Freedom Daily Archive

The Abolitionist Adventure, Part 2

by Wendy McElroy August 1, 2003

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 On August 31, 1831, a Virginia slave named Nat Turner instigated a slave revolt in which a slave owner and his family were killed. Eventually, the victims of Turner’s band exceeded 50. The South exploded with fear and rage, with many blaming Northern abolitionists, especially William Lloyd Garrison. A Virginia paper called ...

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 ...

There Is No Freedom in Iraq, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 2003

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Given that U.S. forces have failed to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, U.S. officials have focused on an alternative justification for having invaded that country — to free the Iraqi people from tyranny through military force and to establish democracy after the war. Contrary to popular American opinion, however, ...

Planning and Social Engineering at Home and Abroad

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 2003

How often do we look at those around us and think to ourselves: How absurd, dangerous, misguided, or foolish is so much of their conduct? How often do we then think to ourselves: If only they would listen to what we have to say, do as we suggest, learn from our experiences, and act in ways that we know ...

Foreign Policy in One Lesson

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2003

“The art of economics,” Henry Hazlitt wrote in his classic, Economics in One Lesson, “consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.” This sensible principle has attained the status of Great Truth among ...

Kosovo Déjà Vu

by James Bovard July 1, 2003

As the world looks on at the growing mess in post-war Iraq, it is time to recall the U.S. government’s bombing campaign against Serbia. There are many similarities to the recent campaign in Iraq. President Bill Clinton’s war against Serbia epitomized his moralism, his arrogance, his refusal to respect law, and his fixation on proving his virtue by using ...

The Drug War Helps Terrorists

by Scott McPherson July 1, 2003

The U.S. government has become quite accustomed over the years to orchestrating world events to fit its own agenda. In our name, the government keeps American troops in more than half the countries of the globe, openly supports brutal regimes, and uses its intelligence agencies to manipulate the policies of foreign governments. But no matter how hard it tries, ...

The Abolitionist Adventure, Part 1

by Wendy McElroy July 1, 2003

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 “Resolved, that the compact which exists between the North and the South is a covenant with death and an agreement with hell — involving both parties in atrocious criminality — and should be immediately annulled.” This resolution, passed by the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, was written by the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. ...

Book Review: To Destroy a City

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 2003

To Destroy a City: Strategic Bombing and Its Human Consequences in World War II by Hermann Knell (Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2003); 373 pages; $32.50. On the night of July 27, 1943, 728 Allied bombers arrived over the German city of Hamburg at one o’clock in the morning. Ten thousand tons of high explosives and incendiary bombs were dropped on ...

The Rot at the Center of the Empire

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 2003

The announcement that the U.S. government had relied on fake and false evidence in the attempt to secure approval of its invasion of Iraq was, by and large, met by a collective yawn from the American people, especially the members of Congress. Its just one more example of the depths of moral depravity to which our nation has fallen. Think ...

War and the Bankruptcy of the Bush Administration

by Richard M. Ebeling June 1, 2003

The war on terrorism and the war on Iraq have become the defining characteristics of the Bush administration and the Republican Party in general. Indeed, without the current war hysteria, President Bush and the Republicans have nothing to stand for and run on in next year’s congressional and presidential elections. Think back to August 2001, just a few weeks before ...

Lying about War

by Sheldon Richman June 1, 2003

Can we believe the government? For some people, there is no pretense of objectivity about the question. Republicans have no problem doubting the word of a Democrat president, and Democrats are skeptical about Republican chief executives. But that’s politics. For others, it’s a blasphemous question no matter who’s in office. Some would ...