Creating a Culture of Denunciation by Wendy McElroy July 2, 2013 On June 10, the Guardian featured an article entitled “Edward Snowden: Saving Us from the United Stasi of America” by Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame. He stated, The NSA, FBI, and CIA have, with the new digital technology, surveillance powers over our own citizens that the Stasi — the secret police in the former “democratic republic” of East Germany — could scarcely have dreamed of. Established in 1950, the secret police agency in Communist East Germany (the German Democratic Republic or GDR) was commonly called the Stasi. The Stasi became known as one of the most efficient and brutal intelligence-gathering agencies that has ever existed. Its power lay in surveillance. The Stasi had eyes and ears everywhere, so that people did not speak in the streets; they whispered in their own homes and were wary of speaking freely to family or friends. To contradict the state was treason, for which a person could be imprisoned and tortured in ...
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 ...
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 ...
TGIF: Is Edward Snowden a Lawbreaker? by Sheldon Richman June 28, 2013 Most people believe that Edward Snowden, who has confirmed that the U.S. government spies on us, broke the law. Even many of his defenders concede this. While in one sense the statement “Snowden broke the law” may be trivially true, in another, deeper sense it is untrue. He may have violated the terms of legislation passed by Congress and signed ...
TGIF: National Servitude by Sheldon Richman June 21, 2013 To make citizens, we must facilitate the shared experiences that cultivate civic pride and responsibility. This should mean a period of full-time national service as a rite of passage for every young American, ages 18 to 28. Such service could be military or civilian. Young adults could choose the Army or Peace Corps, Marine Corps or AmeriCorps, the Navy or ...
TGIF: The Lie Factory by Sheldon Richman June 7, 2013 In his latest major address on foreign policy, President Obama said this: So after I took office … we pursued a new strategy in Afghanistan, and increased our training of Afghan forces.… In Afghanistan, we will complete our transition to Afghan responsibility for that country’s security. Our troops will come home. Our combat mission will come to an end. ...
The Cataclysm of World War II by Anthony Gregory June 1, 2013 Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization by Nicholson Baker (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008), 567 pages. World War II was the great event of the 20th century. It greatly altered political boundaries, ushered in the Cold War, effected a total transformation in American governance, and consumed more lives than any other event ...
Obama Spoke the Truth on Freedom and War by Jacob G. Hornberger May 27, 2013 President Obama undoubtedly stunned proponents of the “war on terrorism” by quoting James Madison in his recent foreign-policy speech: “No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” In fact, Obama even shocked me with his use of that quote, given that The Future of Freedom Foundation has cited Madison’s quote innumerable times ever since the 9/11 ...
TGIF: The Greatness of Peace Activist John Bright by Sheldon Richman May 24, 2013 As we approach Memorial Day — or what I like to call Revisionist History Day — it’s fitting to contemplate the words of one of the world’s great peace activists, John Bright (1811–1889). Bright, a Quaker and Nonconformist, is best known for leading (with Richard Cobden) Britain’s Anti-Corn Law League, the organization that fought successfully to abolish ...
Crises and Opportunities by Jacob G. Hornberger May 16, 2013 The following 7-minute speech was delivered to 240 people at a meeting of the Charleston Meeting, a prestigious monthly discussion club in Charleston, South Carolina. Other speakers were U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C), Congressman Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), Congressman-elect Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), Jim Capretta (American Enterprise Institute), Alex Nowrasteh (Cato Institute), Ken Abramowitz (New York financial planner), and Mark Mix ...
TGIF: No Intervention in Syria by Sheldon Richman May 10, 2013 If after the debacles in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya (dare I say Vietnam?) some people still want the U.S. government to intervene — further — in the war inside Syria (but fueled by outsiders), we must conclude, not that they can’t learn the lessons of recent history, but that they won’t because doing so would be contrary ...
Dress Codes and a Free Society by Laurence M. Vance May 1, 2013 At first glance, the idea of dress codes seems foreign to a free society. Actually, however, the case is just the opposite. That truth was manifest most recently at, of all places, a press conference held at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C., to announce the inauguration of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. As recounted ...
