Foreign Policy & War

Mistaken about Motives

by Sheldon Richman September 23, 2001

It does no honor to the thousands of innocent victims of the September 11 terrorism attacks to fool ourselves about the motives behind that mass murder and destruction. The Bush administration says incessantly that the terrorism was an attack on civilization: freedom, prosperity, self-government. Government officials, pundits, and cartoonists insist that the terrorists’ intent is ...

The Case for an America First Foreign Policy

by Ralph Raico September 15, 2001

(Excerpted from The Failure of America’s Foreign Wars, published by The Future of Freedom Foundation in 1996) For most of our history, America First was the foreign policy of the United States. The record is laid out by the great historian Charles A. Beard in A Foreign Policy for America, published in 1940. In our dealings overseas, we ...

A Time for Calm Reflection and Adherence to Law

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 15, 2001

The Founders of our nation understood two principles: first, that the greatest threat to the freedom and well-being of the citizenry lies not with some foreign enemy but rather with one’s own government, and, second, that this threat is greatest during times of crisis. That is why our ancestors refused to institute a government of ...

The Hypocritical Ban on Travel to Cuba

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 2, 2001

A conflict between the Bush administration and Congress over travel to Cuba once again brings to light the hypocritical policies of the U.S. government. President Bush has called for stricter enforcement of the 39-year-old economic embargo against Cuba, and the U.S. Treasury Department is willingly complying by stepping up efforts to punish Americans who ...

What Are We Fighting For?

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 2, 2001

Long before the attacks on New York and Washington, The Future of Freedom Foundation repeatedly warned that the U.S. government's interventionist foreign policy resented significant risks to the American people. See, for example, "Terrorism or War"(June 2000) by Jacob G. Hornberger, "Breeding Terrorism" (December 1999) by Sheldon Richman, and "Terrorism, Anti-Terrorism, and American Foreign ...

Classical Liberalism in the 21st Century: War and Peace

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2001

THE HISTORY OF MANKIND is a history of war, conquest, and oppression. From ancient times to the modern era, peace and freedom have been rare occurrences in the sweep of human events. When peace has prevailed for extended periods of time, it has invariably occurred under the yoke of despotic ...

Introduction to The Failure of America’s Foreign Wars

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2001

(Excerpted from The Failure of America’s Foreign Wars, published by The Future of Freedom Foundation in 1996) America, too, had its global calling, according to the social engineers. America should not merely be a “beacon of freedom” that would be, through its allegiance to its traditional principles of individual liberty and a free, self-governing society, ...

The Colombia Quagmire, Part 3

by Doug Bandow September 1, 2001

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 IN SEPTEMBER BRAZIL INITIATED Operation Cobra, with some 12,000 personnel, to improve border security. “The whole world was talking about the Colombia Plan,” explained Mauro Sposito, head of the federal police effort: “We had to do something.” Local officials also worry about an influx of refugees. Brazil is concerned not only ...

Reexamining the “Good War”

by Richard M. Ebeling August 2, 2001

The Second World War is considered America’s “good war” of the 20th century. The First World War is considered the tragic war. President Woodrow Wilson intended the war to “make the world safe for democracy,” but instead it generated the rise of communism, fascism, and Nazism. The Korean War cost the ...

A Different Look at World War II

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2001

Prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, although many people supported giving aid to England, most Americans opposed entry into the war against the Nazis. Americans still remembered the ravages of World War I (“the war to end all wars”), when American soldiers were drafted and sent ...

The Colombia Quagmire, Part 2

by Doug Bandow August 1, 2001

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 AMERICAN-TRAINED SOLDIERS often serve with and even become paramilitaries. In one celebrated case, heavily decorated Lt. Carlos Acosta joined the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia and executed government investigators. Reported his brother, “He used to say that a soldier in Colombia has to fight not only the guerrillas but also ...

A Negotiated Surrender for Japan Was Another Alternative

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 2, 2001

In his Memorial Day article, “Harry Truman’s A-Bombing of Japan Left Intact Ethics and Law,” which was in response to my article, “A-Bombings of Japan Were Acts of Cowardice and Criminality,” Col. Kevin Winters overlooks the importance of Roosevelt’s and Truman’s demand that the Japanese “unconditionally surrender” to Allied forces (