Month: July 2014

The abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers is a contemptible crime. But the Israeli government’s response has been to engage in a violent crime spree of its own.

When someone commits a violent crime against another person, the perpetrator should be held accountable. Not the perpetrator’s family or roommates, not those of the same race or nationality, not those with similar political views, not those who live in the same geographical area. Collective punishment is immoral. It is a war crime under the Geneva Convention and it constitutes aggressive violence that all who care about individual rights should abhor. But in response to the deaths of these teenagers, the Israeli government chose to engage in it.

Israeli soldiers demolished the homes of Marwan al-Qawasmeh and Amer Abu Aisheh, suspects in the abduction and killing of the Israeli teenagers. This punishment was inflicted without trial. The demolitions terrorized innocent family members and neighbors and damaged their property. According to Reuters, “Before blowing up the house, soldiers shattered the windows and threw sofas to the ground. Toilets and sinks, along with every step in the staircase, were smashed with a sledgehammer. Sugar, yogurt and bread were thrown across the kitchen floor.”

This gratuitous destruction didn’t help apprehend the suspects, nor did it provide restitution to the families of the victims. This is senseless destruction that terrorizes a neighborhood and makes the world less prosperous.

Continue reading “Collective Punishment and Israeli State Terror”

This July 4, the fireworks won’t just be in celebration of Independence Day. There will undoubtedly be fireworks in cities throughout the Middle East, as the region, engulfed in violence, further explodes. The US military and US taxdollars are already deeply entangled in Middle Easterners’ lives (and deaths), and President Obama is under pressure to get further involved in the wars in Iraq and Syria. But what advice would our nation’s founders give the 44th president this July 4?

The Founding Fathers, who revolted against a foreign power, were vehemently opposed to getting involved in military adventures overseas. George Washington cautioned our new nation against the “mischiefs of foreign intrigue.” James Madison said the US should steer clear of unnecessary wars. Thomas Jefferson said, “If there be one principle more deeply written than any other in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.” Secretary of State John Quincy Adams warned in 1821 that America should not go abroad in search of "monsters to destroy" – for such folly would destroy "her own spirit."

But this Independence Day marks yet another year of seemingly endless US involvement in wars. Despite promising the American public that US troops would leave Afghanistan by the end of this year, President Obama is poised to negotiate a continued US troop presence with the next Afghan president (if the Afghans can figure out who that is!). Current president Karzai has explicitly rejected this decision. Karzai has insisted that the US-led invasion has made his country even worse than it was under the repressive Taliban, and lamented that "Afghans died in a war that’s not ours."

Continue reading “On July 4, Be a Patriot: Stop Another US Military Intervention in Iraq”

At Mises.org, Jeff Deist and Justin Raimondo discuss the early history of the modern libertarian movement, Justin’s time working with Murray Rothbard on libertarian strategy, and the chances for developing a broad new anti-war coalition.

Listen to the interview here, or download as mp3. Or watch below on YouTube.

The following letter by GOP Congressman Walter Jones of North Carolina was written in support of an editorial published in the Greenwood Commonwealth.

To the editor:

I write in agreement with the following statement from the June 20 editorial in the Greenwood Commonwealth titled "Right criticism, wrong critic": "Former Vice President Dick Cheney isn’t the best person to criticize President Obama’s foreign policy, or the lack thereof."

The editorial went on to quote from a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed piece by Vice President Cheney and his daughter, which described President Obama’s policies by saying "[r]arely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many." I too am opposed to many of the foreign policy decisions that President Obama has made. However, it is the height of hypocrisy for Dick Cheney to pen those words, because it is in large part a result of his misguidance in the early 2000’s that "so many" Americans – 4,478 – and "so many" Iraqis – estimates range up to 650,000 – lost their lives in an unnecessary conflict. Because of my vote to authorize the Iraq War, I have written over 11,000 letters to family members of the service men and women who died. While at this time, President Bush and Vice President Cheney have publicly stated that they will not apologize for the unnecessary war, it is my hope that they will do so in the future.

