Search Query: Peace

Search Results

You searched for "Peace" and here's what we found ...

It’s Again Time to Dismantle the Cold War Military Machine

by
In 1989, when the Soviet Union dismantled, the American people had a grand opportunity, one in which they could have dismantled the massive national-security state apparatus that had come into existence at the end of World War II for the purpose of confronting America’s wartime ally and partner, the Soviet Union. Instead, the U.S. national-security state sought out ways to justify its existence, among which were the drug war and the poking of hornet’s nests in the Middle East. With the end of the long-term occupation of Iraq and the impending withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, along with the destruction of al-Qaeda, the opportunity to dismantle the national-security state, along with the enormous tax burden it creates and its massive infringements on civil liberties, is presenting itself once again. So, what are the military and the CIA doing about this? Not surprisingly, they are reverting to the drug war — one of the same rationales they were using in 1989 ...

Constitutional Conservative or Libertarian?

by
Libertarians — those who believe that violence is proper only in the defense of person or property and who believe that people have the fundamental right to do anything that’s peaceful — have an image problem, according to some “libertarian-leaning” conservatives. Although those conservatives claim to espouse many libertarian viewpoints, they prefer to shy away from the term “libertarian” and instead call themselves “constitutional conservatives.” Now, the issue here is plainly a philosophical one, and not a matter of linguistics. Although the specific adjectives one uses to describe his political philosophy are irrelevant alongside what he actually believes, they do make a philosophical statement about one’s political views. Consider, first of all, conservatism. Although some libertarians may have said and done some things in the name of libertarianism that they had no business doing, I think it is conservatives who have not only an image problem, but a real philosophical problem as well. I have written a few times that the very ...

Obama Is Right — It’s Time for Reflection

by
President Obama says that the one-year anniversary of the U.S. military’s killing of Osama bin Laden should be a time of reflection rather than a time of celebration. Indeed. Let’s do some reflecting. Immediately after the 9/11 attacks, U.S. officials claimed that the attackers had been motivated by hatred for America’s “freedom and values.” That was a crock, as I pointed out in September 2001. Actually, it was U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East — that is, the bad things that the U.S. government was doing to people in that part of the world — that gave rise to the anger and hatred that manifested itself in the 9/11 attacks. Of course, that was the last thing that U.S. officials and apologists for the U.S. government’s pro-empire, pro-interventionist foreign policy wanted people to focus on. If people began focusing on the real motivation for the 9/11 attacks, that might cause them to begin discussing and debating U.S. foreign policy and then ...

Obama’s “Free-Trade Pact” Is the Opposite of Free Trade

by
President Obama’s “free-trade pact” with Colombia at the recent Summit of the Americas demonstrates the statist mindset of liberals and, well, for that matter, conservatives — and shows how different their mindset is from that of libertarians. According to the Los Angeles Times, “When the pact takes effects May 15, most industrial and manufactured products exported from the U.S. and ...