Foreign Policy & War

Conservatism vs. Libertarianism

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 12, 2006

The Conservative: I’m a conservative. I believe in individual liberty, free markets, private property, and limited government, except for: 1. Social Security; 2. Medicare; 3. Medicaid; 4. Welfare; 5. Drug laws; 6. Public schooling; 7. Federal grants; 8. Economic regulations; 9. Minimum-wage laws and price controls; 10. Federal Reserve System; 11. Paper money; 12. Income taxation and the IRS; 13. Trade restrictions; 14. Immigration controls; 15. The postal monopoly; 16. Foreign aid; 17. ...

Bush Pledges More Mayhem in the Middle East

by Sheldon Richman March 31, 2006

Asked recently about his position on Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions, President Bush said, “I made it clear, and I’ll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our ally Israel.” This statement brought precisely zero reaction from the public and the media. Do the American people fully appreciate ...

Bush, Chavez, and Hitler

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 6, 2006

U.S. officials become angry and indignant when someone compares the Bush administration’s policies to those of the Hitler regime. Even government officials at the local level get upset over the comparison, as reflected by the public schoolteacher who is under investigation for comparing Bush’s policies to those of ...

Imperial Troubles

by Sheldon Richman March 1, 2006

Iraq is approaching civil war, if it hasn’t already reached it, and President Bush could face the most embarrassing congressional setback of his tenure in the White House. It’s remarkable what troubles imperial ventures can bring. Talk about unintended consequences. The president’s plan was to bring stability to the ...

Why They Hate Us

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 13, 2006

When U.S. officials condemn the violence arising out of the anti-Mohammed cartoons published by the European press, they fail to recognize that the anger in the Middle East goes a lot deeper than the adverse reaction to the cartoons reflects. For example, read the transcript of the federal court sentencing ...

Where Are the Isolationists?

by Sheldon Richman February 6, 2006

President Bush’s State of the Union address was one odd speech indeed. Besides his silly statement about our being “addicted to oil” and his messianic declarations in response to the “call of history,” he referred to isolationism four different times. Who favors isolationism? That of course depends on what it means. The ...

Democracy, Hypocrisy, and U.S. Foreign Policy

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2006

After singing the praises of democracy all over the world, not to mention bombing, killing, and maiming people in the name of spreading it, the overwhelming win in Palestinian elections by Hamas, which U.S. officials have labeled a terrorist organization, is reminding U.S. officials that democracy sometimes produces results that are ...

Book Review: Wilson’s War

by George Leef January 1, 2006

Wilson’s War: How Woodrow Wilson’s Great Blunder Led to Hitler, Lenin, Stalin & World War II by Jim Powell (Crown Forum, 2005); 352 pages; $27.50. Although most conventional liberal historians, blinded by their adulation for politicians who embrace “progressive” causes, continue to ...

Nation-Building Is Now Job One

by Sheldon Richman December 21, 2005

“Stability operations are a core U.S. military mission that the Department of Defense shall be prepared to conduct and support. They shall be given priority comparable to combat operations....” With that sentence the Bush administration, through Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, has declared that it is formally in the nation-building business, reports ...

Abolish the Army Corps — And More

by Sheldon Richman December 1, 2005

Hurricane Katrina is the latest evidence that the Army Corps of Engineers should be abolished. It shouldn’t merely be reformed or “privatized.” Its duties shouldn’t be redistributed among other agencies. Just abolished. In its place, if government gets out of the way, will emerge a decentralized industry that will do the ...

The Troops Don’t Defend Our Freedoms

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 21, 2005

How often do we hear the claim that American troops “defend our freedoms”? The claim is made often by U.S. officials and is echoed far and wide across the land by television commentators, newspaper columnists, public-school teachers, and many others. It’s even a common assertion that emanates on Sundays from many ...

The Troops Don’t Support the Constitution

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 10, 2005

Every U.S. soldier takes an express and solemn oath to “support and defend the Constitution.” That oath, however, is a sham because the troops do not support or defend the Constitution. Instead, when it comes to war the troops follow another oath they take — to obey the orders of the ...