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A Constantly Shifting Array of Official Enemies

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After George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq ended up producing ISIS, which was quickly made into a new official enemy of the United States, I am sure that there were lots of Americans saying to themselves, “Oh my gosh, another official enemy. But once we vanquish this one, it will finally be over. We will finally have peace, tranquility, and prosperity.” Those people were living a pipe dream. Now that ISIS has been vanquished, is the Pentagon bringing the troops home? Is there going to be a ticker-tape military parade in New York City? Is George W. Bush going to do a painting entitled “Mission Accomplished”? Of course not. Everyone needs to resign himself to the discomforting reality of living under a national-security state and an overseas empire: There is always going to be an official enemy or official enemies. It never ends. The process is perpetual. How else could the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA justify their ever-increasing budgets, influence, ...

How World War I Still Haunts America

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This year is the 100th anniversary of Woodrow Wilson’s pulling America into World War I. Many people celebrate this centenary of America’s emergence as a world power. But at a time when the Trump administration is bombing or rattling sabers at half a dozen nations and many Democrats are clamoring to bloody Russia, it is worth reviewing how World War I turned out so much worse than the experts and politicians promised. Wilson was narrowly reelected in 1916 on the basis of a campaign slogan, “He kept us out of war.” But Wilson had massively violated neutrality by providing armaments and money to the Allied powers that had been fighting Germany since 1914. At the same time, he had no quarrel with the British blockade that was slowly starving the German people. In his April 1917 speech to Congress seeking a declaration of war against Germany, he hailed the U.S. government as “one of the champions of the rights of ...

The Invisible Hand of the State

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It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. — Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations As Adam Smith observed in 1776, when people seek to benefit themselves through voluntary trade, they unwittingly benefit society at large. This phenomenon is often referred to by the metaphor of the “invisible hand,” as if a there were a mystical force guiding ordinary, self-interested persons towards order and productive behavior in the marketplace. Indeed, the explosion of trade occurring on a global scale over the past three centuries has ushered in an age of previously unimaginable interconnectedness, innovation, and standard of living for the whole of humanity. Persons acting through the modern nation-state — whether well-intentioned or not — have a similarly predictable track record. No single person can be said to have directed every action of government over the same span. And yet, as ...