The Defense Authorization bill is supposed to be an opportunity for Congress to shape national defense priorities and share the responsibility with the president when it comes to foreign policy. Generally the president has significant authority to make his mark on foreign and defense policy and the authorization process for both the Defense and State Departments is the Constitution’s way to make sure the co-equal Legislative Branch of government is properly part of the process. Sadly though this is what was intended, current reality no longer resembles what was meant to be. Instead, Congress members abrogate their authority to set defense spending priorities to the Pentagon, the military-industrial complex, and to special interests in their districts. The result is a mess that has very little to do with defending this country and a whole lot to do with enriching those in position to feed from the trough. This week the House will vote on the Defense Authorization Act for 2017. Today’s Liberty Report explains the process and previews the result:

“Why has the world’s mightiest military achieved so little even while absorbing very considerable losses and inflicting even greater damage on the subjects of America’s supposed beneficence?” This is the question asked by Professor Andrew Bacevich, a retired US Army colonel, in a must-read recent article. It is an excellent question that no one in the mainstream dares ask. But this is critical when considering our interventionist foreign policy: why are the constant wars not working? Why has 30 years of constant US warfare in the greater Middle East produced less peace, less harmony, less democracy, and less economic development than before we started? If war is so critical to peace and prosperity in the world, why has constant war produced less of it? The neocons would say that we simply have not waged enough of it. But that’s like going to a doctor after a bad reaction to medicine and having him tell you to double up. In today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report we are delighted to have Professor Bacevich, author of the excellent new book, America’s War For The Greater Middle East, join us to trace the history of our failed foreign policy and plot a new course.

This election season is presenting unprecedented challenges to the peace and prosperity coalition that was born in opposition to the traditional Left/Right matrix. Young people have been strongly attracted to Ron Paul’s message of keeping the government out of their private lives and out of the lives of people living overseas. It seems that presidential candidates in both major parties are appealing to some who continue to value non-intervention and civil liberties, yet the candidates’ messages on these central issues are mixed at best. What are the implications for this shift and should we be worried that our message is being subsumed by the great populist wave currently being surfed by both Trump and Sanders? Tune in to today’s Liberty Report:

In 1980 President Carter issued an order requiring males between 18 and 25 to register with Selective Service should a military draft become necessary. It was a response to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. At the time women were not eligible for the draft because they were not eligible for combat roles. Much has changed in the intervening 36 years, and women are now eligible for military combat. In the name of “equality,” some have argued that it is only fair for women to be forced to register for the draft as well. Unfortunately those who hold such a position are missing the main point: equality in slavery is nothing to cheer. Being forced by the government to fight and possibly die for its foreign policy goals is an idea incompatible with a free society. We do not owe the government a part of our lives to repay the “freedom” they give us, as our freedom is not a gift granted by government. What should young people facing the obligation of registering for a draft they do not believe in? We cover this and much more in today’s Liberty Report:

Just ten years after America was shocked at the treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and just a year and a half after the Senate torture report, a recent poll suggests that three-fourths of the population would support torture of terrorism suspects. Have we so quickly forgotten the fallout from the CIA’s shameful practices, where innocents were tortured for information they did not possess? Have we forgotten that torture is a moral outrage, is itself a form of terrorism, and does not even work? Have we forgotten that the “ticking time bomb” scenario is a Hollywood fiction, not a reality? Or is the media manipulating the population into supporting Washington’s interventionist foreign policy with carefully-worded polls designed to show more support for torture than really exists. Tune in to today’s Liberty Report:

Over the weekend a militia supporting Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr breached the “Green Zone” protecting the Iraqi government and foreign embassies in Baghdad. They are protesting ongoing corruption among Iraq’s US-backed leaders. Lawmakers fled and a state of emergency was declared. Is this the beginning of the end for post-“liberation” Iraq? Join the Ron Paul Liberty Report in its 300th episode to look at Iraq’s slow-motion collapse:

It should hardly be surprising to anyone paying attention that the federal government lied about every aspect of its “need” to break into the iPhone of the San Bernardino mass-shooter. There was another way to access it than compelling Apple to write code to defeat its own encryption. Breaking in to the phone was indeed intended to set a legal precedent despite what the FBI director promised. And the legislation coming out of Congress to “fix” the problem of encryption will result in the total destruction of any digital privacy for almost literally anyone across the globe. The San Bernardino shootings were another “new Pearl Harbor” event for the US police state to grab more of our liberties and incinerate what is left of the Constitution. Today’s Liberty Report is joined by Ron Paul Institute Senior Fellow Adam Dick to look at the latest developments in the case and what to expect from the upcoming legislation:

Washington war contracts have enriched northern Virginia at a level equal to the total budgets of countries like Belgium and Sweden. That post-9/11 security- and military-industrial complex financial bonanza is why north Virginia counties are the wealthiest in the nation. Who is behind the explosions of McMansions being built in the former sleepy outer counties of northern Virginia? The deep state operatives, who populate K Street, the think tanks, the security contractors, the permanent campaign operatives, etc. It is the one percent trafficking in fear to pad their nests at the expense of the rest of the country. How much longer can this scam go on? The Liberty Report is joined today by American Conservative Magazine’s Kelley Vlahos to discuss the deep — and deeply rich — state that really runs things:

According to the Washington Post, President Obama had promised the US public no fewer than eight times that he would not put US troops on the ground in Syria and would not mount ground operations in Syria. Then the pretext of a rescue operation of the Yazidi minority was cooked up in 2014 and the president began military operations in Syria. He expanded them under the also false narrative that a “Khorasan Group” had emerged that was a direct threat to the United States. Then he used ISIS as a pretext to further expand US military operations in Syria. Today President Obama announced that he was quintupling the number of US troops on the ground in Syria to help create a Sunni-Kurd alliance against ISIS (and presumably against Assad). Meanwhile, US has decided to ramp up its naval presence in the Black Sea by using proxies Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria to get around Montreux Convention restrictions. Also, more US troops to Iraq and to eastern Europe. Through all these escalations everywhere, Congress remains completely silent. What is the endgame? The Liberty Report provides some perspective:

Over the weekend, the Saudi foreign minister threatened to sell $750 billion in US dollar holdings if Congress passes legislation removing the kingdom’s sovereign immunity from liability should Saudi official involvement in the 9/11 attacks be demonstrated. What would happen to the dollar should a huge dump like this occur? It would have significant impact on global markets, says Ron Paul in today’s Liberty Report. Why are the Saudis so nervous? Will their blackmail keep the 28 pages of the 9/11 Report secret? What will Obama say in Riyadh on Wednesday?

According to studies done by government-affiliated doctors, multiple combat deployments have nothing to do with the sharp rise in military suicides over the past several years. The problems are elsewhere, they claim, not the stresses on the military produced by the policy of perpetual war. If we are only allowed to monitor the emails and other communications of vets and active-duty military more closely, they say, we can identify problems before they fully manifest and then prescribe more drugs to fix the problems. And they need more resources. Always more resources. But strangely enough, military personnel disagree (NB strong language). More today in the Liberty Report:

Congress loves war, but it just doesn’t like to have to vote for it. When you vote for a war you are on record having supported it. So what happens if instead of turning Libya into Switzerland into Libya, the bombing turned Libya into Bangladesh? Better to not have supported it on record. But there is a very dangerous downside to Congress habitually ignoring its Constitutional obligations. It leads to a general policy recklessness and inability to look at cause and effect. Dangerous for us at home and for those abroad. We try to tackle this issue in today’s Liberty Report: