Trade Wars and U.S. Foreign Policy by Jacob G. Hornberger January 5, 2010 For those who think that the U.S. Empire is good, holy, sacrosanct, and above reproach when dealing with foreigners, here is a little bit of reality for you. Last September the Obama administration suddenly imposed an enormous 35 percent import fee on tires imported from China. The fee was apparently a sop that President ...
Hornberger’s Blog, January 2010 by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2010 Friday, January 29, 2010 The Constitution Doesn’t Give Rights to Anyone, including Americans by Jacob G. Hornberger An interesting and revealing exchange regarding rights and the Constitution took place recently between defense attorney Bruce Fein, who spoke at FFF’s 2008 conference “Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties,” and Guantanamo military prosecutor Edward White. Fein is representing a ...
Fight Cuban Tyranny with American Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger December 31, 2009 Once again, the U.S. government’s 112-year obsession with controlling Cuba rears its ugly head. This time, it involves the arrest by Cuban authorities of an American subcontractor who works for a company named “Development Alternatives, Inc.” According to the New York Times, (see here and here) “the company won ...
Denial on Terrorism and Foreign Policy by Jacob G. Hornberger December 30, 2009 Do you ever wonder why it is that so many Americans steadfastly refuse to acknowledge that our nation’s terrorist woes are rooted in U.S. foreign policy? Why not simply acknowledge the obvious rather than come up with cockamamie explanations for the terrorist strikes, such as “They hate us because we’re Americans and free” or ...
Terrorism Is a Cost of Empire by Jacob G. Hornberger December 28, 2009 To justify the federal government’s massive post-9/11 infringements on civil liberties, the proponents of Big Government have sometimes said, “There hasn’t been another major terrorist attack on the United States since 9/11. ” I have responded with the following: “But if there had been another major terrorist attack, you Big Government advocates would be using ...
Pakistan and the Fable of the Hornets by Jacob G. Hornberger December 21, 2009 In December 2001 — three months after the 9/11 attacks — I wrote an article entitled “A Foreign-Policy Primer for Children: The Fable of the Hornets.” The article provides a good description of what is now taking place in Pakistan, in response to the CIA’s drone assassinations in that country. In the fable, Oscar the policeman provoked a crisis ...
Government Welfare vs. Private Charity by Jacob G. Hornberger December 18, 2009 With Christmas approaching, perhaps this would be a good time to remind ourselves of the moral difference between government welfare and private charity. Government welfare is based on the force of government. The IRS forces people to send in a portion of their income. If they refuse, the IRS goes after them. It files liens ...
Spending and Debt in Greece and the U.S. by Jacob G. Hornberger December 17, 2009 Greece is in a severe economic crisis arising from excessive government spending and ever-increasing government debt. Reflecting concerns of a possible default in the payment of Greece’s bonds, the credit-rating agency Fitch has downgraded the rating of Greek debt. To deal with the crisis, the Greek government has proposed severe cuts in government spending. Wait ...
Which Comes First: Interventionism or Terrorism? by Jacob G. Hornberger December 16, 2009 Following up on my last two blogs regarding the important debate over what has motivated people to commit terrorist acts against the United States, two questions arise: First, why does the U.S. government persist in his claim that the terrorists are motivated by hatred for American freedom and values when the overwhelming weight of the ...
Why Are U.S. Troops Being Targeted? by Jacob G. Hornberger December 15, 2009 A friend of mine telephoned me about yesterday’s blog and made an excellent point about the five young American men who were recently arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of conspiring to kill U.S. soldiers. My friend pointed out that those young men traveled more than 7,000 miles to enter a foreign country allegedly to ...
More Blowback from U.S. Foreign Policy by Jacob G. Hornberger December 14, 2009 Some people are befuddled over the 5 young American men who allegedly traveled to Pakistan to take up arms against American troops. The men have been described by high school friends as friendly, ordinary students of Muslim faith who bore no religious prejudice against Christians. People who know the men are shocked to learn that they had apparently pursued ...
DINA and CIA Assassinations by Jacob G. Hornberger December 11, 2009 Two of my blog posts this week have caused me to ponder the similarities of the mind-sets of the people in Augusto Pinochet’s secret intelligence force (known as DINA) and those in George W. Bush’s and Barack Obama’s CIA. One blog post was about the CIA’s use of drone attacks to assassinate people in Pakistan and the ...
