Daily Articles

The Civilian or the Soldier? An Answer to Critics

by Scott McPherson February 2, 2004

In response to my January 12 commentary, “Enola Gay, Just War, and Mass Murder,” a number of people wrote me to complain about the following statement: “Can the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima be justified on the grounds that many thousands of U.S. troops would have been killed in an invasion? ”Certainly not. A ...

Are We Electing a Military Ruler or a President?

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 2, 2004

Amidst all the hubbub among the Democratic Party candidates for president over who supported President Bush’s invasion of Iraq and who didn’t, have you noticed that not one of them has brought up the Constitution and, specifically, the constitutional requirement that the president secure a congressional declaration of ...

Sanctions: The Cruel and Brutal War against the Iraqi People, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 By 1996, an increasing number of people were speaking out against the sanctions against Iraq, which motivated U.S. officials to embrace a diplomatic fig leaf that would protect them from adverse public opinion while, at the same time, enabling them to continue their cruel and brutal policy against the Iraqi people. That was when ...

Drugs and Schooling: The Meaning of State Education

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2004

When an opponent declares, “I will not come over to your side,” I calmly say, “Your child belongs to us already.” —Adolf Hitler What do government schooling and the mislabeled “war on drugs” have in common? Both are primary mechanisms of social engineering, each designed to subordinate ...

Iraqi Sanctions and American Intentions: Blameless Carnage? Part 2

by James Bovard February 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 While Pentagon officials bluntly admitted in 1991 that sanctions aimed to punish the Iraqi people, candor evaporated as the death toll rose. The State Department’s website announced in June 1999, Sanctions are not intended to harm the people of Iraq. That is why the sanctions regime has always specifically exempted food and medicine. This ...

I’ll Take Free Choice

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2004

Intellectuals who disdain the common man’s freedom never run out of rationalizations for government control. In a recent New York Times op-ed touting his book, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, psychology professor Barry Schwartz criticized political reforms aimed at expanding choice. He argued that “for many ...

The Perils of Nation-Building, Part 2

by Doug Bandow February 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 Giving up on expansive nation-building ambitions is the only sensible course of action, for there are few successful models upon which to draw for Iraq. America’s obvious successes are Germany and Japan, yet neither looks like Iraq: both comprised ethnically homogenous populations, possessed democratic traditions, and sported an educated, professional class. The U.S. effort was ...

A Lesson from Vietnam, Part 2

by Wendy McElroy February 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 With American encouragement, Diem defied the deadline for a national election. This signaled the beginning of a struggle to the death with Hanoi. Until then, the North had waited to see whether Ho could be voted into power. The communists themselves were brutal and had violated various terms of the ...

Gun Control: A Poor Substitute for Good Government

by Scott McPherson February 1, 2004

Following the horrific mass murder of 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, in the spring of 1999, the anti-gun Left went into overdrive to pass further restrictions on Americans’ Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Their argument was that without access to guns ...

Book Review: Guns, Freedom, and Terrorism

by George Leef February 1, 2004

Guns, Freedom, and Terrorism by Wayne LaPierre (Nashville, Tenn.: WND Books, 2003); 246 pages; $24.99. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Nowhere is that phrase proven to be true more often than in the unending battle between those in our society who believe that the way to reduce violence is to take away from individual persons the ...

The Hypocrisy of Powell’s Lecture

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 30, 2004

Well, no one can ever say that the retired army general and U.S. secretary of state, Colin Powell, doesn’t have gall. In Moscow, Powell criticized the Russian government for “certain developments in Russian politics and foreign policy in recent months” which “have given us pause.” In an obvious attempt to extend the world policeman’s ...

Need a Ride? Try Freedom and the Free Market

by Scott McPherson January 30, 2004

The promulgators of government control are no longer content to fabricate rights to such things as education, health care, and a smoke-free workplace. Now they’re even demanding that people have a right to a taxicab. In the process, they’re also deflecting attention away from the negative consequences of ...