Killing and Dying in Iraq for Nothing by Jacob G. Hornberger March 24, 2008 At the five-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the U.S. government has hit another milestone — 4,000 U.S. soldiers dead. And what have those soldiers died for? They died for the same thing that 58,000 soldiers died for in Vietnam — nothing. Well, okay, not exactly nothing: (1) They died to oust a dictator from office that U.S. officials ...
Immigration Enforcement and Sex by Jacob G. Hornberger March 21, 2008 U.S. officials often look down their noses at the corruption in the Mexican government, especially with respect to the war on drugs, where drug laws have long enriched the coffers of Mexican officials through bribery, extortion, and blackmail. U.S. officials behave as if somehow they are above such things. Not so. The beauty of economic regulations, ...
McCain’s Al-Qaeda Scare by Jacob G. Hornberger March 20, 2008 During his recent trip to Iraq, Republican presidential candidate John McCain proclaimed, “Well, it’s common knowledge and has been reported in the media that Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran. That’s well known. And it’s unfortunate.” According to the New York Times, Senator Joseph Lieberman, who ...
Both Obama and Clinton Miss the Point on Iraq by Jacob G. Hornberger March 19, 2008 Throughout the race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, Barack Obama has taken Hillary Clinton to task for her 2002 vote authorizing President Bush to attack Iraq. Obama says that Clinton’s vote reflected poor judgment on her part. Clinton has claimed that when she voted in favor of the authorization, she never imagined that President Bush ...
The D.C. Gun Ban Doesn’t Work by Jacob G. Hornberger March 18, 2008 In yesterday’s Washington Post, there was an article about gun traffickers who are robbing gun stores in Virginia in order to sell the guns to people in Washington, D.C. The story is timely given that the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments today in a case involving the constitutionality of D.C.’s gun ban. According to ...
Was Getting Rid of Saddam Worth It? by Jacob G. Hornberger March 17, 2008 More federal chickens are coming home to roost every day. Yesterday — yes, Sunday — the Federal Reserve, in obvious panic over the state of the financial markets, was working overtime to come up with a bailout plan for Bear Stearns, also using the opportunity to lower interest rates again rather than simply wait until ...
Immigration Central Planning by Jacob G. Hornberger March 14, 2008 Farmers in California have suffered enormous economic losses due to a shortage of labor to harvest their crops. It’s just another devastating consequence of immigration controls. Now, small businesses as far away as New England are suffering the consequences of immigration controls. According to an article in the New York Times, small businesses in that part ...
Bush’s Freedom Delusion by Jacob G. Hornberger March 13, 2008 In a further attempt to preserve his legacy, President Bush delivered a rousing speech in Nashville in which he said that he invaded Iraq to bring freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people. According to the New York Times, he told the audience that freedom was a God-given right and “every human being bears the ...
The Patriotic Bust of Spitzer by Jacob G. Hornberger March 12, 2008 American conservatives should be really proud of how the feds caught New York Governor Eliot Spitzer patronizing a prostitute. It all has to do with patriotism, conservative-style. After all, it was the USA Patriot Act itself that put the feds on Spitzer’s trail. The Patriot Act requires American bankers to be federal snitches. Whenever bankers notice ...
Those Dangerous Prostitutes by Jacob G. Hornberger March 11, 2008 If there is another terrorist attack on American soil, it would be natural to ask the same two questions that libertarians asked soon after 9/11: (1) Is the attack another instance of blowback from U.S. foreign policy, for example, from the death and destruction from the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq? (2) Was the failure to prevent 9/11 due to ...
Are Americans Sacrificing Enough Now? by Jacob G. Hornberger March 10, 2008 Throughout the long history of the Iraq War and occupation, the measure of success for many Americans has been the number of U.S. soldiers killed in the conflict. As long as the number of U.S. deaths was kept to a “reasonable” level, Americans would cheer the conflict, but if U.S. casualties were to begin rising ...
U.S. Regime Change in Iran by Jacob G. Hornberger March 7, 2008 Last night I attended a talk by Stephen Kinzer, who is one of the speakers at our upcoming June 6-8 conference “Restoring the Republic 2008: Foreign Policy & Civil Liberties.” The talk was held at the Washington, D.C., campus of the University of California and was part of a 22-city tour by Kinzer entitled “The Folly of Attacking ...