study of Statesmanship. He served as a U.S. Marine infantry officer from 2009 to 2016, deploying to Afghanistan twice.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/what-is-trumps-military-parade-actually-celebrating/
Tuesday, July 2, 2019
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