Search Query: letelier

Search Results

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

Hornberger’s Blog, December 2008

by
Wednesday, December 31, 2008 Stop Foreign Aid to Israel (and Everywhere Else) by Jacob G. Hornberger I can already hear the pro-empire, pro-intervention crowd making their announcement after a terrorist attack in the United States by a victim of the Israeli bombing in Gaza: “The attack had nothing to do with anger and hatred arising from the unconditional financial and military aid that the U.S. government has furnished the Israeli regime. Instead, the attacker was motivated by hatred for America’s freedom and values.” Regardless of which side one comes down on in the current outbreak of never-ending hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians, there is one issue that should not be in dispute: The U.S. government should not be furnishing foreign aid to the Israeli government and, well, for that matter, to any other regime. Isn’t foreign aid just another form of socialistic welfare, just like the bailouts of U.S. automobile companies? Under what moral authority does the U.S. government, operating through the IRS, ...

Killing Enemies without Trial

by
In an editorial published last Saturday, the Washington Post celebrated the killing of a man in Somalia who the Post said “deserved the label of ‘evildoer.’” The man was killed when a U.S. Navy ship fired Tomahawk missiles at a Somali home in which the man was apparently located. The Post said that the missile “killed a vicious militia leader and an al-Qaeda operative.” The Post did point out that the U.S. operation had a “distinct downside”: Some 24 other people were also killed in the attack. Notwithstanding that unfortunate side effect, the Post said that the operation was “a victory for the Bush administration’s counterterrorism operations in Africa.” I wish the Post had compared the U.S. operation against the terrorist in Somalia to a similar operation carried out against a communist in 1973 on the streets of ...

Hornberger’s Blog, May 2008

by
Friday, May 30, 2008 Compassionless Conservatism by Jacob G. Hornberger In an op-ed entitled “The Libertarian Jesus” by Michael Gerson in today’s Washington Post, Gerson provides an excellent example of the moral blind spot that afflicts the conservative movement. Gerson, who served as a speech writer for President Bush and who was a senior policy advisor for the conservative Heritage Foundation, uses his op-ed to sing the praises of government welfare programs, especially those that are endorsed by conservatives under the rubric of “compassionate conservatism.” Implicitly denouncing libertarianism for calling for the end, not reform, of all government welfare programs, Gerson feels that while tremendous deference should be given to private charity, the role of the federal government in helping others is necessary and imperative. Amazingly, Gerson fails to address the central moral issue in both Christianity and libertarianism: coercion vs. voluntarism. With government welfare programs, government force is used to take money from one person in order to given it to another person. ...

Hornberger’s Blog, December 2005

by
Saturday, December 31, 2005 Our government is mired in such wrongful conduct as torture, denial of due process, denial of jury trials, spying on Americans, warrantless recording of citizens’ telephone calls, military interference with the criminal justice system, military denigration of the Constitution, brutal sanctions on overseas people, wars of aggression, military occupations, secret Soviet-era torture centers overseas, kidnapping of ...