February 5, 2003

Murray Rothbard on Gulf War I

Mr. Bush’s Shooting War – Feb, 1991

• ” Jan 16, 1991 … The United States launched an avalanche of mass murder and mass destruction upon a small, impoverished third-world country. …”
• George Bush did not let the enemy save face. “What head of State, ever, is going to submit under such terms?”
• War-hawk theory led to the disastrous results of WWI.
• Discusses Senator Mark Hatfield’s antiwar stance.
• Quote from John Randolph:
  

  “Love of peace, hatred of offensive war, jealousy of the state governments toward the general government; a dread of standing armies; a loathing of public debt, taxes, and excises; tenderness for the liberty of the citizen; jealousy, Argus-eyed jealousy, of the patronage of the president.” (1)

 

Jan 26/03 Canada Set for Major Missile Defense Talks in U.S.

• “Canadian officials hold talks in Washington this week on the proposed U.S. missile defense system …”
• “Missile defense is becoming the most important issue ever to arise in the highly-integrated Canadian-U.S. defense relationship, which for the last 45 years has been centered on NORAD — the North American Aerospace Defense Command.”
• Some fear that “Canada would effectively be excluded from NORAD” if Ottawa decides not to participate.
• Foreign Minister Bill Graham fears missile defence would lead to the weaponization of space. (2)

 

Is the global economy about to crash? by Pat Buchanan
Discusses Argentine bailouts. Maybe he is wrong about free trade in principle, but he has a point. There is something going very wrong. “The IMF is now doing exactly what it condemns the Japanese banks for doing, keeping worthless loans on its books at face value rather than confront the reality that the banks, too, are bust.” (3)

Anti-war senator to run Iraq-war subcommittee?
WorldNet Daily doesn’t like it, but it sounds like good news. Republican Lincoln Chaffee “was the only Republican to vote against the War Powers Resolution authorizing the president to use military force against Iraq” and joins Republican Senators Lugar and Chuck Hagel. And I know that at least Hagel has expressed caution about a potential war with Iraq, and probably Lugar also. (4)

The Nuclear Option in Iraq: The U.S. has lowered the bar for using the ultimate weapon
“For the United States to lower the nuclear threshold and break down the firewall separating nuclear weapons from everything else is unsettling for at least three reasons….” (5)

War and the Marginalization of Political Thought by Josh Matthews

“Now this shallow way of thinking about politics omits the many and varied types of political thought abounding in the country. …. it ignores the many well thought-out critiques of Bush’s war against Iraq by disparate parties, parties including libertarians, paleoconservatives, and Christian just-war adherents. “

Orwell wrote about “the concealment and degradation of political thought by propaganda and other purposely unclear language” (6)

 

Oct 30/02 – A Big Difference by Charley Reese

• N. Korea compared to Iraq.
• “.. it’s a good idea not to go to war with North Korea. … It just isn’t worth the price. … Until the world gets serious about eliminating nuclear weapons — and the superpowers are nowhere close to that — you can hardly blame other countries for wanting them. … ” (7)

 

Crank Hypocrisy Government’s two-faced message on speed
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has a long condemnation of speed’s effects, but the U.S. Air Force has had to defend the surprising and routine use of speed by its pilots. Dextroamphetamine. At the commission hearing into the deaths of the four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, “the defense is blaming the bombing on the fog of drugs rather than the fog of war, claiming the two were jacked up on speed”. (8)

 

Notes

[1] http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/ir/Ch24.html
The Irrepressible Rothbard: Essays of Murray N. Rothbard Edited by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., Mr. Bush’s Shooting War, February 1991

[2] http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=2111834
Reuters.com, Sun January 26, 2003 Canada Set for Major Missile Defense Talks in U.S. By David Ljunggren

[3] http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30693
WorldNetDaily, January 27, 2003, Is the global economy about to crash?, by Patrick J. Buchanan

[4] http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30709
WorldNetDaily, January 28, 2003, Anti-war senator to run Iraq-war subcommittee? , By Kenneth R. Timmerman, News World Communications, Inc

[5] http://www.latimes.com/la-op-arkin26jan26,0,646789.story
latimes.com, Jan 26, 2003, The Nuclear Option in Iraq The U.S. has lowered the bar for using the ultimate weapon By William M. Arkin

[6] http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/matthews-j1.html
lewrockwell.com, Jan 28/03, War and the Marginalization of Political Thought, by Josh Matthews

[7] http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20021030/index.php
Charley Reese, October 30, 2002, A Big Difference

[8] http://www.reason.com/hod/jm012703.shtml
Reason.com, January 27, 2003, Crank Hypocrisy, By Joel Miller