By Ron Paul
This week President Trump admitted what the Washington policy establishment of both parties would rather be kept quiet. Asked why he intervened to block a new round of sanctions on North Korea, he told the media that he believes the people of North Korea have suffered enough. "They are suffering greatly in North Korea…And I just didn't think additional sanctions at this time were necessary,” he said. The foreign policy establishment in Washington, whether they are neocons, “humanitarian interventionists,” so-called “realists,” or even progressives have long embraced sanctions as a way to pressure governments into doing what Washington wants without having to resort to war. During my time in Congress I saw many of my antiwar colleagues on the Left vote for sanctions because they believed sanctions are more “humane” than war. Neocons and other interventionists endorse sanctions because they know that sooner or later they will lead to war, their preferred foreign policy. With his characteristic bluntness, President Trump has exposed this big lie. Sanctions are not a more humane alternative to war. They are just another form of war. In fact they are perhaps the cruelest form of war because they do not target the military of an adversary, but rather the innocent civilian population. As President Trump said, they make people suffer. Sanctions are meant to make life so miserable for the civilian population that it rises up and overthrows a leader out of favor in Washington. In Iraq in the 1990s, those sanctions cost the lives of a half a million children, but then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright infamously said she thought the price was worth it. But still the people didn’t rise up and overthrow Saddam even as their lives became more and more miserable. So the neocons had to concoct some lies about WMDs and Iraq was invaded anyway. An estimated million more people were killed in that war. So much for the “humanitarianism” of sanctions. Sanctions often target water supplies, sewage treatment, medicine, food supply and other essentials for civilian life. After the people suffer under the “soft” war of sanctions, though, they most often are forced to suffer again as the US attacks anyway. That was the case in Iraq, Libya, Syria, and elsewhere. And it may soon be the case for Venezuela and perhaps even North Korea. In Yemen, sanctions have contributed to the death of some 80,000 children from starvation. Millions more are facing starvation, yet they continue to resist Saudi and US demands that they overthrow their government. Sanctions do not inspire people to rise up and overthrow their governments. Most civilians suffering under sanctions couldn’t throw out their rulers even if they wanted to – after being impoverished and malnourished for years they are really expected to take on their own government's military? I am glad to hear President Trump tell the truth about sanctions. They hurt the powerless in the false hope that the powerful will change their behavior. No new sanctions on North Korea is a good start. Now how about dismantling the inhumane and counterproductive sanctions from Caracas to Damascus and from Moscow to Beirut. Let’s return to a foreign policy of peace and engagement, backed by a strong military for our defense alone.
By Liberty Report Staff
This may come as a surprise to many people, but Big Business loves government regulations. It's surprising to most because it runs contrary to what they've been "taught" in the government's schools and by the government-licensed mainstream media. The dominant belief is that the businessman wants the free market, but we "need" government to "regulate" him. Big Corporations love this big lie, and they LOVE that the public believes it. The truth is that Big Corporations do not want free markets, but are a major driving force for government regulations. Free markets are HARD. Consumers are fickle. Competition is fierce. It's much easier to have government regulations protect you from all of it. Ryan McMaken writes at The Mises Institute: Many Facebook critics like to claim that Facebook is a natural monopoly. That is, they think Facebook is so dominant in the marketplace, that it can use its supposed market power to keep out competitors. We're told that Facebook has so many users, no serious competition will ever be possible.
So if you ever catch yourself calling for more "government regulations," remember one thing, those CEO's that you like to complain about couldn't agree with you more.
Do you really want to stick it to the Fat Cat CEO's? Call for the removal of ALL government regulations! At most, government should have some basic laws to protect consumers from the use aggressive force or fraud. That's it. The CEO's will fight your proposal tooth-and-nail. Free markets are their nemesis. They much prefer you to clamor for more government regulations.
Sanctions are the foreign policy of choice for the United States. There are sanctions on sanctions and sub-sanctions. Sanctions on countries, companies, individuals, and more. While we have long argued that sanctions never work and only make life miserable for civilians, they also empower an imperial US presidency totally out of reach of Congress.
|
Archives
April 2024
|