I find the piece "Why Iraq Was a Mistake" that Marine Lieutenant General Greg Newbold wrote for Time in April 2006 to be particularly appropriate. "From 2000 until October 2002, I was a Marine Corps lieutenant general and director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff," wrote Newbold. "After 9/11, I was a witness and therefore a party to the actions that led us to the invasion of Iraq – an unnecessary war. Inside the military family, I made no secret of my view that the zealots’ rationale for war made no sense." He went on to say that "[w]hat we are living with now is the consequences of successive policy failures" and listed one of those failures as "the distortion of intelligence in the buildup to the war" – the same distortion of intelligence in which Dick Cheney played a vital role.

The US spent over eight years and $800 billion to rebuild Iraq and train and equip their military, only to see that investment disintegrate in the face of opposition from ISIS rebels. Expecting more American lives and more US taxpayer dollars to yield a different result now is the definition of insanity. At a time when America is plagued by domestic problems and over $17 trillion in debt, we simply cannot afford to repeat our past mistakes. It is time for the Iraqi people to stand up and fight for their own future.

Sincerely,

Walter B. Jones
Member of Congress (NC-3)

I should not badmouth Stratfor. Granted, their star has dimmed a tad in the last few years, but they email me news articles every day or two gratis so who am I to quibble.

I especially love the cozy, your one of us, insider tone of the articles. It may be ridiculous, but who cares? It’s fun for the space of a few hundred words to pretend you’re a select recipient of special intelligence.

So when I received George Friedman’s The United States Has Unfinished Business in Ukraine and Iraq I read it, because who does not want to know what it is we need to finish so we can be done. Mr. Friedman is Stratfor’s founder, so if anybody there would know, it should be him. Unfortunately, his missive was a disappointment.

The title is not accurate. Mr. Friedman is not suggesting we finish up a few tasks and move on. Rather, he is saying we should do less, but do it smarter, forever. A departure from the usual neocon ethos of do more and do it stupider. Unfortunately, doing anything is doing too much, but then again, we’re all Bourbons now in what we learn and forget.

So, do we have a precedent for losing a war the "smart" way? We sure do. It’s called Viet Nam. We put the word "smart" in quotes because nobody ever planned to lose our ten-year South East Asian field-training exercise and genius would have been to have never fought it in the first place.

Continue reading “Losing a War the Right Way”

Bipartisan criticism of the Export-Import Bank is all the rage these days, after new Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy spoke publicly about his intention to end its very existence. From the standpoint of a libertarian, the criticism and the shedding of light on such a blatant corporate welfare scheme should be welcome news. Even a lot of mainstream media outlets have latched on to this populist issue du jour. Fox Business’s Stossel devoted an entire hour-long segment to the topic, presenting guests on both sides of the debate, with John Stossel attempting to rebut the ones who favor reauthorization of the bank. I repeat: all of this new anti-Ex-Im fervor is extremely pleasing, but it leaves this libertarian, and should leave truly reform-minded Americans, hungry for much bigger fish in need of frying.

It is not my intention to remake the case against Ex-IM It has been well-made over and over again since McCarthy’s remarks. Those who continue to favor the bank’s existence have shown their true colors. And many of these remaining supporters are no surprise. To this crowd, any measure that stands to bolster the American War Machine is good, no matter the cost. These folks are almost not worth engaging in debate. Everyone has at least one of these creatures in their lives. You know: The ones who don’t really need to hear specific details about a government program, as long as it seems vaguely useful in killing foreigners and securing the oil underneath their feet.

No, the far more troubling types are those who loudly slam Ex-IM as crony capitalism, yet can’t bring themselves to critique the biggest and most deadly government-corporate partnership: War. These people will parade through the television and talk radio circuits harping on the failed, government-backed, 300-million dollar lizard farm, but wouldn’t be caught dead criticizing multi-billion dollar foreign wars.

Continue reading “Don’t Get Too Excited Over the Ex-Im Debate and the ‘Reform Conservative’ Crowd”