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Sept. 24, 2024 - Ron Paul Liberty Report
27:28
Why Are We Sending US Troops Into Expanding Middle East War?

The US Pentagon announced that troops from the 101st Airborne Division would be deployed to the Middle East as Israel's bombardment of Lebanon expands. Meanwhile the White House is asking Israel to not use any of our bombs to kill American troops assisting with the Lebanon evacuation. Also today: We have found the foreign interference in our election!

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Sending American Troops Again? 00:14:36
Hello everybody and thank you for tuning in to the Liberty Report.
With us today we have Daniel McAdams, our co-host.
Daniel, good to see you.
Good morning, Dr. Paul.
How are you this morning?
Doing well, doing well, up to our old job that we have.
Stop a war, end a war, prevent a war.
Anything.
We're not doing so well.
I understand war has been around for a long time, but that's not an excuse.
You shouldn't keep, you shouldn't give up just because of the history.
It doesn't look very good for getting rid of all the wars.
But there can be times when countries have gone along together and managed to live together.
And all I know is the less big government we have and international government and entangling alliances, the more likely it is the people will figure out how to live with each other.
So unfortunately, we have a lot of that entanglement that we have to deal with.
And right now, the one we're going to talk about to start off with is comes from an article on anti-war talking about more troops to the Middle East.
Wow.
I wonder what's going on here.
Don't we just use a proxy over there and they do all our fighting?
Is this a shift?
This is no longer just a proxy war, somebody fighting our battles, but the U.S. is sending more troops to the Middle East after Israel's escalation in Lebanon.
But you know, one thing that I came across about troops, I thought, well, we probably don't have that many there.
But on this report, they said, I'm not going to comment or provide specifics, he said.
That's Ryder, Pentagon spokesman, on this.
He said, there are currently about 40,000 U.S. military personnel across the Middle East.
And, you know, that's probably not common in the Navy and Air Force that's surrounding the area and involved.
So this is a mess.
And now we're sending it.
Of course, the battle has been going on.
We've talked about the escalation.
And there was one statement.
You may have already picked this out, but I want to make it a one of the things.
Secretary Austin expressed his support for what, to justify all this stuff.
Israel's right to defend itself.
Certainly they have a right to defend itself.
But that doesn't mean you have a right to do anything you want anytime and use our money and our troops now for the purpose of attacking and deeper into Israel.
Well, you know, on and on.
So what we have been talking about for months, if not years, this looks like another significant step, especially the discovery that the troops have been pouring in, and now we're going to send more.
And one thing leads to another, and looks like that war is expanding.
It hasn't decreased as of now that we can tell.
The question is, what is their mission?
And that's something that hasn't been answered.
It's somehow to show support for Israel as Israel attacks yet another foreign country.
But the question, I mean, if I were in Congress, thank goodness I'm not, I would demand some answers.
What is their mission?
You, Mr. President, are sending U.S. troops into a combat zone after, remember, Kamala said, we don't have any troops in a combat zone.
They're sending them into a combat zone.
What is their mission?
What are they allowed to do?
You know, what are they supposed to do?
And I think Americans looking at this and looking at the war, which has escalated significantly, the Israelis killed about 500, more than 500 Lebanese in one single day.
So that's a big escalation in the war.
Americans should be wondering what happens if these things go even more south.
What if Iran gets involved?
This could expand very much.
And you could be looking at things like a military draft.
You know, we need to have a lot more people.
So Americans are going to start dying over there if we don't start paying attention.
Of course, that's exactly what Israel wants.
They want us to fight this war because they know that they've picked a fight with everyone around them.
Kind of a dumb thing to do, but they're going to need us to fight it.
But I would just echo what you said, Dr. Paul.
The problem is in D.C., not Tel Aviv.
The problem is that we're sending the money.
We're sending the weapons.
And what do we do?
And Dave de Camp makes a good point in his piece that you referenced.
He said throughout the past year, the U.S. has sent additional forces to the Middle East as a show of support for Israel.
