Foreign Policy & War

How Major U.S. Neo-Imperialist Wars End (video)

by Robert Higgs October 8, 2008

On June 6, 2008, Robert Higgs gave the following Speech at FFF’s conference Restoring the Republic 2008: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties. The speech can viewed below in its entirety.

Two Checks on Tyranny

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2008

The purpose of the Bill of Rights was twofold: first, to ensure that certain fundamental rights were protected from federal infringement and, second, to ensure that the American people were expressly guaranteed certain procedural rights in federal criminal prosecutions. While all of the rights and guarantees enumerated in the ...

More Bush Freedom Hokum

by James Bovard October 1, 2008

Perhaps no American president has praised freedom as often as George W. Bush. From his declarations that the United States was attacked because of freedom, to the names “Operation Enduring Freedom” and “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” to his proclamations of a “calling” from history to defend freedom, freedom quickly became the cloak ...

Government Failure

by Sheldon Richman September 19, 2008

To hear the media pundits and presidential candidates tell it, you’d think Adam Smith has been president for the last eight years and, with a Congress full of free-market advocates, had enacted an agenda of full-blown laissez-faire. Had that been the case, we would not be in the mess we are in economically. Alas, it has not been the case. Politicians ...

Secession and Slavery

by Scott McPherson September 12, 2008

An interesting commentary, “Lincoln, Secession, and Slavery” by Tibor Machan, published by the Cato Institute on June 1, 2002, was recently brought to my attention. I should say at the outset that I have long been a fan of Machan, and have the utmost respect for ...

Seven Years of Darkness, Tyranny, and Oppression

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2008

The year 1989 was a year of a great celebration. For that was the year that that hated and reviled symbol of tyranny, empire, and oppression, the Berlin Wall, came crashing down. Not only were the people of East Germany and Eastern Europe celebrating the demise of the Wall, so were ...

Sacrificing Liberty for Safety

by George Leef September 1, 2008

Neither Liberty Nor Safety by Robert Higgs (Independent Institute, 2007); 202 pages. Many readers will immediately recognize that the title of this book comes from one of Benjamin Franklin’s many political insights: “Those who would sacrifice essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Author ...

What about the Ossetians?

by Sheldon Richman August 25, 2008

If Russia exited Georgia — as it should — and the Bush administration dropped its wish to expand NATO to Russia’s border — as it should — there would still be an issue to be dealt with: the secessionist ambitions of the majority in South Ossetia — the Georgian military response to ...

War in Georgia Shows U.S. Foreign Policy Is a Bust

by Sheldon Richman August 15, 2008

The tragic events in the nation of Georgia show that U.S. foreign policy is a bust. In particular, NATO must go. This may seem counterintuitive, but this relic of the Cold War has nothing to contribute to peace. On the contrary, it is a destabilizing tool of America’s provocative imperial ...

Obama World Tour 2008

by Michael Tennant August 11, 2008

Ten-year-old girls at a Hannah Montana concert had nothing on our news media as they took in Barack Obama’s July trip to benighted foreign lands. Obama World Tour 2008 T-shirts were, figuratively speaking, on the backs of practically everyone in his press entourage. This tour proved, we are led to ...

Do Presidents Have the Right to Kill?

by James Bovard August 1, 2008

Should the president of the United States be exempt from both American and international law? Few people would instinctively say yes. But, in actual practice, presidents of the United States have been legally untouchable for most of the past century for the foreign killings they ordered. Even when their orders resulted in the killing of vast numbers of innocent people, ...

Just What We Need: New Reasons to Go to War

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2008

A few days before Gen. David Petraeus confirmed for Congress how overworked the military is in Iraq, President Bush was in Croatia talking about the significance of inviting that country and Albania to join NATO. “Henceforth, should any danger threaten your people, America and the NATO alliance will stand with you, and no one will be able to take your ...