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The Noninterventionists Told You So

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Contrary to popular belief, there is no satisfaction in being able to say, “I told you so.” This is especially so with Iraq, where recent events are enough to sicken one’s stomach. Yet it still must be said: those who opposed the George W. Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq in March 2003 — not to mention his father’s war on Iraq in 1991 and the sanctions enforced through the administration of Bill Clinton — were right. The noninterventionists predicted a violent unraveling of the country, and that’s what we’re witnessing. They agreed with Amr Moussa, chairman of the Arab League, who warned in September 2002 that the invasion would “open the gates of hell.” There was no ISIS or al-Qaeda in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq before the U.S. invasion. Once again, the establishment news media have ill-served the American public. In the buildup to the 2003 bipartisan war on Iraq — which was justified through lies about weapons of mass ...

Freedom versus Medals of Freedom

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Though proximity to power is its own reward, rulers have long recognized the benefit of distributing trinkets to potential sycophants. From medieval times onwards, the English king was seen as the “fount of all honors.” The British government created endless ribbons, orders, and titles to attach individuals to the crown. Cash was sometimes necessary to clinch the allegiance. Samuel Johnson famously defined an honorary government pension as “pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country.” The U.S. government long avoided the temptation to distribute nonmilitary awards by the bucket. However, in 1963 John F. Kennedy broadened a Medals of Freedom program begun by Harry Truman, specifying that the awards would be given for “exceptionally meritorious contributions to the security or national interest of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” Though the medal routinely went to politicians and government officials, giving it to artists, writers, movie stars, and ...

Catholics, Libertarians, and the Drug War

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In my blog post of yesterday, I asked how any Catholic, in good conscience, could choose to embrace statism rather than libertarianism, given statism’s embrace of coerced charity, a concept that denigrates and destroys God’s great gift of free will. This was in response to a conference recently held at the Catholic University of America entitled “Erroneous Authority: The Catholic Case Against Libertarianism.” Today, let's look at the drug war. It would be difficult to find a better example of the fundamental difference between statists and libertarians than the drug war. Statists favor having the state punish people, through fine and incarceration, for possessing or distributing drugs. Libertarians favor drug legalization. Once again, I ask the same question that I asked with respect to coerced charity: How can a Catholic support the drug war? How can he possibly reconcile what the drug war does to people and to society with Christian principles? Consider the consequences of the drug war. The drug ...

The Practicality of Libertarianism

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People sometimes accuse libertarians of being impractical. That befuddles me because libertarianism is the only practical philosophy there is. Why is that? Because libertarianism works. The only philosophies don’t. Consider immigration. People say: “You libertarians are so impractical with your call for open borders.” Yet, what could be more practical than a policy that brings about peace, prosperity, and harmony? Look at ...