Foreign Policy & War

America’s Pro-Terrorism Foreign-Aid Program

by James Bovard May 3, 2002

President Bush recently announced that he plans to boost American foreign aid by 50 percent — to more than $15 billion a year. While Bush’s proclamation was widely praised as a sign of American generosity, little attention is being paid to the hypocrisy behind his policies. Unfortunately, American foreign aid could result in new chains ...

Cant and the Middle East

by Sheldon Richman May 2, 2002

In the world of diplomacy, and politics generally, words are not chosen for their correspondence to the truth. They are chosen for their power to advance some purpose. That’s why most of what we hear is cant. Nowhere is this rule more faithfully observed than in connection with the Middle East. When President Bush says Israeli Prime Minister ...

America’s Hypocritical, Counterproductive Foreign Aid

by James Bovard May 1, 2002

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION has been triumphantly shutting down and seizing the assets of one Muslim charity after another. In some cases, such as that of the Holy Land Foundation, the evidence appears based largely on accusations from informants who overheard speeches seven or eight years ago. In other cases, the Treasury Department is releasing ...

Jimmy Carter’s Freedom

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2002

Jimmy Carter’s remarks during his recent trip to Cuba are a perfect reflection of the muddled mindset that characterizes both Democrats and Republicans when it comes to the subject of freedom. Carter raised the importance of four aspects of liberty during his trip—political liberty, civil liberty, economic, and educational ...

War and the State: The Legacy of Randolph Bourne

by Sheldon Richman April 1, 2002

AS I POINTED OUT in last month’s Freedom Daily (“War Is the Health of the State,” March 2002), Randolph Bourne was an American intellectual during the Progressive era who found himself isolated as President Woodrow Wilson conspired to take the United States into World War I. He understood war to be illiberal by ...

World War I and the Suppression of Dissent, Part 1

by Wendy McElroy April 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 THE YEARS SURROUNDING Americas involvement in World War I were a watershed for how the United States treated foreigners within its borders during wartime. Immigrants had flooded the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. When the United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, almost a third of ...

State Terrorism and Bush’s War

by James Bovard March 1, 2002

ON OCTOBER 18, President George W. Bush declared, “So long as anybody’s terrorizing established governments, there needs to be a war.” Bush thereby signaled his acceptance of the legitimacy of almost every government in the world. Bush’s war on terrorism is a moral crusade. This is clear from his constant references to “the evil ones” and ...

What Makes a Nation Evil?

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 10, 2002

With President Bush's characterization of Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as an “axis of evil,” an obvious question arises: What makes a nation evil? Is it the evil nature of the ruler in a nation? Or is it the evil nature of the government itself? If it's the government, does that mean that everyone who ...

Raining on the Victory Parade

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2002

WOULD SOMEONE MIND telling me whether the war in Afghanistan is over or not? U.S. government officials seem to be proclaiming victory. But if the war has been won, then why is the U.S. government continuing to bomb Afghanistan, conduct that everyone agrees continues to kill innocent civilians, albeit as unfortunate “collateral damage”? If the replacement of the murderous and abusive ...

Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2002

War has many bad consequences. One of the worst is the stigmatizing of dissent. Yet sometimes dissent is the only thing that stands between us and catastrophe. According to the U.S. government, the mission of the current war was to root out the terror network of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and their Taliban support in Afghanistan. So what did the ...

Freedom and Security in America and around the World

by Richard M. Ebeling February 1, 2002

THE SHOCKING AND tragic events of September 11, 2001, have affected not only the United States but the rest of the world as well. This impact, however, is not limited to an increased awareness of the dangers from networks of international terrorists. Nor is it limited to a heightened awareness of ...

Declare War before Waging War, Part 2

by Doug Bandow February 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 Naturally, presidents and their aides have been creative in coming up with reasons to short-circuit the Constitution’s clear requirement. Those who thus torture the Constitution include many conservatives who normally proclaim the importance of “original intent. ” Except when they want to empower politicians to do what they want. One ...