Foreign Policy & War

The Libertarian Angle: American Sniper

by Future of Freedom Foundation January 26, 2015

Each week, FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: the hit movie American Sniper. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

TGIF: The Open Society and Its Worst Enemies

by Sheldon Richman January 16, 2015

Last week’s bloody events in Paris demonstrate yet again that a noninterventionist foreign policy, far from being a luxury, is an urgent necessity -- literally a matter of life and death. A government that repeatedly wages wars of aggression — the most extreme form of extremism — endangers the society it ostensibly protects by gratuitously making enemies, some of whom will seek revenge against ...

Understanding the Paris Violence

by Sheldon Richman January 14, 2015

Contrary to American officialdom and its stalwart “manufacturers of consent” — the intelligentsia and mainstream media — we will never comprehend the reasons for the slaughter of 17 innocent people in Paris as long as we ignore the history of Western violence against the Muslim world. Perpetrators and cheerleaders of Western violence stifle discussion of what motivates young Muslims to ...

L’affaire Charlie Hebdo and Western Colonialism

by John V. Walsh January 14, 2015

To understand the attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris last week, we need only invert George W. Bush’s 2005 mantra*, thus: “They will continue to attack us over here so long as we slaughter them by the millions over there.” In a word, this is one more instance of blowback, as Ron Paul tells us in his perceptive essay, “

The Libertarian Angle: The War in Afghanistan

by Future of Freedom Foundation January 5, 2015

Each week, FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: the continuing saga that is Afghanistan. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

The Libertarian Angle: Foreign Policy Blowback and Police Tyranny

by Future of Freedom Foundation December 8, 2014

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: foreign blowback and police tyranny . The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.  

Familiar Bedfellows

by Sheldon Richman November 19, 2014

Hillary and Henry sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G-E-R! It says a lot about former secretary of state and presumed presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton that she’s a member of the Henry Kissinger Fan Club. Progressives who despised George W. Bush might want to examine any warm, fuzzy feelings they harbor for Clinton. She has made no effort to hide her admiration for ...

An Individualistic Foreign Policy

by Laurence M. Vance October 28, 2014

Two Americans were killed this past summer fighting for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in its ground offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Both were young men, and both were U.S. citizens. One had dual citizenship and the other joined the Israeli army after visiting the country in 2012. It turns out that there is a long ...

Liberty.me: The Antimilitarist Libertarian Tradition with Sheldon Richman

by Sheldon Richman October 23, 2014

FFF vice-president Sheldon Richman's monthly webinar at Liberty.me. It is not possible to favor both freedom and war. War goes with tyranny, despotism, and socialism, which is why the liberal tradition has been unflinching in its support of peace. Strangely, there are periods in which this truth has been forgotten or suppressed: 19th century British ...

The Politicians Are Scaring You Again

by Sheldon Richman October 16, 2014

They are doing it again. “They” are the war-party politicians, Democrats and Republicans. “It” is scaring you into supporting another war in the Middle East. When will the American people learn? If in a republic the people are the ultimate check on government power, a gullible, easily frightened public is a disaster waiting to happen. Where is the derisive skepticism ...

The Hegemony Builders

by Scott McPherson October 15, 2014

  Who are these, obsequious fools Lickspittles drawing e'er near To the flames of power, but fulfilled By a moment in diadem's glare?   “To arms!” they cry – to all but they For what good is slavish applause If spent upon a battlefield – What then for Caesar's next cause?   Oh mighty lambs, lust for war! Heedless of misery and pain Lust for him who makes it so Suckle the breast ...

TGIF: A Foreign Policy By and For Knaves

by Sheldon Richman October 10, 2014

David Hume (1711-1776) was no hardcore libertarian, but he was a provocative thinker and a key figure in the development of liberalism. Hume helped make the Scottish Enlightenment the important period it was. He also can be fun to read. Observe this from his essay “Of the Independency of Parliament”: Political writers have established it as a maxim, ...