Freedom Daily Archive

The Soviet Union’s Continuing Influence on America

by James Bovard July 26, 2011

It has been almost 20 years since the Soviet Union officially dissolved. While the nation of that name no longer exists, its legacy continues influencing political thought and practices in many places in the world. The glorification of the Soviet Union by American intellectuals from the 1920s onwards helped spur the creation of federal programs that continue plaguing the ...

The Road to the Permanent Warfare State, Part 3

by Gregory Bresiger July 20, 2011

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 |Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 |Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 |Part 12 |Part 13 Why did the United States, in 1947, suddenly decide that it could no longer ...

Should Social Security Be Saved?

by Laurence M. Vance July 18, 2011

Speaking at a conference for a finance trade association in Chicago, former President George W. Bush said that the biggest failure of his administration was not privatizing Social Security. In 2001 the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security was formed. This bipartisan, 16-member commission issued a report that included three reform proposals, all of which allowed workers to voluntarily transfer ...

Understanding the U.S. Torture State

by Anthony Gregory July 15, 2011

The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse edited by Marjorie Cohn (New York University Press: 2011), 342 pages. When I was a child in Reagan’s America, a common theme in Cold War rhetoric was that the Soviets tortured people and detained them without cause, extracted phony confessions through cruel violence, did the unspeakable to detainees who were helpless ...

Lessons from the Middle East, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 30, 2011

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Among the many ways that our American ancestors viewed the role of government in a free society that were so different from modern-day Americans was how they regarded militarism and a standing army. Our ancestors disdained the concept of professional armies because they viewed them as antithetical to freedom. Keep in ...

Stay out of Libya

by Sheldon Richman June 28, 2011

It was good to see that the Pentagon was unenthusiastic about military intervention in Libya. But that didn’t prevent President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from plunging headlong into the civil war raging there. Obama’s entry into the civil war can be criticized on many levels: the mission as explained is incoherent; Congress was not asked for a ...

America’s Sham War on Terrorism

by James Bovard June 26, 2011

Almost a decade after the 9/11 attacks, the war on terrorism continues chugging along. Despite the trillions of dollars that the U.S. government has spent supposedly in response to 9/11, few people have raised questions about the fundamental definition of what the United States is fighting. The U.S. government’s definition of terrorism almost guarantees that the so-called war on ...

The Road to the Permanent Warfare State, Part 2

by Gregory Bresiger June 20, 2011

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 |Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 |Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 |Part 12 |Part 13 Kennan’s policy was based on the idea that we must “regard the Soviet ...

The Continuing Economic Depression, Part 2

by William L. Anderson June 18, 2011

Part 1 | Part 2 Contrary to popular belief, economic downturns in a free-market economy do not linger or continue for many years. The Great Depression was “great” because government policies made sure that the calamity became ingrained in American life for a decade. One can only hope that the present economic difficulties in the United States will not ...

The Roots of Infamy at Pearl Harbor

by George Leef June 15, 2011

Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy by Percy L. Greaves Jr., edited by Bettina Bien Greaves (Auburn, Ala., Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2010). December 7, 1941 — a day that will live in infamy. Franklin D. Roosevelt was right about that. The attack by the Japanese Navy on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor certainly was infamous. ...

Lessons from the Middle East, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 30, 2011

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The widespread revolts against dictatorships in the Middle East hold valuable lessons for the American people. Time will tell whether Americans focus on those lessons and heed them or simply turn away and ignore them. The lessons involve principles of liberty, democracy, and the role of government in a ...

Autocracy on the Run in the Middle East

by Sheldon Richman May 28, 2011

No lover of liberty can be anything but inspired by the Egyptian people’s peaceful toppling of the U.S.-armed and -financed dictator, Hosni Mubarak, last winter. The “pharaoh” is gone. Will another rise in his place? That is the question. Mubarak’s exit followed on the heels of a similar change in neighboring Tunisia. Revolutionary fervor has been spreading across the Arab ...