Foreign Policy & War

Imperial Hopefuls

by Sheldon Richman February 22, 2007

As the parade of presidential wannabes grows longer, the people paying attention this early are probably asking themselves, “Can I picture so and so as president?” This is a bad question on many levels. Politics, and presidential politics most especially, is little more than theater. The candidate who can create the right ...

The Critical Dilemma Facing Pro-War Libertarians

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 14, 2007

Also see: The Pentagon's Power to Arrest, Torture, and Execute Americans It Can't Happen Here The Islamo-Fascist Rationale for Abandoning Liberty The 9/11 attacks exposed a major fault line in the libertarian movement. On one side of the divide were those libertarians who contended that the 9/11 attacks were a direct consequence of U.S. foreign policy specifically the bad things that ...

The Second Anniversary of Bush’s Worst Bosh

by James Bovard February 1, 2007

Two years ago last month, Bush gave his second inaugural address. As I watched the speech on television, I and perhaps millions of other Americans struggled to answer the obvious question about the speech: Is it puerile or is it merely tripe? Bush was hailed throughout the greater Washington metropolitan area for ...

We Are Your Bad Conscience

by Lawrence M. Ludlow February 1, 2007

The members of the White Rose still speak to us today, and during a recent trip to Munich, I was able to explore the place where this heroic group of German dissidents crafted their powerful message. Some readers already may be familiar with the White Rose as a result of articles posted at The Future of Freedom Foundation or ...

Empire or Republic

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2007

We now live in a country in which the president wields the power to send the entire nation into war on his own initiative, without the congressional declaration of war required by the Constitution. We live in a country in which the president and the military wield the power to arrest an American citizen and incarcerate him in a military ...

Hungary’s New Lesson for America

by James Bovard January 1, 2007

This past October was the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising against the Soviet military. Hungarians bravely expelled Soviet tanks from Budapest and trumpeted their intention to create a democracy. But the Soviets returned with almost 5,000 tanks, killing thousands of Hungarians and re-fettering 10 million people into servitude to Moscow. But at least Hungarians had the gumption to stand ...

End Draft Registration!

by Sheldon Richman December 29, 2006

Whenever U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, the New York Democrat who will soon chair the House Ways and Means Committee, calls for resumption of military conscription, a host of powerful figures, Republican and Democrat, civilian and military, chime in at once to repudiate his proposal. They respond that the U.S. military ...

Would You “Support the Troops” in Bolivia?

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 27, 2006

Soldiers who join the military voluntarily sign a very unusual contract with the federal government. It is a contract that effectively obligates the soldier to go anywhere in the world on orders of the president and kill people as part of an invasion force against other countries. It doesn’t matter whether ...

Why Not Invade Vietnam Too?

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2006

Amidst all the comparisons of the Vietnam War with the occupation of Iraq, people seem to be ignoring an important question: Why not invade Vietnam too? After all, everyone knows that Vietnam is not a democracy. In fact, unlike Saddam Hussein’s dictatorial regime in Iraq, the Vietnam dictatorship is communist, and ...

Thinking about Foreign Policy

by Sheldon Richman December 1, 2006

The reason there is so much sloppy thinking about foreign policy among libertarians (not to mention nearly everyone else) is that most people don’t know how to approach the subject. You can see this whenever someone uses analogies such as the bully on a playground or the madman with a baby ...

The Failed Attempt to Leash the Dogs of War

by Bart Frazier December 1, 2006

Of the many powers that government is granted, none has more potential for disaster than the power to wage war. Not only does warfare cost a country in terms of lost lives, it also has detrimental effects on the economy and society itself. In order to keep the country out of senseless and unjust ...

Misplaced Nostalgia

by Sheldon Richman November 17, 2006

Before we get too nostalgic about the foreign-policy prowess of the George H.W. Bush administration, we should remind ourselves of what happened from 1989 through 1992. I understand that, compared to the bunch running things now, nearly anyone would look good. But I sense almost a giddiness about the supposed ...