For most of the opinion-making class in America today, war is the default position. Representatives of establishment newspapers and TV news operations are not likely to grill someone who favors U.S. military intervention somewhere — anywhere. He or she will have no burden of proof to sustain. But those who oppose a new war or call for an end to an existing one are sure to be treated like oddballs if not traitors. They’d better have an extraordinarily strong defense of their position because the burden of proof will be squarely on them; even a strong defense, however, won’t get the heat turned down.

Need I point out that a presumption in favor of war is toxic to a society that fancies itself free and humane? Continuing wars and readiness to intervene anywhere in the world costs money and, worse, lives. A war state cannot long coexist with strict limitations on government power and spending. Moreover, it impedes people without influence from prospering because military spending diverts resources from consumer investment and production to weapons and other things irrelevant to consumer welfare. 

Let’s face it, empire is bloody expensive.

So why the presumption in favor of war? (The general population is split, but opinion seems driven by partisanship and therefore is subject to opportunistic shifts, Glenn Greenwald writes.) Part of the answer simply is Trump Derangement Syndrome. Trump has occasionally talked peace since his presidential campaign began, and therefore his opponents apparently feel they have to favor war. Whatever Trump wants, they want the opposite, even if it is something they once may have favored.

A Nonintervention Lesson from Ron Paul

By Adam Dick

Ron Paul Institute

July 28, 2017

  A Nonintervention Lesson from Ron Paul

    Sometimes, nonintervention advocate and former United States presidential candidate Ron Paul is given an opportunity in an interview to address in detail his view on US foreign policy and interventions abroad, from the Korean and Vietnam Wars decades back to the ongoing US intervention in Syria and the…

Ron Paul Explains How America Should Be a World Leader

By Adam Dick

Ron Paul Institute

June 27, 2017

  Ron Paul Explains How America Should Be a World Leader

  The Future of Freedom Foundation (FFF) has made available video of Ron Paul’s speech at FFF’s June 3 conference. Paul, who is chairman of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, jokes early on the in the speech about the Bilderberg meeting being held at the same time at another…

Mint Press News’ Mnar Muhawesh on Media’s ‘Fast Food Headlines’

During the latter part of the interview, Muhawesh addresses challenges media organizations should be taking on today and critiques the news media, which she describes as being driven by “fast food headlines.”

In this November 9, 2014 photograph, Mnar Muhawesh speaks about corporate media and the military-industrial complex at a meeting of the The Mideast Committee of WAMM (Women Against…

"We're Going Back to Iraq" - by Justin Raimondo

Obama Poised to Send Special Forces to Iraq

The 2003 war on Iraq was one of the worst foreign policy catastrophes in U.S. history. It was a disaster morally, economically and strategically. The war resulted in a staggering loss of life and unimaginable human suffering on the part of innocent Iraqis, a crushing price tag for the American people in blood and trillions of dollars, and an end result of which Osama bin Laden could have only dreamed.