Steve Peacock's U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor

World Affairs Brief

Many thanks to Joel M. Skousen's World Affairs Brief for highlighting my recent PatriotUpdate.com article  "U.S. Cost of U.N. 'Rule of Law' Project: $500 million." As Skousen's brief is a subscription-based service, I am delighted that he saw fit to deem that piece worthy of mention to his readers, who no doubt want their money's worth.

For those who have not yet read that article, I had discovered, through routine database research, that the U.S. Agency for International Development will pay contractors up to a half-billion dollars to train other nation's to comply with United Nations-sanctioned "rule of law" guidelines (click through the link above for the full Patriot Update article).

There's nothing inherently wrong with encouraging governments to treat their citizens fairly and to be held accountable to their people; however,foisting this additional financial burden upon U.S. taxpayers -- compunded by the laughable notion that our government is some sort of Beacon on the Hill for the masses to follow -- is hypocritical if not downright laughable. Now that the sequestration process is unfolding, the White House and Congress should take a closer look at such projects when they start claiming that there's no place left for budget cuts.

Patriot Update: U.S. Cost of U.N. “Rule of Law” Project: $500 million

My latest from Patriot Update:

U.S. Cost of U.N. “Rule of Law” Project: $500 million

A half-billion-dollar Obama Administration program to help nations comply with United Nations-sanctioned governance reform has rolled out its first round of awards to several government-contracting behemoths.

The International Rule of Law Technical Assistance Services program, which Obama unveiled through the U.S. Agency for International Development, will assist governments around the globe in reforming their justice, educational, and other systems based on U.N. “rule of law” principles.

Continued at PatriotUpdate.com...

One Less Defender of Liberty in Washington -- Ron Paul's Farewell

One of the nation's most vociferous defenders of liberty and vocal opponent of big government has given his last goodbye on the floor of the House of Representatives: Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). Among his many astute observations -- and warnings -- he left for the American people, the segment of his speech on liberty was among the most striking:

Liberty can only be achieved when government is denied the aggressive use of force. If one seeks liberty, a precise type of government is needed. To achieve it, more than lip service is required.

Two choices are available.

        1. A government designed to protect liberty—a natural right—as its sole objective.
The people are expected to care for themselves and reject the use of any force for
interfering with another person’s liberty. Government is given a strictly limited
authority to enforce contracts, property ownership, settle disputes, and defend
against foreign aggression.

        2. A government that pretends to protect liberty but is granted power to arbitrarily use force over the people and foreign nations. Though the grant of power many times is meant to be small and limited, it inevitably metastasizes into an omnipotent political cancer. This is the problem for which the world has suffered throughout the ages. Though meant to be limited it nevertheless is a 100% sacrifice of a principle that would-be-tyrants find irresistible. It is used vigorously—though incrementally and insidiously. Granting power to government officials always proves the adage that: “power corrupts.”

Once government gets a limited concession for the use of force to mold people habits and plan the economy, it causes a steady move toward tyrannical government. Only a revolutionary spirit can reverse the process and deny to the government this arbitrary use of aggression. There’s no in-between. Sacrificing a little liberty for imaginary safety always ends badly.

Today’s mess is a result of Americans accepting option #2, even though the Founders attempted to give us Option #1.

The full text of Paul's Farewell Address is available here via the TheHill.com. Give it a read. Read it and weep -- but read it and take action.

"The Whistleblower" (movie trailer)

 

Though a fictional account,The Whistleblower appears to be critically relevant to some of the global contracting issues that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor attempts to address; hence, I offer this movie trailer for consideration by my readers. Likewise, Foreign Affairs magazine offers an excellent backgrounder on the film, which opens in theaters today. The opening line in that review says it all:

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon traveled to Hollywood last year to cajole filmmakers and movie stars into making pictures that portray the U.N.'s good works. The Whistleblower, a scathing full-length account of the U.N. peacekeeping effort in Bosnia during the late 1990s, is not what he had in mind.