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Iraq: 2002 Use of Force Resolution
H.L. Mencken and Libertarianism
U.S. Intended Iraq War Even if Inspectors Found Nothing
Antiwar.com


Opposing Unprovoked War against Iraq

Observations from Oct. 8, 2002 about the Use of Force Resolution

I was listening to some of the debate in Congress on National Public Radio (AM 970 Buffalo) this evening, and I was impressed with the few I heard who opposed the resolution authorizing President Bush to use military force against Iraq.

The core of it:
" SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES.

(a) AUTHORIZATION- The President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to--
(1) defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq; and
(2) enforce all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq. "


Opposition
As an example, I was very impressed with Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton’s short, impassioned and well-argued speech against this resolution.
Read the full speech here.


The Rule of Law!!

To sum up some of the arguments she mentioned:

Congress voting for the resolution would be an "unconstitutional delegation" to one man "of the exclusive power of the Congress to declare war".

Bush recently announced a new strategic doctrine of preemption, and it looks like Iraq will only be the first case.

The Iraq crisis has already introduced "instability into a world that can least afford it now."

The resolution is a:

“violation of the rule of law itself and of the law of nations. There is no rule of law unless it applies equally to all. And there is no law at all if not determined by precedent. Thus, a vote for the majority resolution is a vote not only for pre-emptive war on Iraq, but for the new Bush doctrine of pre-emption that would then be available to all nations. Because pre-emption is unlawful under international law, passage of this resolution would make our country an instant international outlaw. Worse, the Iraq precedent necessarily means that all bets are off for all nations to do the same.”

Just my own comment here: the most important law in this case - because the debate involves Americans - is the American constitution. I think the reference to international law is valid - not in the sense that international bodies should override national sovereignty - but in the sense that nations follow certain traditions and agreements internationally that probably derive from a common sense of morality and natural law.

However, there are too many people who talk about how we should look to the United Nations to justify this war as if individuals and nations should abdicate responsibility for deciding whether it is justified or not. To her credit, the congresswoman presented clear reasons why Congress should decide itself not to support this war.

The congresswoman also called on Congress to reclaim America's “own most precious principles,” including “two centuries of American principles against pre-emptive war”.



H.L. Mencken: Individualist and Libertarian

Essay by Murray N. Rothbard:   H. L. Mencken: The Joyous Libertarian

Selected quotations:

"It is, perhaps, a fact provocative of sour mirth that the Bill of Rights was designed trustfully to prohibit forever two of the favorite crimes of all known governments: the seizure of private property without adequate compensation and the invasion of the citizen's liberty without justifiable cause...."

"The atom bomb, I have long preached, is the greatest invention that Yahweh has made since Leprosy. Certainly it has given great glory to the Christian physicists of this country. Try to imagine a decent cannibal throwing it on a town full of women and children."

"I believe in complete freedom of thought and speech – alike for the humblest man and the mightiest, and in the utmost freedom of conduct that is consistent with living in organized society."


Article by Gary Galles with quotations from Mencken:
H.L. Mencken on Liberty and Government

"The ideal government of all reflective men, from Aristotle onward, is one which lets the individual alone-one which barely escapes being no government at all."

"Good government is that which delivers the citizen from being done out of his life and property too arbitrarily and violently-one that relieves him sufficiently from the barbaric business of guarding them to enable him to engage in gentler, more dignified, and more agreeable undertakings..."

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed--and hence clamorous to be led to safety--by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."


Further Reading on Mencken

Web site by Gibbons Burke: The H. L. Mencken Page - A Mencken Cornucopia - Guide to H. L. Mencken resources on the Web


Further Reading on Libertarianism

LewRockwell.com is a great libertarian web site. (And it is much more sympathetic to religion than Mencken was!)

Mises.org is the Ludwig von Mises Institute and is full of resources on libertarianism and "Austrian economics".



U.S. Intended Iraq War Even if Inspectors Found Nothing

Story about Richard Perle from November, 2002

War, Whatever
www.mirror.co.uk, Paul Gilfeather, Nov 21 '02

"...Dr Richard Perle stunned MPs by insisting a "clean bill of health" from UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix would not halt America's war machine...

"...Former defence minister and Labour backbencher Peter Kilfoyle said: "America is duping the world into believing it supports these inspections. President Bush intends to go to war even if inspectors find nothing...."



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