Foreign Policy & War

A Real Foreign Policy Debate

by Tim Kelly January 26, 2012

A recent poll has revealed a schism within the GOP over foreign policy. In a Washington Times and JZ Analytics survey, 48 percent of Republicans said the United States should maintain a policy of intervening where its interests are challenged. But 46 percent disagreed, saying the country is “in a new global era” where it can no longer take ...

The Road to the Permanent Warfare State, Part 9

by Gregory Bresiger January 23, 2012

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 1949, Harry Truman and Secretary of State Dean Acheson convinced Congress that the ...

A Fitting Symbol of the American Empire

by Sheldon Richman January 20, 2012

The image of four U.S. marines urinating on the corpses of Afghan fighters is a fitting symbol of American intervention in Central Asia and the Middle East. That picture will live forever in the memories of people in the region, along with the pictures from Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. Most Americans aren’t much interested in making fine distinctions in foreign ...

The American Press and War

by Tim Kelly January 17, 2012

There is a myth of an independent American press existing as a counterforce to government power. Unfortunately, the truth is less inspiring, especially with respect to the U.S. government’s wars, invasions, and foreign interventions. Rather than keeping the public well-informed, journalists and reporters have all too often served as conduits for government propaganda in the march to war. Sensationalistic “yellow ...

Is Ron Paul an Isolationist?

by Laurence M. Vance January 17, 2012

The word isolationist is a pejorative term used to ridicule advocates of U.S. nonintervention in foreign affairs, intimidate their supporters, and stifle debate over U.S. foreign policy. Throughout the twentieth century, opponents of U.S. intervention in foreign wars were smeared as isolationists. Conservative and Republican opponents of Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul, although they may argue and fight among themselves, ...

Opposing Imperialism Is Not Isolationism

by Sheldon Richman January 12, 2012

When pundits and rival politicians call Ron Paul an “isolationist,” they mislead the American people — and they know it. They know it? How could they not: Ron Paul is for unilateral, unconditional free trade. He believes any American should be perfectly free to buy from or sell to any person in the world. In that sense — the laissez-faire ...

The Road to the Permanent Warfare State, Part 8

by Gregory Bresiger December 27, 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 George Kennan, the author of the containment doctrine, the doctrine that had set the ...

Secret Wars and the Rule of Law

by Tim Kelly December 21, 2011

The president of the United States now wages secret wars virtually independent of Congress and in direct violation of the United States Constitution. Earlier this month, the White House issued several findings authorizing U.S. intelligence services to carry out covert actions against Iran and Syria. A presidential finding is a directive similar to an executive order; it instructs a government ...

Noninterventionism: Cornerstone of a Free Society

by Anthony Gregory December 21, 2011

A free society is impossible under an empire. Even the most just war you can imagine is a disaster for liberty and prosperity, as Ludwig von Mises pointed out. An unjust war amounts to murder, mayhem, and mass destruction. And a perpetual state of war guarantees that liberty will never be achieved. James Madison said it very well: Of all ...

FDRs Noble Lie

by Tim Kelly December 15, 2011

Soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, rumors began to circulate challenging the official narrative that it was an unprovoked surprise attack. The cumulative evidence gathered over the last seventy years by scholars, journalists, and investigators vindicates those suspicious of treachery from the top; for it comprises a solid circumstantial case that Franklin D. ...

Imperialism and Oil

by Tim Kelly December 2, 2011

In March 2003, after months of propaganda about phony threats posed by Saddam Hussein's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, as well as absurd suggestions by the White House that his regime was in league with al-Qaeda, U.S. forces invaded Iraq in an act of aggression that was every bit as brazen and illegal as Nazi Germany's blitzkrieg of Poland ...

Obama’s War Record Should Appall Progressives

by Sheldon Richman December 1, 2011

Why are liberals so desperately unhappy with the Obama presidency? asks New York Magazines Jonathan Chait, a self-proclaimed Obama apologist. He answers his own question: Liberals are dissatisfied with Obama because liberals, on the whole, are incapable of feeling satisfied with a Democratic president. See? It isn't Obama's fault. Its something in the so-called liberal, or progressive, psyche. (Liberalism originally ...