Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
Showing posts with label war. Show all posts

Jacob Sullum: Rand Paul And 10 Heedless Hawks

A desperately needed alternative to mindless militarism. At a Q&A session in Dallas a year ago, Rand Paul expressed skepticism about whether the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) posed "a threat to our national security."   Hours later at another event in Dallas, the Kentucky senator said that if he were president he "would lay out the      ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - The Military Market

America Has Way Too Many Overseas Military Bases

There are 800 bases in foreign countries.  With the U.S. military having withdrawn many of its forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, most Americans would be forgiven for being unaware that hundreds of U.S. bases and hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops still encircle the globe. Although few know it, the United States garrisons the planet     ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Who Lost Iraq?

It is like a community organizer tried to be general. After the pro-Western government of China was forced to flee to the island of Taiwan in 1949, when the Communists took over mainland China, bitter recriminations in Washington led to the question: "Who lost China?" China was, of course, never ours to lose, though it might be legitimate  ... MORE

Steve Chapman: Is the Terrorism Panic Finally Passing?

A return to sanity.    One lesson of American history is that in times of war or crisis, American presidents, lawmakers and citizens often lose their minds. Another lesson is that they eventually regain their senses. When it comes to national security in the age of terrorism, it looks as though the national fever has broken. When Congress passed the Patriot Act in October 2001, it gave the federal government greater  ... MORE

Andrew Napolitano: The Tyranny Of One Man's Opinion

Having your own kill list.         Thomas Cromwell was the principal behind-the-scenes fixer for much of the reign of King Henry VIII. He engineered the interrogations, convictions and executions of many whom Henry needed out of the way, including his two predecessors as fixer and even the king's second wife, Queen Anne. When Cromwell's son,  ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Glib, 'Happy Talk'

Presidential ignorance is not bliss.    When Alfred E. Neuman said "What me worry?" on the cover of Mad magazine, it was funny. But this message was not nearly as funny coming from President Barack Obama and his National Security Advisor, Susan Rice. In a musical comedy, it would be hilarious to have the president send out his "happy talk" message  ... MORE

Sheldon Richman: America’s James Bond Complex

A license to kill?      Today, American politicians of both major parties — conservatives, “moderates,” and so-called liberals alike — insist that the United States is an “exceptional,” even “indispensable” nation. In practice, this means that for the United States alone the rules are different. Particularly in international affairs, it — the        ... MORE

Words Matter In ‘ISIS’ War, So Use ‘Daesh’

by Zeba Khan. The militants who are killing civilians, raping and forcing captured women into sexual slavery, and beheading foreigners in Iraq and Syria are known by several names: the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS; the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL; and, more recently, the Islamic State, or IS. French officials recently declared that   ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: 2014 - A Year Of Anniversaries

2014 has been a year of anniversaries.        It was the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War — a war which many at the time saw as madness, and predicted that it would be the harbinger of a Second World War a generation later. 2014 was also the 70th anniversary of the fateful landing at Normandy that marked the beginning of  ... MORE

Even Small Towns Are Loading Up On Grenade Launchers

Cities are gearing up for war.   Custer is a nice little town in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Not quite the tourist center of the area—that’s really more up toward Keystone and Mount Rushmore—it still get its share of summer visitors’ traffic. Enough, anyway, to support just over 2,000 people, out of a county population somewhere around   ... MORE

VIDEO: Top 3 Takeaways From The Hagel Resignation

Rand Paul Calls for a Formal Declaration of War Against ISIS

by Doug Mills.      Senator Rand Paul is calling for a declaration of war against the Islamic State, a move that promises to shake up the debate over the military campaign in Iraq and Syria as President Obama prepares to ask Congress to grant him formal authority to use force. Mr. Paul, a likely presidential candidate who has emerged as one of the    ... MORE

Rand Paul: Conservative Realist?

by Matt Welch.  On Oct. 23, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) gave a major address in front of the Center for National Interest, a "realist" foreign policy think tank founded by Richard Nixon. As he did in a similar February 2013 speech in front of the conservative Heritage Foundation, the libertarian-leaning presumptive 2016 GOP presidential        ... MORE

Horror Of Horrors! Jimmy Carter Identifies Obama As Wimp

by Alex Seitz-Wald.     Another day, another defection from a high-profile Democrat on President Obama’s approach to combating the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). And the latest apostasy must be particularly painful for the White House considering its source, Jimmy Carter, a former Democratic president who supported Obama over Hillary   ... MORE