Foreign Policy & War

The Price of Liberty and the Cost of War

by Jeffrey A. Singer July 1, 2002

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, ...

The World’s Poor Lose a Friend

by Sheldon Richman June 1, 2002

On May 2 the best friend of the world’s poor died at home in London. Peter Bauer was 86 and had just been named winner of the first Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, awarded by the Cato Institute. Never heard of Peter Bauer? That’s because his analysis of poverty ...

9/11 and Pearl Harbor

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 22, 2002

Immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attack, some people compared that attack to the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on 12/7/1941. It now seems that the comparisons might be more appropriate than anyone could have imagined. Prior to Pearl Harbor, the Roosevelt administration ignored increasing signs that a surprise attack somewhere in the Pacific was ...

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 ...