Free Republic

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — President Bush on Sunday described Iran as the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism and called on Arab allies to help his administration curb the threat "before it's too late." In a speech at an opulent, palace-style resort here Sunday, Bush accused Iran's militant Shiite Muslim government of spending hundreds of millions of dollars to foment instability in Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories, while ordinary Iranians face economic hardships and political repression. "Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere," Bush said. "So the United States is strengthening our longstanding security commitments...

The following is a conclusion of a long article by a philosopher Lee Harris where he is deconstructing a frequently heard lately charge of "blowback" to US actions in the world (i.e. that 9/11 was a "blowback" for the United States' foreign policy toward the Muslim world over the past half century or so, going back to the CIA engineered coup in 1953 that ousted Iranian leader Mossadegh, and that  "we had it coming" as a response to "American imperialism") ...This conclusion, however, poses a radical dilemma. A libertarian can plausibly argue that politicians should not interfere with domestic affairs,...

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"Zounds!" offered one of the wags with whom I regularly converse. The Ph.D. economist was offering his very technical assessment of the "blue-ing" of Pennsylvania. "Given how 'blue'...the two major population centers ... are and the control of the Legislature they have...the likelihood of addressing the horrendous statist policies in PA shrink with every resident who heads south in search of opportunity," he said. Indeed, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of an America founded on liberty and independence, is suffering from an astounding progression of collectivist economic stupidity that only will invite more government dependence and tyranny. And, oh, yes, more voting...

Russia is not quite the bear that the dragon of China is. But Russia still has appeal despite the many real obstacles and challenges a business partner might face. The laws change seemingly on a whim; the government jumps in and out of relationships; work stops; a GM factory faced a temporary shutdown when it couldn't come to terms with a state-owned partner. Still, there are a number of joint ventures in the news. Despite the problems that GM has been having, the automotive retail group Inchcape hopes to team up with Moscow's automotive retailer Independence Group. Inchcape has operations...

21 February 2006 Europe at a crossroads Address to the American University of Rome by Marcello Pera 1. A geopolitical continental drift The subject I intend to address today is the crisis of the West, and particularly of Europe. In my view this crisis is twofold, both geopolitical and spiritual, with the latter as the main cause of the former. The fact that the Old Continent is in a state of deep crisis has been upheld by many distinguished scholars, observers and a few – unfortunately just a few – political leaders in Europe. This was argued in most alarming...

The Middle East is just a blip. The American military contest with China in the Pacific will define the twenty-first century. And China will be a more formidable adversary than Russia ever was For some time now no navy or air force has posed a threat to the United States. Our only competition has been armies, whether conventional forces or guerrilla insurgencies. This will soon change. The Chinese navy is poised to push out into the Pacific—and when it does, it will very quickly encounter a U.S. Navy and Air Force unwilling to budge from the coastal shelf of the...

Capitalism is not economic anarchy. When properly defined, it recognizes several necessary conditions for the kinds of voluntary relationships it supports. One of these is the existence of inherent human rights, such as the right to make decisions, the right to be free, the right to hold property, and the right to exchange peacefully what one owns for something else. Capitalism also presupposes a system of morality. Under capitalism, there are definite limits, moral and otherwise, to the ways in which people can exchange. Capitalism should be viewed as a system of voluntary relationships within a framework of laws that...

I think that it has been well established that "conservatives" or whatever it is they call themselves these days (e.g., storm troopers) in matters concerning politics value little more than the state's power in which they imagine themselves to participate and the supposed glory that war and domestic national securitism brings to them. Now strictly speaking this is a delusion, because their only access to power lies in the accidental agreement of their opinions with those of the managers of the state. This access will evaporate as soon as the state does something that displeases our conservatives. It is always...

In his 2002 book Bush at War — which was compiled with ample help from the White House, Pentagon, and CIA — Bob Woodward describes a ceremony conducted by U.S. Special Forces and intelligence personnel near Gardez, Afghanistan, on February 5, 2002. About 25 men gathered around a tombstone marking a buried piece of the World Trade Center. During the ceremony, one of those present declared: "We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of our great nation." Obviously, there are occasions when defending our nation will require the focused delivery of lethal...

Spectators again in 2004 Posted: June 2, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc. About George W. Bush, Americans seem to have made up their minds, and enough seem prepared to replace him that this election will be about John Kerry. And the forum where the nation takes the measure of Kerry will be the presidential debates. These debates have often proved decisive. In 1960, JFK won by appearing confident, charismatic and the equal of two-term Vice President Richard Nixon in knowledge and communications skills. In 1964 and 1972, Presidents Johnson and Nixon, sitting atop mountainous leads, declined...

One of the “lost causes” to which libertarians are attached—and one of the most important—is that of the “isolationist” Old Right. As used by the late Murray Rothbard, among others, the term “Old Right” refers to a loose coalition opposed to the New Deal in both its domestic and foreign aspects. While not following a strict party line, Old Rightists largely spoke from the ground of classical liberalism and classical republicanism. This earned them epithets like “conservative” and “reactionary” since those two outlooks were rooted in actual American life. Having something to conserve made them “conservatives”—a terrible thing from the...

Here we go again Posted: December 10, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc. A close read of President Bush's November addresses at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington and at the Whitehall Palace in London leads a traditionalist almost to despair. George Bush did not write this democratist drivel. This is the kind of messianic rhetoric he probably never heard before he became president. Who is putting these words in his mouth? For if George Bush truly intends to lead a "global democratic revolution," and convert not only Iraq but the whole Middle East to democracy,...

George Woodrow Carter Posted: November 12, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc. Reading President Bush's address to the National Endowment for Democracy, one wonders: Have the neocons captured him totally? For, though he is being hailed as Reagan's true heir, Bush has begun to sound like a clone of Woodrow Wilson or Jimmy Carter. Foreign policy is, in Walter Lippman's phrase, the "Shield of the Republic." Its purpose: protect our independence and freedom. "We do not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy," said John Quincy Adams. Traditional conservatives believe in the Eisenhower formula of Peace...

Imperial wars, then & now Posted: August 13, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc. Having found neither weapons of mass destruction nor a link to 9-11, the White House has retreated into its fallback position. It now defends Operation Iraqi Freedom as a necessary war to rid the Middle East of a brutal dictatorship and replace it with a democracy. That is, this was a war of democratic imperialism, as some of us said all along. The neocons exploited America's rage after 9-11 and steered the president into invading Iraq, in order to reshape its political system...

<p>As commitments pile up, the question arises: Is there any limit to President Bush's international interventionism?</p> <p>This is a surprising question to be asking. During the presidential campaign, Bush seemed more circumspect than his predecessor or his opponent about involvement in international problems without a clear U.S. strategic interest at stake.</p>

<p>When Old Right conservatives (and the liberal Left) acknowledge that U.S. interventionist policies in the Middle East enflame Islamic extremists, the Beltway neoconservatives brand these folks as the "blame-America-first crowd."</p> <p>The terrorists, they say, just "hate our system — democracy, freedom, equality." Our being over there has nothing to do with it.</p>

http://www.cato.org/pubs/fpbriefs/fpb-050es.html