The strong support from the U.S., including a constant flow of weapons shipments, has emboldened Israel to escalate in Lebanon and elsewhere in the region.
And he put it very well because it emboldens them.
They have the sense that we can do whatever we want because America's got our backs.
We can pick fights with whoever we want.
We can bomb whoever we want because America stands behind us.
And that's the opposite signal we should be sending.
Well, I know you must have a tendency to feel the same way as I do.
It's sadness because I always look at it and say, you know, all this killing is preventable.
You know, all we have to do is have stayed out of there.
And yet the special interest, this once again, I think of the getting together the majority by propaganda and lobbying the government and all the money and the politics of it.
And they call that democracy.
But it's not democracy.
It's the power of the military-industrial complex and money and politics and all to come in and scare the people to the point where if you say anything, you're unpatriotic.
But we shouldn't have been, wow, we should have even been involved the way I look at it back in 1948.
The whole thing is, this whole thing of NATO and the United Nations, what have they really achieved?
I keep thinking, I remember the day the United States had to go to war in Korea.
But what was the first thing they did?
They got the UN to declare the war and hardly anything was said.
So it embarked on that.
And since then, of course, we don't even bother.
We just go and get involved.
And even if you point this out, so I still think that there's a defect in our ability to get our message out.
It's such a powerful message.
It's such a good message of non-interventionism and following the Constitution and not basing war on plunder.
But it doesn't seem to resonate.
But I still think the most important thing is that we don't give up because that's the only alternative we have is to compete with this and hopefully try to avoid the knockdown, not only economic battle, but the knockdown big military battle back into a world of chaos and more war.
Yeah.
And I think the world knows that these are U.S. F-35s and F-15s.
They're dropping U.S. bombs on Lebanon.
And so how does that help our own national security?
It just creates new enemies for us that is not helpful at all to us economically in terms of safety, national security.
But this is bad enough that they're sending more troops.
But if you put on that next clip, the White House is urging all Americans to flee Lebanon as third Israeli strike rocks Beirut.
They are attacking Beirut.
There are plenty of Americans there.
I think there are American troops there as well.
The White House is saying, everyone, get out.
It's not safe there anymore.
Yeah, this is wise advice, and that he should, because, you know, trying to save lives.
And yet, I think what they need to do is, why are we there?
What's the purpose?
And when are we going to achieve our goals?
But my thoughts when I saw this, it's a bit, I think it's not exactly being cynical.
It's that I felt like this is the truth.
And it says the White House urges all Americans to flee as the third Israeli strikes rocks Beirut.
I thought, well, you know, it's like, get out of town, Americans.
This is your advice before our bombs kill you.
Yeah, yeah, that's exactly.
You know, it's our money, our bombs, and it's bad policy.
And actually, and you'll remember very clearly that the majority of the American people were with us against going into Iraq.
And they spent a good many months just getting a token acceptance of all that.
Not to say they ridiculed the whole idea.
Well, if this is dangerous, why don't you declare wars?
Was my argument.
Oh, no, we don't want to do that.
That's too serious.
But the whole thing is, I just don't know why the people don't wake up.
It's easier to go in and start.
And propaganda hits, paint it like patriotism and prophets, then all of a sudden we're engaged.
And then to stop it.
And I keep thinking of the terrible time that I was very much aware of what was happening in the 60s of trying to get out of Vietnam.
How do we get?
And then we get into places like Iraq.
How do we get out of it?
Sometimes we never get out.
It's surprising.
We still have troops in these countries that we thought were finally leaving.
But it's on and on.
And that's what the goal has to be is wake the American people up to realize don't give support to this before when it's leading to war.
But too often, you know, complacency and special interests and all the things that lead to war happen.
But I still think there's an anti-war sentiment, even under today's circumstances, and more people speaking out and at least looking at what we're talking about.
Well, you really hit the nail on the head right there because this is the epitome of bad policy.
Urging Americans to get out of there because American bombs are about to kill you.
