Last month a federal judge in Texas declared the all-male military draft to be unconstitutional because it applies only to men and not also to women. The decision flies in the face of a decision by the Supreme Court in 1981 that upheld the constitutionality of the draft-registration process. Back then, however, women were not permitted to serve in combat roles, which was the justification for the Court’s ruling. Today, women are permitted to serve in combat roles, a point cited by that Texas federal judge.
While the controversy might seem academic given that we haven’t had conscription for several decades, that could change on a moment’s notice. Given the propensity of US officials, from the president down, to embroil the United States in foreign wars, lots of fathers and mothers might suddenly be shocked to see their daughters suddenly being hauled off to boot camp and then to war, where they would face the possibility of being shot, bombed, killed, injured, maimed, or raped. Lots of young women might also be shocked.
Yes, I know America has a volunteer army. And yes, I know that it has proven sufficient to fight America’s forever foreign wars for the past several decades. But the fact is that all that could change overnight if US officials were to embroil the United States in a war that the volunteer army couldn’t handle on its own. In that case, the Pentagon and the CIA would not hesitate to advise the president to immediately initiate the draft.
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On the sixteenth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, as the US government threatens punitive action against International Criminal Court investigators for attempting to look into US war crimes, former George W Bush administration Press Secretary Ari Fleischer has decided to publish a Twitter thread claiming that Bush did not lie to the world about Iraq.
Here is a transcript of the full thread by Fleischer:
The Iraq war began sixteen years ago tomorrow. There is a myth about the war that I have been meaning to set straight for years. After no WMDs were found, the left claimed “Bush lied. People died.” This accusation itself is a lie. It’s time to put it to rest.
The fact is that President Bush (and I as press secretary) faithfully and accurately reported to the public what the intelligence community concluded. The CIA, along with the intelligence services of Egypt, France, Israel and others concluded that Saddam had WMD. We all turned out to be wrong. That is very different from lying.
UPDATE: Twitter Lets Julian Assange’s Mom Tweet Again
Yesterday, I wrote about Twitter restricting public access to the past Twitter posts of Christine Assange, the mother of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, as well as preventing her from making new posts at her Twitter account. Today, it appears Twitter has removed those limitations.
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Neocons Want Brazil in NATO to Undermine Venezuela – Daniel McAdams
Daniel McAdams of the Ron Paul Institute joins News.Views.Hughes to discuss Trump’s apparent 180 degree turn on NATO. While once he was outspoken in his criticism, President Trump now wants to expand the alliance by bringing Brazil into the fold. He argues that Trump has “neocons whispering in his ear” and that NATO is “an expensive meeting club” that has outlived its purpose...
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Twitter Prevents Julian Assange’s Mom from Posting, Restricts Viewing of Her Past Posts
Christine Assange, the mother of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, has used her Twitter page to criticize the United States government effort to prosecute and imprison her son for making available leaked information exposing abusive government actions, as well as her son’s harsh treatment — including a prohibition on his communication with the outside world — over the last year at Ecuador’s London embassy where he obtained sanctuary in 2012.
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Ron Paul Airs Concerns about the Trump Presidency
Ron Paul, the libertarian communicator who ran three times for president, has been neither a “never-Trumper” nor a loyalist of President Donald Trump. Instead, Paul, through the 2016 presidential campaign and Trump’s presidency, has judged Trump’s various comments and actions against Paul’s understanding of right and wrong.
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Five Minutes Five Issues: Watching Assange, Ocasio-Cortez, Expungement, Bernie Sanders, Alaska Marijuana
A new episode of Five Minutes Five Issues posted is out. You can listen to it, and read a transcript, below. You can also find previous episodes of the show at Stitcher, iTunes, YouTube, and SoundCloud.
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