The Other Casualties of War by Rich Schwartzman June 2, 2011 It was a typical Memorial Day weekend around here. There was a ceremony with an honor guard at a local church in my town of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, while nearby Kennett Square hosted a parade. The Brandywine Creek was filled with people tubing, canoeing, kayaking, and picnicking. There were also a slew of war movies on TV. Most were WW ...
An Open Letter to the Troops: You’re Not Defending Our Freedoms by Jacob G. Hornberger May 31, 2011 Dear Troops: Yesterday — Memorial Day — some people asserted, once again, that you are “defending our freedoms” overseas. Nothing could be further from the truth. Those people are just repeating tired old mantras. The reality is that you are not defending our freedoms with your actions overseas. In fact, it is the exact opposite. Your actions overseas are placing our ...
Lessons from the Middle East, Part 1 by Jacob G. Hornberger May 30, 2011 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The widespread revolts against dictatorships in the Middle East hold valuable lessons for the American people. Time will tell whether Americans focus on those lessons and heed them or simply turn away and ignore them. The lessons involve principles of liberty, democracy, and the role of government in a ...
Autocracy on the Run in the Middle East by Sheldon Richman May 28, 2011 No lover of liberty can be anything but inspired by the Egyptian people’s peaceful toppling of the U.S.-armed and -financed dictator, Hosni Mubarak, last winter. The “pharaoh” is gone. Will another rise in his place? That is the question. Mubarak’s exit followed on the heels of a similar change in neighboring Tunisia. Revolutionary fervor has been spreading across the Arab ...
The Road to the Permanent Warfare State, Part 1 by Gregory Bresiger May 24, 2011 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 |Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 |Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 |Part 12 |Part 13 In modern political society it is probably a fact that national leadership can heighten foreign crises to the point where war becomes almost ...
Imperialist Freedom by Martin Morse Wooster May 12, 2011 Empire for Liberty: A History of American Imperialism from Benjamin Franklin to Paul Wolfowitz by Richard H, Immerman. (Princeton University Press; 237 pages); $24.95. There are many reasons to be angry about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but perhaps the most teeth-grating moments of the launching of war in Baghdad were marked by the moralism by which U.S. officials ...
Deference to Authority, Part 3 by Jacob G. Hornberger April 30, 2011 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The 50-year-old economic embargo by the U.S. government against the Cuban people stands as a testament to the power of the state to mold the minds of a citizenry, in this case the American citizenry. Having been inculcated from the first grade on up that the U.S. government ...
The Absurdity of Trusting Foreign-Policy Makers by James Bovard April 13, 2011 The United States is attacking Libya on the basis of vague hopes that peace will triumph after the Allied bombing ceases. There are plenty of reasons to doubt whether a few hundred cruise missiles will beget harmony in the Libyan desert. But one of the biggest mistakes would be to assume that U.S. government policymakers understand what they are ...
The Jacob Hornberger Show: Militarism, Empire, and the Road to Tyranny and Bankruptcy by Jacob G. Hornberger April 9, 2011 The Jacob Hornberger Show broadcasts live every Saturday night at 7pm EST. Visit FFF's Ustream Channel to watch the show live. Download the MP3 here, or subscribe to the RSS feed
War: The Republican’s Real Priority by Laurence M. Vance April 6, 2011 In their “Pledge to America,” House Republicans promised “to stop out-of control spending and reduce the size of government.” But other than promising to repeal Obamacare, no specific mention is made in the Pledge about eliminating any federal department, agency, or commission. Indeed, the Republicans’ stated ambition was merely to “roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout ...
The Forgotten Failures of the Peace Corps by James Bovard April 1, 2011 This is the fiftieth anniversary year for the Peace Corps. Prior to the creation of AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps took the cake as the most arrogant and overrated government program in Washington. At a time when the agency is being hailed for idealism and almost saving the world, it is worthwhile to consider its early record of debacles and ...
Afghanistan: A War of Choice, Not Necessity by Sheldon Richman March 25, 2011 In December Barack Obama received his awaited assessment of the war in Afghanistan, then reported to the American people that the mission is “on track” and troops would begin to withdraw next July. But the semi-upbeat assessment was less than persuasive because, as the Washington Post reported, “The overview of the long-awaited report contained no specifics or data to ...