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President Biden has completed his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, with media reporting that he gave a "green light" for Israel to begin a ground operation in Gaza. Many questions remain unanswered, including the role of US military assets in the area and what mission, if any, US troops might have in support of Israeli military action. Also today: Jewish peace groups arrested in US Capitol office buildings and rockets begin flying into US bases in Iraq and Syria.
On the eve of what was to be a highly-scripted visit by President Biden to Israel and Jordan, an apparent bombing of a hospital in Gaza tore the plan to shreds as anger at Israel and the US exploded in the region. The Arab leaders he was scheduled to meet in Jordan all bailed out of the summit, leaving just Biden and Netanyahu in an awkward embrace. Also today, Rep. McCaul to authorize US force against Lebanon? Biden to demand another $100 billion for Israel and Ukraine.
Media is reporting that President Biden is about to deploy some 2,000 US troops to the Gaza region in response to the recent unrest between Israel and Hamas. An additional 2,000 Marines are reported to join them and an additional 10,000 troops may be deployed in the two US Carrier Strike Groups that the US has sent to Israel's coast. Is Biden sneaking the US into a massive Middle East war?
President Biden sat through a series of softball questions on 60 Minutes last night in which he assured America that the proxy war in Ukraine and in Israel was "no problem" for us because "we are America, for God's sake." Will Americans agree that billions more are needed to be poured into what is now a two-front war? Also today, Switzerland looks to return to Neutrality.
By Ron Paul
Those who called Hamas’s attack on Israel “Israel’s 9/11” were more accurate than they realized. Just as the US reacted to 9/11 by fulfilling Osama bin Laden’s wish that the US would get bogged down in no-win wars, Israel’s reaction to the Hamas attack fulfills Hamas’s likely goal of radicalizing more Palestinians. The result of Hamas’s attack will be to strengthen the most extreme elements on both sides of the conflict. Given the strong support for Israel among both major political parties it is not surprising that, following the attacks, many politicians rushed to microphones to proclaim their support for US assistance for Israel. President Biden announced the US would send military aid to Israel, while Congress is drafting legislation providing about two billion dollars in “emergency” military assistance to Israel. Even most of the growing number of representatives who oppose military aid to Ukraine will support spending “whatever it takes” to defend Israel. This is why the Biden administration and some in Congress want to combine aid for Israel and Ukraine into one legislative package. Spending billions more to support military action in the Middle East and Ukraine will benefit the military-industrial complex. However, it will harm most Americans by accelerating the growth of the government’s over 33 trillion dollars debt. As the debt increases, the Federal Reserve will push interest rates lower and monetize the debt. This will lead to increased price inflation, combined with economic stagnation and high unemployment — in other words, stagflation. Concerns over the government’s debt and the Federal Reserve’s enabling of that debt with easy money and low interest rates will lead to more challenges to the dollar’s world reserve currency status. Increased resentment over US hyper-interventionist foreign policy will also lead to changes to the dollar’s reserve currency status. Saudi Arabia could even stop using dollars for its international oil trade. The end of the petrodollar would be the final nail in the coffin of the dollar’s world reserve currency status. The end of the dollar’s world reserve currency status would mean the US government could no longer run an empire abroad and an authoritarian welfare state at home. The question is not will the American empire end but when and how. It should end deliberately, with Congress starting the process of restoring limited constitutional government by ending all foreign aid and bringing our troops home. When Israel was criticized for bombing an Iraqi nuclear plant it feared would be used to produce weapons, I defended Israel’s right as a sovereign state to act in what it saw as its national security interest. I still hold that view. I believe Israel would benefit if the US ends all foreign aid, since much of it goes to Israel’s enemies. Foreign aid also gives the US an excuse to engage in other forms of meddling. Ending US interventionist foreign policy would allow the Israelis and Palestinians to find a way to a just and lasting peace.
The purpose of the U.S. military is to defend America, and not to perpetually intervene in conflicts around the world. Never-ending wars have bankrupted many nations throughout history. We should not pretend that we are immune from such an outcome. Endless wars need endless money. The Fed's printing press must counterfeit dollars to pay for them. Rampant inflation has also bankrupted many nations. Wars and inflation are the destroyers of nations.
How does Washington deal with sagging Republican support for more money to Ukraine? Put Ukraine aid together with Israel aid! And slap a few billion for Taiwan while you're at it! It's only our money. Also today: US interventionism fueled the bloody mess in the Middle East. But for the neocons only more interventionism can solve it.
Four days after the dramatic assault by Hamas forces on Israel, it appears Tel Aviv is about to send ground forces into an urban warfare situation. Neocons at home are urging a US attack on Iran. One and maybe two US carrier groups are in or approaching the region. War propaganda is blasting full force. Investigative journalist Anya Parampil joins today's Liberty Report to try and make sense of this week's staggering events.
Even as the brutal attacks on Israel by Hamas fighters were taking place, US neocons saw a crisis they could not bear to see go to waste. Without proof - and against logic - they blamed the whole incursion on Iran and demanded that the US begin attacking Iran in response. Also today: the war party is exploring ramming through a single massive aid bill for both Israel AND Ukraine to exploit US anger over the Hamas attacks in favor of the neocon proxy war on Russia. Will they succeed?
By Ron Paul
Last week we witnessed a dramatic, historical first: A Speaker of the US House of Representatives was removed from that position by a vote from Members of that body. US Rep. Matt Gaetz was able to gather enough Republicans dissatisfied with the leadership of then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy to send him packing. What was the last straw? According to Gaetz, it was McCarthy’s secret deal with President Biden and the Democrats to bring up another huge funding package for Ukraine separately if they agreed to support a bill to keep the government open without Ukraine money in it. Gaetz and his allies were angry that they were kept in the dark about the deal and in the end it only took eight Republican rebels to end McCarthy’s eight months in the Chair. Several thoughtful Members, including my friend Thomas Massie, made convincing arguments that Republicans removing the Speaker would do little to nothing when looking at the bigger picture of a record US debt, a continuously growing budget deficit, and runaway inflation. It would also, he argued, do little to fix a broken House of Representatives where Members are more interested in showboating than taking a needed chainsaw to the massive yearly Omnibus spending bill that has taken the place of individual funding bills for each part of the Federal government. When I was in the House we mostly worked under what was called “regular order,” where each individual appropriations bill was brought to the floor and debated sometimes for several days, and with unlimited amendments, before they held a vote. With regular order there was at least a chance that Members and staff could actually read the bills and try to make changes. Multi-thousand-page omnibus bills brought to the Floor at the last minute with a demand that they be passed immediately is part of the reason we are up to our eyeballs in debt. They can – and do – sneak everything into them! Even with the deserved criticism, however, there is still something satisfying about seeing such a shake-up over the issue of foreign interventionism. After a year and a half and more than $100 billion sent by Biden’s neocons for the proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, finally some Members are starting to wake up and say “no” to demands for even more. These wars instigated by neocons from both parties always end in disaster, but not until they produce much suffering in the countries they claim to want to liberate. They also further punish the middle and working class while enriching the wealthy and well-connected in the military-industrial complex. The cost of this latest war will be hidden in the cruelest tax – inflation – which disproportionately hurts the poor. Will a new Speaker of the House solve our problems? No. Our biggest problem is our financial and moral bankruptcy, which has been brewing for over 100 years since the creation of the Fed and the rise of the Progressive era. But finally we see Members responding to rising anger among the electorate over the financing of another forever war – this time with a nuclear superpower! Finally we see Members saying “enough” to demands for even more money for the US empire. It’s a good start and we should do all we can to encourage it. |
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