You know, if this is not insanity, I don't know what is.
You're going to get killed by our own bombs that you already paid for, by the way, so you better get out.
It's absolutely insane.
Thank goodness for the wonderful advice.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So here's a couple of clips to let you know what's going on.
Who are we sending in?
Well, we're sending in the famed, if you go to that next clip, the famed 101st Airborne Division of the U.S., which served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, has received orders to redeploy to the Middle East.
The division's advanced units have arrived in the Netherlands.
Four cargo planes took off from Kentucky tonight.
The U.S. administration is planning evacuation operations in Lebanon.
So make no mistake about it.
They're sending in troops that have been in wars and they're anticipating a war.
But go to the next one now.
This is another one that really is outrageous.
Following an announcement earlier from the Pentagon that additional U.S. military assets and personnel were being deployed to the Middle East, according to Axios, the United States has asked Israel to take steps to ensure the safety of American service members and nationals if it were to order a military evacuation from Lebanon.
So we have to ask Israel, please do not use any of the bombs that we sent you to kill Americans who are trying to evacuate the country from the bombs you're about to drop on them.
You know, that is such an outrage.
But you have to also ask yourself, is that not a perverse incentive?
Just as Zelensky, who we'll talk about in a second, is desperate to draw NATO into its war with Russia, Israel, Netanyahu's government, is desperate to draw the U.S. military into its wars against the Palestinians and the Lebanese.
So what kind of incentive would it be for maybe some service members to get killed and make it look like Hezbollah did it?
God forbid that would happen, but Americans would be outraged.
They'd be demanding more military action.
We could find ourselves in a serious war very quickly.
You know, you made a good point earlier about being, our government being more explicit.
Why are we going in and what is the purpose and when is it going to end?
But they don't generally do that.
But Austin makes an attempt at this, which is really, it comes across rather feeble.
The Pentagon and Austin also said, their quote is to make clear that the United States remains postured to protect U.S. forces, that sounds good, and personnel and determined to deter any regional actors from exploiting the situation or expanding the conflict.
Isn't that pathetic?
You know, just words, words that mean nothing to them and just trying to pacify the masses.
And yet at the same time, the people wake up and they find out that this all does have an economic effect and they're wondering why their wages don't go up and prices go up and they don't see any relationship of how the combination of this foreign policy and economic policy is devastating.
And unfortunately, my assessment is it's going to last for a while and it's going to be bad.
It's going to get a lot worse.
But the answer is not difficult.
And when people say, well, what would you do?
I said, we should insist that people at least read the Constitution and take their oath seriously.
And that is not a perfect answer, but it's a heck of a lot better than what we're doing.
Yeah.
Well, the claim that Israel makes for bombing Lebanon is that they keep shooting rockets over here, so we've got to respond.
We've been sitting here taking it for so long, we've got to do something.
Election Interference Claims 00:08:35
You know, we're the victims here.
But I found this interesting chart from the BBC, hardly an anti-Israeli bias at the BBC.
Now, they tracked the missiles, the cross-border attacks since the famed October of 2023 attacks of last year.
And the red is Israel attacking Lebanon, and the blue is Lebanon and Hezbollah attacking Israel.
And from this chart, you can see overwhelmingly it is Israel that is the aggressor in shooting missiles and attacks into Lebanon.
So, you know, they say, Dr. Paul, the first casualty in war is a truth.
And so I think we're going to see a lot more of these kinds of, you know, war propaganda.
So if there are some people on our college campus who wants to take that and make, just make the point.
Just look at this.
It's a crime.
I mean, they have to be canceled, and yet they're trying to express what's going on and trying to seek the truth of what's happening.
And it does get messy.
There's no doubt about it.
But I just think with sincerity, truth is not that complicated.
Yeah.
Well, the second thing we want to talk about today is election interference.
Now, we tend to poo-poo the idea that foreigners are interfering in our elections.
You know, that is a scare tactic.
But we happen to actually find a foreigner who is interfering in our elections.
