Foreign Policy & War

Another Phony Justification for Invading Iraq

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 10, 2003

In a 15-minute speech explaining why the American people should support the occupation of Iraq, President Bush offered another phony justification for the U.S. government’s invasion of Iraq: to fight the “war on terrorism.” There’s at least one big problem with that justification: It is the U.S. government’s own interventionist ...

An Empire for America

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2003

Shortly before his death in 1902, the great classical-liberal social philosopher Herbert Spencer penned an essay entitled “Imperialism and Slavery” that was included in a collection of his writings under the title Facts and Comments (1902). The theme of the essay was that, as Great Britain was proceeding to expand its empire around the world, it was not only enslaving ...

Bush’s WMD Flimflams

by James Bovard September 1, 2003

The Bush administration’s rush to war against Iraq was justified largely by the danger that Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction supposedly posed to the United States and to U.S. allies. In his January 28, 2003, state of the Union address, Bush denounced Saddam as “the dictator who is assembling the world’s ...

Book Review: Gulag

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2003

Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum (New York: Doubleday, 2003); 677 pages; $35. Siberia. The word has had a chilling connotation for people around the world for 200 years. Long before Lenin and the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917, the tsarist regime had used the vast area that stretches from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific and Arctic Oceans as ...

Foreign Policy for Tyros

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 22, 2003

The Declaration of Independence In 1775 at Concord and Lexington, a small group of British citizens living in America took up arms against their own government, starting the American Revolution. Other British citizens chose to support their government and its troops during the crisis. Did You Know?Did you know that the British Empire ruled ...

Speaking of Lies

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 13, 2003

Speaking of lies, we might want to remind ourselves of the one that was issued after the September 11 attacks — that those attacks were motivated by hatred for America’s “freedom and values” rather than by hatred for U.S. foreign policy. The lie is likely to become of renewed importance now that al-Qaeda is promising ...

A President Lies about War? Shocking!

by Sheldon Richman August 13, 2003

It is regarded as beyond the pale to suggest that a president of the United States would lie or otherwise play politics to win support for a war. Even President Bushs biggest critics in the Democratic Party shrink from using the L-word when they talk about the famous 16 words or the presidents other unequivocal pre-war claims about Saddam ...

Jail John Ashcroft

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 11, 2003

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema is expected to issue a critical sanction any day in the federal criminal case prosecution of Zacharias Moussaoui, who is charged with having conspired to participate in the September 11 terrorist attacks. The order arises out of the government’s refusal to comply with the judge’s order that the government produce ...

Classical Liberalism and World Peace

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 2003

Since the end of the First World War in 1918, the world has been in search of international order and global peace through the political method of international organization. The League of Nations was seen as the great hope for world peace and security. Its failure in the years between the two world wars was taken ...

Book Review: Defend America First

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 2003

Defend America First: The Antiwar Editorials of the Saturday Evening Post, 1939–1942 by Garet Garrett (Caldwell, Idaho, 2003); 285 pages; $13.95. It has now long been taken for granted by the American citizenry that the president of the United States, in his role as commander in chief, has the authority and power to send American armed forces into harm’s ...

Even with Weapons, Hussein Was No Threat

by Sheldon Richman July 23, 2003

The glaring absence of unconventional Iraqi arms should not blind us to the fact that even if Saddam Hussein had amassed chemical, biological, and — yes — even nuclear weapons, he would not have posed a threat to the American people. As offensive tools, those weapons would have been ...

Selected Bibliography from The Failure of America’s Foreign Wars

by Richard M. Ebeling July 2, 2003

The following is a bibliography of revisionist works that was included in The Failure of America’s Foreign Wars, published by The Future of Freedom Foundation in 1996. The bibliography was prepared by Richard M. Ebeling. Acton, Lord (John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton). “Nationality,” in Essays in the History of Liberty. Indianapolis, Ind.: Liberty Classics, 1985. Ambrose, ...