“IF THE PEOPLE DEMAND IT … THE POLITICIANS WILL FOLLOW”
|| by RON PAUL || Each year more than one trillion dollars goes up in smoke. More accurately, it is stolen from the middle and working classes and shipped off to the one percent. I am talking about the massive yearly bill to maintain the US empire. Washington’s warmongers have sold the lie that the military budget has been gutted under President Barack Obama, but even when the “Sequester” was in effect military spending continued to increase. Only the pace of increase was reduced, not actual spending.
None of this trillion dollars taken from us is spent to keep us safe, despite what politicians say. In fact, this great rip-off actually makes us less safe and more vulnerable to a terrorist attack thanks to resentment overseas at our interventions and to the blowback it produces.
The money is spent to maintain existing conflicts and to create new areas of conflict overseas that in turn feeds the demands for more military spending. It is an endless cycle of theft and deceit.
Billions were spent not long ago overthrowing an elected government in Ukraine and provoking Russia. A new Cold War is a bonanza for the military industrial complex, the pro-war think tanks, and the politicians. NATO is on the move in eastern Europe, placing heavy weapons right on Russia’s border and then blaming the Russians when they complain about the rising militarism. NATO military exercises on Russia’s border have increased and become more confrontational.
In the Middle East, more billions have been spent attempting to overthrow the secular government of Syria over the past five years. The big winners in this grand scheme have been the Islamist extremists, who are funded directly and indirectly by the US and its allies. NATO is planning to go back into Libya, an admission that its 2011 “liberation” of that country has been a disaster.
In Asia, the US empire challenges and provokes China, sending military ships and aircraft into territory China claims in the South China Sea. How much will they continue to escalate before China gets fed up?
The more money sent to the Pentagon and other parts of the Washington war apparatus, the more danger we are in.
Meanwhile, almost all of the presidential candidates promise more military spending and more war if they are elected. Did no one tell them we are broke and making enemies fast with our interventions? Do they think Fed-created money will really continue to fuel the US empire indefinitely?
What are the prospects for a U-turn toward peace and prosperity in 2016? We must be realistic. Presently the numbers are not on our side. But the good news is we do not need a majority to succeed in our fight for peace and liberty. We need only a dedicated and uncompromising critical mass to make great headway.
What can we do to work for peace in 2016? First we must tune out the lying propaganda served up by the US mainstream media. We must educate ourselves so that we can help educate others. We can be sure to tune in and support alternative sources of news and analysis like the Ron Paul Liberty Report, LewRockwell.com, Antiwar.com, and many others. We can tell others about the wealth of truth available to those who seek and question. We must not compromise and never accept the lesser of two evils.
If the people demand peace, the politicians will follow. Let’s demand peace in 2016!
Ron Paul is a former U.S. Congressman from Texas and the leader of the pro-liberty, pro-free market movement in the United States. His weekly column – reprinted with permission – can be found here.
10 comments
In theory he may be correct, but unfortunately, the world just does not spin that way.
We have, in the recent past, pushed offensively against forces in the world, and some of the results, residue, resentment, and revenge has caused us much heartache.
Trying to exist internationally as we did during the twenties and thirties just might not work, again.
It might have been the non-intervention in the 30’s that allowed the US to steam roller the Axis in the 40’s.
And only 50 to 80 million people died.
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It’s not our job to stop people from killing each other, our only obligation is to ourselves. If you want to police the world do it with your money & blood, don’t steal it from others.
yeah,sure /beautify america.get a haircut
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO725Hbzfls
Someone forgot they got booed for mentioning the golden rule regarding foreign policy.
It’s certainly a telling fact on the general makeup of the establishment GOP and it’s supporters.
Everything is America’s fault. America overthrew the government in Ukraine. The citizens had no part in it. Russia didn’t try to co-op the wishes of the people by stealthily introducing an agreement that would make Ukraine more dependent on Russia and not reform its institutions to European standards.
Russia didn’t insert “green men” into Crimea or Eastern Ukraine.
Secular government of Syria? Overlooking the fact that they use barrel bombs and chemical weapons on their own people or that it is a one party dictatorship that funds terrorist islamist groups like Hezbollah.
“territory China claims in the South China sea.”
No mention that they are building military bases or that our allies have stronger claims to the area or that they are vital trading lanes or that China might use this influence to divide us from our allies or trading partners.
If someone died and left me in charge, I would require all members of Congress to study the Peloponnesian War before taking office. Rampant militarism and messy alliances lead to a war which killed 1/3 of the Hellenic world
There is a reason the founding fathers studied Thucydides. There is a reason why Washington cautioned against “entangling alliances” and Jefferson said “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations-entangling alliances with none.”