So we stand corrected.
Let's put on that next clip.
This is from the Sunday Times in the UK.
None other than our favorite T-shirt wearing fellow, Zelensky.
He's in town.
Zelensky to press Joe Biden for Trump-proof security guarantees.
He wants Biden to give him more money, of course, more bombs, and he wants him to do it in a way, if you can put that next one on, in a way that President Trump can't undo it.
So he wants to basically interfere President Trump's constitutional authority to make foreign policy.
Zelensky will call for security guarantees to prevent Ukraine being forced into an unfavorable peace deal by a future Trump administration when he visits the U.S. this week, which he's here now.
And so that's what he's pushing for.
It's pretty outrageous.
Oh, it is outrageous.
And the sad part is it's acceptable.
I mean, and I've said this so many times because it really bothers me.
If you bring a guy like this to our country, that's not the worst thing to do if they want to communicate.
But when the goal is to plunder the American people, the American taxpayer, and get people to support it and drum up all these lies and innuendos, and that is where the real problem is.
And then honor them with the whole idea of giving major speeches on the House floor.
You know, it just is just another indication that, you know, they worry and talk a bit about national sovereignty and protecting borders.
Yet we invite people in that are hardly there to defend the principles of the Constitution and freedom.
They're here to get money and advance the war and the warmongers join in because that's what we like.
We make more money doing this.
Well, they're terrified that Trump will be elected.
Trump is hardly an art interventionist.
That's been, it was our complaint when he was president.
He's hardly an art interventionist, but they're terrified of him becoming president.
It's not just Zelensky, but the entire military-industrial complex.
The entire war machine, the deep state, is terrified of him.
And here's a clip, and here's what terrifies them, because he has a way of resonating with the American people, the folly of our foreign policy.
Put on that video clip.
You might want to grab your ear piece, Dr. Paul.
And this is, I think this is Trump yesterday talking about the Zelensky circus coming to town.
And this is what, I mean, before you start it, you know, we can be up here explaining foreign policy until our ears turn blue.
But somehow Trump was able to go up there and make a joke.
It's probably more successful, to be honest.
But let's put them in and listen to what Trump says.
Ukraine now, I see Zelensky is here.
I think Zelensky is the greatest salesman in history.
Every time he comes into the country, he walks away with $60 billion.
Walks in with $60 billion.
He wants them to, he wants them to win this election so badly.
But I would do differently.
I will work out peace before I'm even before, as president-elect, if I win this election.
The first thing I'm going to do is call up Zelensky and call up President Putin, and I'm going to say, you got to make a deal.
This is crazy.
Can't complain about that one.
That resonates.
Interesting.
You hear the booze among those.
Look like they were blue-collar workers when he's mentioned that name.
So it's very, very interesting.
But here's a couple of clips on Twitter X that I brought up because we talk about election interference, and several other people have noticed this.
So he was touring a bomb factory yesterday.
Zelensky was, in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Put on this next clip.
Now, this is Greg.
Go to the next one.
Actually, go forward.
Yeah, I'm going to skip that one.
Go forward.
Here we go.
So this is Greg Price.
He's a conservative commentator.
He makes a very good point.
He chose Zelensky touring this arms factory.
Zelensky is now touring ammunition factories in Pennsylvania and attacking President Trump and JD Vance in American media outlets.
And this is the point I outlined.
A foreign leader is essentially campaigning for Harris on American soil.
And if you go to the next one, here's Zielinski in the New Yorker attacking JD Vance.
The question is, apart from Trump's own reluctance to talk about Ukrainian victory, he has chosen JD Vance as his vice president.
Zelensky says, he's too radical.
And then the question, Vance has become with a more precise plan to, Zelensky says, give up our territories.
And he goes on and on to criticize.
And Glenn Greenwald makes an excellent point.
If you go to the next one, Dr. Paul, when you want to talk about interference, of course, he always is able to spit out a great little line here, which Greenwald says.
Democrats spent eight years whining about foreign interference in our sacred elections.
