Tuesday July 22, 2008, 2:04 pm
It is essential that we look at this war in light of history. At the end of World War II, the government and its elites were quite desperate for a massive global cause to keep spending high and the government in control. Communism was picked, and so our former allies in the war became our sworn enemies.

Ten years ago, with communism gone, the American warmongers had little to do, other than intervene in small skirmishes. Finally they hit on a great idea: demonize Islamic radicalism. Here is a nation without borders that is terrifying to the American people, just like communism. Despite all the appearance of sadness and anger after 9–11, the elites also understood that it meant the continuation of the old war apparatus. And for that, they were not entirely regretful.

At last there was a pretext for war preparedness and war itself that rivaled the old communist threat. So off we went into this structure. There has been no shortage of rhetoric. No expense is spared on arms escalation. There is no lack of will. The effort has the support of plenty of smart people. It is backed by threats of massive bloodshed.

What is missing in the war on terror is the essential means to cause the war to yield beneficial results. Of all the billions of potential terrorists out there, and the infinite possibilities of how, when, and where they will strike, there is no way the state can possibly stop them, even if it had the incentive to do so.

Behind terrorism is political grievance. This is not speculation. This is the word of the terrorists themselves, from Timothy McVeigh to Osama Bin Laden to innumerable suicide bombers. They are not acting randomly. They have goals. The goal is, first, get the US government and its troops out. And if history teaches us anything it is that no country wants to be ruled by a foreign power, whether that foreign occupation takes the form of colonialism or outright military dictatorship. People would rather run a country badly than have it run well from the outside. No one should understand this better than the American people, whose country was born in a revolt against foreign rule.

We associate this view with the political Right. This might be something of a misnomer since the Right was very much against the wars of the 1990s. It was the Right that made the case against nation building, and it was Bush who earned the support of the American middle class by promising a humble foreign policy. It was the conviction back then that Clinton's wars had been waged at the expense of the life and liberty of Americans here and abroad, and had failed to accomplish their ends.

A similar critique of left-wing wars was offered by the Right in the interwar period. It was clear that World War I had diminished American liberty, regimented the economy, inflated the money, slaughtered many people, and failed to accomplish its goal of bringing about self-determination for all peoples of the world. The Right applied its political logic of the need for freedom at home to issues of foreign policy. Small government and non-intervention applied to domestic as well as foreign affairs, for reasons both practical and moral. The Left, in contrast, saw war as yet another application of the principle that government can accomplish great things for us, and they saw how war provides the great pretext for expanding the power of the state to do these things.

But these days, the political roles have changed. The Left is the major voice criticizing the war on terror, while the Right, much to my dismay, has enlisted in ways I could not have imagined back in the 1990s. The Right has led the call for war abroad, and called for speech controls, domestic spying, and more power to the president to arrest, jail, and even convict people in military courts without the slightest concern for human rights and liberties. Countless times I've had to explain to people who otherwise are suspicious of government that it is not a good thing to give the US government the power to overthrow any government in the world or torture people abroad or pass out trillions in reconstruction aid.

Wednesday July 23, 2008, 8:58 am
Noted with thanks Michael. Let's not forget that second to oil, the weapons industry probably earns very big bucks and can therefore be considered an appealing motivation for the war industrialists.

Thursday July 24, 2008, 7:36 pm
Now they can't get away with hiding the numbers but you still have to look very hard to find them. The bottom line is that since the war on terror began, the incidents that qualify as terrorism have increased by an incredible 26 times. For every one incident in 2001, there are now 26 incidents. For every person killed by terrorism in 2002, 23 people were killed in 2006. Meanwhile, the polls reflect the perception that the world is more, not less, dangerous since the war on terror began. Indeed, among those polled, 81% now believe that the world is becoming more dangerous.

Michael, thank you for a terrific essay.
Ludwig von Mises was a brilliant man, and
I see his institute has some equally brilliant
people running it today,

Think about this:
Anytime the Government declares a "war"
on something, inevitably the problem becomes
a helluva lot worse;
Poverty, drugs, illiteracy, terrorism, the list
could go on and on. So, if we want to make a particular
thing much, much worse than it already is, we just need
the government to declare a "war" on it.

As for villifying the Islamic world, the government saw
that as a necessity following the collapse of the Soviet
Union. The military industrial complex needed what is known
as a "seen enemy" to justify the billions that Congress
alots them every year.
"Al-Qaeda" was and is an invention of the US government,
Osama bin Laden was a CIA recruit and operative during
the Soviet-Afghan war of the 1980's. When the US needed
a "seen enemy", they turned to their useful idiot, Osama,
who became the Orwellian equivalent of "Emmanuel Goldstein",
the shadowy enemy who is never seen, but is always threatening
to attack. The fear-mongering of the govt. never ends, and is
designed to keep the American people on edge, and in a constant
state of fear.
Fortunately, there are millions of us who are able to
see thru their bullsh*t.

GREAT post, Mike!
noted.

Tuesday July 29, 2008, 5:49 pm
Yes! GREAT post, Mike!

Wednesday August 6, 2008, 9:57 pm
With all going on in the World today, this internet is going to connect people all over. It sure seems to me that we need to switch at least 50% of our guns and bombs budget over to building the electric car we can plug into our solar powered roofs. Which would put generations to work on something useful. While in my mind bring about Peace also.