Stupidity or Plan? by Scott Horton July 1, 2013 Are America’s disasters abroad a result of stupidity or some elaborate plan? An observer of modern U.S. foreign policy can be torn on that one. It makes sense that generals, contractors, and other national-security state types will invent and follow a deliberate policy of divide and rule, as well as to create crises to move on to the next big job. But if one looks closely, it does begin to seem that perhaps narrow-minded, shortsighted stupidity is a better overall explanation of the causes and results of the U.S. government’s recent behavior in other people’s countries. George W. Bush’s unprovoked invasion of Iraq in 2003 destabilized the entire region and created plenty of new problems for his successor to deal with, but Barack Obama has taken every opportunity to only make matters worse. For example, in Libya it appears the main reason the Obama administration took America to war on the side of Islamist rebels against Qaddafi in 2011 was that the empire ...
Worshiping a False Idol: Why Money Is No God by Dave Hebert November 12, 2013 A few weeks ago I was out to lunch with a group of friends when the subject of money came up. One person at the table said that we should replace the phrase “In God We Trust” on currency with “This Is Your God.” To my surprise, there was very little pushback to that and even a few people nodded at the wisdom contained in that statement. Setting aside the issue of whether or not references to God should be on our currency, my friend’s statement speaks volumes on the misunderstanding of the role of money and the pursuit of profit within society. My good friend and colleague Alex Salter has done an excellent job of discussing the role of money and its creation for those interested in reading about it. But to give a quick, one-sentence summary of the role of money in society — money serves as a common medium of exchange that greatly ...
Book Review: Jingo Democrats by Matthew Harwood July 1, 2013 The Emergency State: America’s Pursuit of Absolute Security at All Costs by David C. Unger (New York: Penguin Press, 2012), 368 pages. During a meeting on the Bosnian crisis in the early 1990s, Madeleine Albright, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, furiously asked Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “What’s the point of having this superb military you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?” In his memoir, Powell described his shock at Albright’s callousness. “I thought I would have an aneurysm. American GIs were not toy soldiers to be moved around on some sort of global game board.” While Powell’s reaction to Albright’s question seems divorced from reality and history — American servicemen have been the means to an imperial end for America’s foreign-policy establishment since at least the Spanish-American War — the assumptions operating behind her question reflect the American foreign policy establishment’s deep faith in its own righteousness to risk its own ...
Preventing War with Iran Is Top Priority by Sheldon Richman November 13, 2013 The best way to keep Iran from building a nuclear bomb is for the Obama administration and its nuclear client Israel to stop threatening the Islamic Republic. Look at recent history. In 2003 Iraq’s government had no nuclear weapons (or other WMD). The U.S. government invaded, and before long Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was hanging from a rope. In 2011 Libya’s ...
TGIF: Property and Force: A Reply to Matt Bruenig by Sheldon Richman November 22, 2013 Last week’s TGIF, “One Moral Standard for All,” drew a curious response from Matt Bruenig, a contributor to the Demos blog, Policy Shop. In reading his article, “Libertarians Are Huge Fans of Initiating Force,” one should bear in mind that the aim of my article was not to defend the libertarian philosophy, but to show ...
Iran: It’s Not about Nuclear Weapons by Sheldon Richman November 26, 2013 If you want to understand the U.S.-Iran controversy, know this: It is not about nuclear weapons. You’re thinking: Of course it’s about nuclear weapons. Everyone says so. Well, not everyone does. But it isn’t a numbers game. As William O. Beeman points out in the Huffington Post, There is a strange irony in President ...
Unilaterally and Immediately Lift the Cuban Embargo by Jacob G. Hornberger December 13, 2013 Much ado is being made about President Obama’s decision to shake hands with Cuban President Raul Castro at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service. People are wondering whether the handshake could be the start of a thaw in the fifty-year state of hostility between Cuba and the United States. To no one’s surprise, Cold War anti-communist dead-enders are objecting to Obama’s handshake, ...
Egypt’s National-Security State Rears Its Ugly Head by Jacob G. Hornberger December 30, 2013 Of all the ironies, the Egyptian people today are experiencing the wisdom of an American military man who served as president more than 50 years ago. That president was Dwight Eisenhower, who, before being elected president, had served as the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in World War II. In his 1961 Farewell Address, Ike delivered one of the ...
Biting the Cultural Imperialism that Feeds You by Wendy McElroy January 3, 2014 On November 21, the International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA) was introduced in Congress for the fourth time since 2007. I-VAWA seeks to embed the prevention of gender violence and the empowerment of women and girls into American foreign policy. In 2010, while serving as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton declared such global empowerment to be a “central ...
El Mal del Estado de la Seguridad Nacional, Parte 10 by Jacob G. Hornberger April 9, 2012 The following is a Spanish translation of “The Evil of the National Security State” by Jacob G. Hornberger. The translation was done for FFF on a complimentary basis by a FFF supporter in Spain. Please share it with your Spanish-speaking friends. Parte 1 | Parte 2 | Parte 3 | Parte 4 |
Gabriel Kolko Revisited, Part 1: Kolko at Home by Joseph R. Stromberg September 1, 2013 Part 1 | Part 2 An earlier generation of libertarians was interested in Gabriel Kolko, a historian of the Left. Who was he? Born in 1932 in Paterson, NJ, historian Gabriel Kolko studied at Kent State, the University of Wisconsin, and Harvard University (PhD: 1962). From 1970 until his retirement he taught history at York University in Toronto, ...
Failure, Failure Everywhere by Jacob G. Hornberger January 14, 2014 Those of us living today have been accorded the opportunity to witness the manifest failure of the America’s welfare-warfare state, as evidenced by three of the most important welfare-warfare programs of the federal government: the “war on poverty,” the “war on drugs,” and military empire and foreign interventionism. The war on poverty was declared by President Lyndon Johnson, a man ...
