War on Terrorism

American Foreign Policy — The Turning Point, 1898–1919 Part 2

by Ralph Raico March 1, 1995

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 The year 1898 was a landmark in American history. It was the year America went to war with Spain — our first engagement with a foreign enemy in the dawning age of modern warfare. Aside from a few ...

American Foreign Policy — The Turning Point, 1898–1919, Part 1

by Ralph Raico February 1, 1995

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 With the end of the twentieth century rapidly approaching, this is a time to look back and gain some perspective on where we stand as a nation. Were the Founding Fathers somehow to return, they would find it impossible to recognize our political ...

Compounding the Somali Tragedy

by Doug Bandow August 1, 1993

The post-Cold War is proving to be a disorderly place. Conflicts restrained by the superpowers are now breaking out all over — in Africa, the Balkans, and the former Soviet Union. More wars could eventually explode in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. Tragic those these conflicts are, they need not ...

The Most Dreaded Enemy of Liberty

by James Madison August 1, 1993

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, ...

Players and Pawns: The Persian Gulf War

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 1991

For the greater part of this century, the United States government has plundered, looted, and terrorized the American people through the Internal Revenue Service. It has surreptitiously stolen people's income and savings through the Federal Reserve System. It has brutally enforced — through fines and imprisonment — rules and regulations governing people's peaceful economic activities. In a very real ...

Some Other Costs of War

by Robert Higgs July 1, 1991

War always increases State power over the economy, and the Gulf war is no exception. Thus one of President Bush's first actions was, by executive fiat, to give himself total control over any corporation or industry, if he deems it necessary for the war effort. He can now requisition what he wants, without regard ...

We’d Rather Fight

by Lannon Stafford July 1, 1991

We're a peace-loving people — everybody says so. Well, maybe not everybody, but we sure say so. Hardly a week goes by without one of our national leaders referring to Americans as a peace-loving people. What can they be thinking of? In the past fifty years, we have fought four major wars; that is, wars that ...

The Vietnam War

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 1990

Being on the debate team at Virginia Military Institute during the 1970-71 school year was not easy. It was during this period of time that the collegiate protests against the Vietnam War were at their height. I will never forget the angry stares and outbursts when we participated, in our VMI uniforms, in debate ...

Conscription

by Daniel Webster November 1, 1990

This bill indeed is less undisguised in its object, and less direct in its means, than some of the measures proposed. It is an attempt to exercise the power of forcing the free men of this country into the ranks of an army, for the general purposes of war, under color of a military service. It is ...

Dying for Freedom in Panama

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 1990

Many brave people died as a result of the recent invasion of Panama. The United States government claimed that these lives were lost in the defense of freedom. Unfortunately, this is untrue. It is important first to observe that just as there have been two types of economic systems in the United States (free enterprise of the ...

War for Peace in the Middle East

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 1990

American politicians and bureaucrats have provided four reasons for the road the war on which they have embarked in the Middle East. Let us closely examine each of these reasons. We are first told that military intervention in the Middle East is necessary to ensure that the Emir of Kuwait (and his family) is restored to power and that the ...