Winning Hearts & Minds

Rand Paul opposes U.S. attack that could ‘kill Christians in Syria’

"In an interview with conservative radio host Mike Huckabee, Paul said that President Barack Obama needed to understand that 'there are 2 million Christians living in Syria, more than just about any place in the Middle East.' 'And I just don’t want to see my kids or weapons of the United States being used to kill Christians in Syria,' he explained. Paul called on the president to 'try and convince' a joint session of Congress that action in Syria was necessary. 'You know, I think a good place to start when things are muddled and confused is to start with the Constitution,' he told Huckabee." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRand Paul opposes U.S. attack that could ‘kill Christians in Syria’

The Last Secular Arab Country

"The US regime, with its trained and financed local jihadi army, is in the process of destroying the last non-Islamist Arab regime: Syria. Like all empires, the US seeks to make trouble in order to dominate and enrich itself and its compatriots, governmental and corporate. Oh, and here is one effect of a jihadi takeover: the ancient Christian communities in Syria, there since the time of the Apostles and protected by Assad and his father, will be ethnically cleansed, with many murdered in the process. So the cannibal rebels promise." Continue reading →

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The negative value of US citizenship

"It’s much easier to travel the world on a US passport than it is on a passport from, say, Syria, or Bangladesh — but, that said, there are countries which really don’t like admitting Americans, and if you already have a passport from Canada, or the EU, then you’re going to find it just as easy to travel as you would if you had one from the US. A green card holder can leave the US at any time, give up her green card, and thenceforth never have to pay a cent in US taxes, or even file a US tax return, ever again. This is an option which would be valued extremely highly by many Americans. By becoming a US citizen you essentially give up that option, as the likes of Eduardo Saverin have learned to their cost." Continue reading →

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Foreign Retirement Plans Seen Scrutinized in U.S. FATCA Effort

A U.S. tax crackdown is coming for foreign retirement plans. The U.S. has been pushing banks and individuals to report overseas assets, making it tougher to hide money abroad with new rules and penalties rolling out under the 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, known as Fatca. The next wave of scrutiny will cover retirement accounts, Bloomberg BNA reported. “The retirement community has been a little slower to catch up,” said Russell E. Hall, a senior consultant at Towers Watson. Foreign retirement plans generally must agree to report their U.S. account holders to avoid a 30 percent withholding tax on U.S.-sourced interest, dividends and proceeds from the sale of securities beginning July 1. Global companies with programs overseas will need to catalog their funded retirement plans to figure out which ones may be exempt, Hall said. Continue reading →

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Iraq post-war life overshadowed by crumbling infrastructure, corruption, poverty

"Despite Iraq being rich in natural resources and the US pouring money into its economy for over a decade, Iraqi infrastructure is constantly failing and the people are forced to beg. In spite of billions of dollars spent on reconstruction following the decade-long conflict, many neighborhoods lack sewerage systems and trash collection services. In some settlements, there are barely any streets. Water is also a big problem, locals pointed out. In the latest scandal, the country’s Electricity Ministry was involved in a $1.7 billion fraud case. In the Al Tajiat landfill, on the outskirts of Baghdad, people are actually forced to live – without any proper living conditions." Continue reading →

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This Is What Winning Looks Like: My Afghanistan War Diary

"The US and British forces are preparing to leave Afghanistan for good (officially, by the end of 2014), and my time in the country over the last six years has convinced me that our legacy will be the exact opposite of what Allen posits—not a stable Afghanistan, but one at war with itself yet again. Here are a few encapsulated snapshots of what I’ve seen and what we’re leaving behind." Continue reading →

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Voluntary Tax Disclosure Programs Correlated With U.S. Citizenship Renunciations

"'It’s quite clear from the data that the number of people renouncing their citizenship shoots up at the same time that the IRS began the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Programs. Then, the number of people renouncing citizenship decreases at the same time that the Streamlined program is announced – which gives US citizens living abroad a less cumbersome way to catch up on back taxes, but then it shoots up again when the FATCA rules start to kick in and people find that the bank they have worked with for 20 years is closing their account because they are a US citizen' said David McKeegan of Greenback Expat Tax Services, a tax preparation company." Continue reading →

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Will The US Really Condemn Terrorism in Syria?

[March 2013] "The US government's various reports on religious freedom are largely politicized affairs designed to demonize practices in countries out of favor and skip over abuses among its allies. One could hardly imagine a more direct attack on religious liberty than to set off a bomb in a building of religious worship. But this attack has been perpetrated by US allies in Syria, who have benefited recently from 3,000 tons of sophisticated weapons shipped in by the US government and paid for by paragons of religious tolerance such as Saudi Arabia." Continue reading →

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US ‘Elects’ New Syrian Leader…A Guy From Dallas!

[March 2013] "In the name of democracy, the US government has supported a variety of armed opposition fighters in Syria seeking to overthrow that country's president, Bashar al-Assad, who according to a wide variety of information sources enjoys support from the majority of the Syrian people. So to promote democracy in Syria, the US government has taken it upon itself to choose a new leader for Syria. This democratic answer to Syria's problems lives in Dallas, TX, and was educated in Indiana. He has not set foot in the country he now 'rules' in more than thirty years. Also, he is an Islamist from the Muslim Brotherhood. That is what the US government calls 'democratic legitimacy.'" Continue reading →

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A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying Veteran

"I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingA Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying Veteran