Jason Ditz | The Libertarian Institute

US Lawmakers Keep Adding to $1.4 Trillion Spending Deal

by Jason Ditz | Dec 18, 2019 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

US lawmakers have agreed to tack on another $24.7 billion in spending to their $1.4 trillion compromise spending package for 2020, hoping this extra spending will be enough to pass the spending bills before a Friday deadline. Passing the compromise spending has been a struggle for months, with officials constantly agreeing on continuing resolutions for more time to negotiate. Ultimately, they appear to have decided that they can get the votes by adding spending here and there, even if this means the deal is much larger than anticipated. The first set of spending, including military spending,...

US No Longer Considers Yemen’s Houthis an Iranian Proxy

by Jason Ditz | Dec 11, 2019 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Accusing long served as war justification for US, Saudis The Trump Administration has announced a policy change that looks like it could be a major turning point in US policy toward Yemen, announcing that they no longer consider the Shi’ite Houthi movement in Yemen to be a proxy of the Iranian government. That stance is one initially pushed by the Saudi government to justify the Yemen War, and the US was only too willing to mirror it. This was in spite of the Houthis having substantial ideological differences with Iran, little direct contact, and not being the same type of Shi’ites. The US...

Saudi Gunman Tweeted Why He Attacked Pensacola

by Jason Ditz | Dec 10, 2019 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Politics

The Trump Administration is bound and determined not to draw any conclusions about Saudi Air Force gunman Mohammed Alshamrani, who killed three people on Friday in Pensacola. There seems to be a palpable fear that anything terror-related would make the Saudis look bad. This could be a problem, since Lt. Alshamrani tweeted right before the attack exactly why he did it, which was related to US support for Israel and US hostility toward Muslim people. This puts the incident in an ideological context that would make it terrorism. On top of that, the gunman hosted a dinner party where he and...

Iraq Parties Hold Talks on a New PM as Protests Continue

by Jason Ditz | Dec 3, 2019 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Last week’s resignation of Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi didn’t take anyone by surprise in Iraq, least of all parliament. Officials say that talks on his replacement had already begun days before he resigned, and are now actively going on in earnest. Which isn’t to say that finding a new premier is going to be easy. Agreeing on Abdul-Mahdi as a compromise candidate took awhile, and there are even more obstacles in the way of anyone being a long-term success now. Large protests continue to rage, demanding wholesale reforms. The Shi’ite coalition that controls Iraq’s parliament will need to...

Mexico Won’t Allow US Military Operations Against Cartels

by Jason Ditz | Nov 30, 2019 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Libertarianism, Politics

Foreign Minister warns drone strikes would violate sovereignty President Trump’s move to declare Mexican cartels as terrorist groups is potentially going to be complicated, and Mexican President Obrador sought to establish a red-line, that Mexico will not allow the US to conduct cross-border military operations into Mexico looking for the cartels. Trump hasn’t said he will send troops, saying that didn’t “want to say what I’m going to do” after the designation of the cartels. He refused to rule out the use of drone strikes in a recent interview, however. Mexico’s foreign ministry was quick...

Trump Issues Pardons in War Crimes Cases

by Jason Ditz | Nov 17, 2019 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Pentagon commanders worried moves will undermine military justice Even with all the wars the US is presently involved in and all the shady activity that goes with that, it’s fairly unusual for the military to get around to charging personnel with war crimes. When they do, however, military commanders try to emphasize the importance, both to show the military doesn’t let everyone get away with everything, and to deter personnel from ignoring the chain of command. On Friday, however, President Trump knocked out three of those war crimes cases with full pardons. The White House statement said...

General: US to Stay in Afghanistan for Several More Years

by Jason Ditz | Nov 11, 2019 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Milley: 'That mission is not yet complete' In an interview Sunday on ABC, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley predicted that US troops would stay in Afghanistan “for several more years,” the first such estimate offered since President Trump scrapped a peace plan that was ready to be finalized. Milley defended the idea of years more Afghan War, already at nearly two decades, by arguing that the mission was to make sure Afghanistan would have sustainable internal security to protect the US, and “that mission is not yet complete.” Of course, 18 years deep, it isn’t as though the...

US Troops, Armored Vehicles Arrive at East Syrian Oilfields

by Jason Ditz | Nov 1, 2019 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Hundreds of US infantry and a number of armored vehicles have arrived in eastern Syria as part of a newly announced deployment, which is based around the new US military priority in Syria of controlling the eastern Syrian oilfields. These forces are meant to deny Syria access to the Syrian oil, and as President Trump has recently indicated, will be staying there while the US starts taking the oil for themselves. Some 500 US ground troops are currently involved, along with M2A2 Bradley vehicles. Tanks are also reportedly going to be deployed to the area, though it’s not clear any have...