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President’s Perilous Foreign Affairs

by Sheldon Richman September 15, 1998

When President Clinton ordered air strikes against alleged terrorist facilities in Sudan and Afghanistan last August, nearly everyone wondered if he had done it to take our attention off his sex scandal. But perhaps he's using the scandal to distract us from his foreign adventurism. Many criticisms can be made about the president's White ... [click for more]

Terrorism, Anti-Terrorism, and American Foreign Policy, Part 2

by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 1996

Part 1 | Part 2 Shortly after the July 17, 1996, crash of TWA Flight 800, President Clinton called for the passage of a new anti-terrorism bill. He argued that unless federal law-enforcement agencies were given the tools needed to combat terrorism, the lives of Americans would be put into increasing danger. At the same time, he called for ... [click for more]

The Hypocritical War on Terrorism

by James Bovard December 1, 1996

President Clinton is continuing to agitate for new powers to suppress terrorists. He is demanding more powers for wiretaps, more powers to prevent people from using encryption for their e-mail, more powers to classify normal crimes as terrorist offenses, and so forth. As usual, Clinton's solution to every problem is more power for himself and his cronies. Clinton has ... [click for more]

Terrorism, Anti-Terrorism, and American Foreign Policy, Part 1

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 1996

Part 1 | Part 2 On July 17, 1996, TWA Fight 800 exploded into a fireball off the southern coast of Long Island and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, just minutes after it took off from John F. Kennedy International Airport. Two hundred and thirty human beings lost their lives. The anger and sorrow expressed by many Americans were understandable, ... [click for more]

Freedom Is the Best Insurance against Terrorism

by Sheldon Richman August 1, 1996

In the wake of the possible bombing of TWA flight 800 and the bombing at the Olympics, President Clinton is doing what politicians always do at times like these: he's grabbing for power. If that has a feeling of deja vu to it, it should. Shortly after the blast at the federal ... [click for more]

The War Crimes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 1995

When U.S. military forces dropped atomic bombs on Japanese civilians at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 275,000 men, women, and children were killed. Ever since, the killings have been justified by the claim that the bombings shortened the war and, therefore, saved the lives of American servicemen. Actually, the bombings constituted war crimes for which the perpetrators should have been tried and ... [click for more]

Dresden: Time to Say We’re Sorry

by Simon Jenkins September 1, 1995

As the U.S. Fifth Army inched its way up Italy in 1944, its command constantly pondered which towns should be spared bombardment. Monte Cassino was destroyed. The centers of Rome and Florence were saved. The Pieros of Sansepulcro were reprieved at the last minute (I believe by an art-loving gunner). These decisions were taken out of respect for the ... [click for more]

Killing Noncombatants

by Sheldon Richman September 1, 1995

In May 11, 1940, Great Britain made a fateful decision in its approach to fighting the second world war. On that night, eighteen Whitley bombers attacked railway installations in the placid west German province of Westphalia, far from the war front. That forgotten bombing raid, which in itself was inconsequential, has been called "the first deliberate breach of the ... [click for more]

The Power to Declare War — Who Speaks for the Constitution? Part 3

by Doug Bandow August 1, 1995

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The favorite justification for presidents unilaterally wandering off to war around the globe seems to be: everyone else does it. Proponents of executive war-making contend that ample precedents — two hundred or more troop deployments without congressional approval — exist for the president to act without a congressional declaration. Yet, ... [click for more]

The Power to Declare War — Who Speaks for the Constitution? Part 2

by Doug Bandow July 1, 1995

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 What conceivable justification is there for ignoring the Constitution's straightforward requirement regarding the power to declare war? Advocates of expansive executive war power — oddly enough, including some conservatives who claim to believe in a jurisprudence of "original intent" — have come up with a number of reasons to give ... [click for more]

American Foreign Policy — The Turning Point, 1898–1919 Part 6

by Ralph Raico July 1, 1995

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 The vast changes that the First World War was to bring about began to occur even while the war was still going on. In February 1917, the Tsarist Russian state collapsed, and a provisional government was established. But ... [click for more]

Terrorism — Public and Private

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 1995

On April 19, 1995, the federal building in Oklahoma City was bombed. Hundreds of people, including children, were killed or injured. Although federal government officials have been sporadically killed in the line of duty in the past, this was the first mass killing of federal civil servants in American history. There was tremendous shock, anger, and outrage over the Oklahoma ... [click for more]