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A Foreign Policy of Peace and Freedom

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The Framers of the U.S. Constitution wisely advised a path of nonintervention in the affairs of other nations. As students of history, America’s first statesmen established peace and free trade as a wiser foreign policy course over militarism, alliance-making, and empire. John Quincy Adams, the sixth president, best summed up America’s original philosophy on foreign-policy: “America ... goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.” For the last century, the United States has strayed from its noble roots, marching headlong into one war after another having no bearing on the security of the United States and bringing us the massive armies, debts, and taxes that James Madison warned of. These wars kill thousands; destabilize entire regions; destroy economies, civilizations, and cultures; engender resentments against Americans; put U.S. troops in the middle of civil conflicts; ...

Are Presidents Entitled to Kill Foreigners?

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What is the common term for ordering soldiers to kill vast numbers of innocent people? A war crime. But not when it is done on the command of the U.S. president. Killing innocent foreigners seems to be a perk of the modern presidency — akin to the band’s playing “Hail to the Chief” when he enters the room. Bush is revving up the war threats against Iran. Seymour Hersh reported in the current issue of the New Yorker that the administration is advancing plans to bomb many targets in Iran. British newspapers have confirmed that the Pentagon has a list of thousands of bombing targets. Hardly anyone claims that Iran poses a threat to the United States. Yet few people in Washington seem to dispute the president’s right to attack Iran. It is as if the presidential whim is sufficient to justify blasting ...

A Bogus Libertarian Defense of War

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Many conservatives dubiously insist that a robustly interventionist foreign policy can coexist with a free-market domestic policy. That’s why they have no compunction about supporting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while claiming to support limited and unintrusive government at home. On the face of it, these seem highly incompatible. War requires the accumulation and exercise of awesome powers. How can laissez faire be combined with militarism? You’d think this insight would be a pillar of libertarianism. But unfortunately not all libertarians think so. In an article in the Wall Street Journal recently, “Libertarians and the war: Ron Paul doesn’t speak for all of us,” Randy E. Barnett, a law professor at Georgetown University and a long-time libertarian legal scholar, wrote that libertarians can and do support the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Barnett in follow-up comments has insisted that his main point was only to show that some libertarians support the Iraq war and not that libertarianism justifies ...

Hornberger’s Blog, October 2007

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Wednesday, October 31, 2007 Federal Blackmail, Privacy, and Conformity by Jacob G. Hornberger In today’s FFF Email Update, I have an article about the federal war on telephone privacy, the government program in which certain telephone companies allegedly turned over people’s private telephone records to the feds. A common bromide among some Americans is: “I don’t care what information about my telephone calls ...

Hornberger’s Blog, September 2007

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Friday, September 28, 2007 If Hispanics Had Committed the 9/11 Attacks by Jacob G. Hornberger Let’s assume that the 9/11 hijackers had been illegal immigrants from Mexico, Nicaragua, and El Salvador and that in retaliation, President Bush had ordered his military forces to attack Bolivia. Is there any doubt that some Americans would be supporting the president’s invasion and occupation of Bolivia? After all, ...