Now they're campaigning with Ukraine's president for life in key swing states.
Recall that Ukrainians also worked with the DNC to help elect Hillary.
And here is Zelensky getting off of a C-17 U.S. military aircraft landing in Pennsylvania, a key swing state, and essentially campaigning.
And just one more on that same note, if you go to the next one, this is more on interference.
Go to that next clip.
Now, this is the governor of Pennsylvania, a Democrat.
And it says, Democrats impeached Trump for a phone call with Zelensky.
Now they are autographing ammunition alongside Zelensky on U.S. soil, to which I would reiterate what Glenn said, a swing state, a key swing state.
Yes.
You know, his declared purpose of being here is to reveal his victory plan.
He has this plan.
And one thing here is Zelensky said he, who was being quizzed a little bit, Zelensky said he would not reveal full details of the plan until he met with Biden.
So he wasn't ready to talk about it in public.
But the statement there, why is he here?
Why does he have this much credibility?
Why is it costing us so much?
Why does it lead to more killing and not peace?
But if the peace plan doesn't satisfy his plan, yeah, then he couches it sometimes into that he really wants, he really wants to talk to Russia on his terms.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, I guess we'll close out now.
Why Isolation Isn't Always Bad 00:04:00
I do want to thank Conrell 2020 for doing a live chat with $10.
And he points out that Trump's plan was written by Fred Fleitz, who is a terrible neocon.
So again, not perfect, but at least it's making them nervous.
But I'm going to close out, Dr. Paul, with an announcement of my own.
If you put on that last clip, I just decided yesterday I will be going to the Rage Against the War Machine rally on the 28th in Washington, D.C. at the Washington Monument.
You know, Dr. Paul, you're a big supporter of people getting out and letting it be known that they oppose war and people that can often feel helpless.
What can I do?
Well, what we can do is go there, have a big presence of people there saying, no, we don't want these wars.
So I hope as many people as possible will go out there and show some support for the cause of peace.
It's going to be a great rally.
We were there together last time a couple years ago, so I'm really glad they're holding it again.
Very good.
Glad you're getting there.
Let them have it.
Don't be bashful.
I'll try not.
Okay, one thing I want to do is make it very clear philosophically what we're after, because we're discredited very often because if you take a position of non-intervention overseas, that you're an isolationist, and that's a bad word.
You don't want to isolate.
And I would say that people have a right to isolate themselves.
If they want to live on their property and take care of themselves, and they don't bother their neighbors, there a lot of be isolation.
A country could do that too.
But that's not the way people like it.
They like to intermingle.
They like to talk to people.
They like to educate different people.
So it's out there.
But the reason they do this is the people have to destroy the principles of non-intervention because it's likely to lead to peace.
And sometimes they don't want peace.
There are certain people defending and benefiting from it, profit-wise and power-wise.
So the isolationist argument is just not true because if you believe in a free society and you allow an individual to isolate themselves from the world and he doesn't bother anybody, he doesn't use the government to plunder and take and steal from them and to rule the world and do all these things and violate civil liberties, they're harmless.
But if you are more inclined to what the majority of people are throughout history is they want to be in groups and they want to work together.
And the voluntary approach to that is so different than it is when you have government organizing this type of operation.
So when people come together, you know, just think one-on-one individuals.
Just think how great that would be if nobody did anything with another person unless both sides agreed to it.
Economically, socially, religiously, all of that would be so much, so much better.
And what about the countries?
What if the countries never?
This would be the real challenge because we who had one of the best and the freest countries, it wasn't long before we started throwing our weight around and not waiting for the opposition to agree with us to do certain things.
And right now, we certainly don't follow that.
We're interventionists, and the whole idea is they're trying to destroy our ideas.
You're a bunch of isolationists.
You don't want to join all these groups like the United Nations and whatnot.
Well, I'll tell you what, the intervention by big government is not the answer to finding out how the best way for people to get along.
If you're interested in peace and prosperity, that's where we should go.
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