Mar 22, 2011

Obama’s Libyan War

On March 19, 2011, the eighth anniversary of the Iraq War, Barack Obama started the Libyan War. Those who might claim that it was not the President, but Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi who started this war, ignore that it only became our fight the moment Obama decided to intervene. Those who support our bombing of Libya to enforce a no-fly zone claim that these actions will not lead to a larger or more entrenched conflict. This claim not only contradicts most of America’s foreign policy history, but proves that our political establishment has learned virtually nothing from the lessons of Iraq.

Mar 15, 2011

Peter King’s Radical Ignorance

Last week, Representative Peter King (R-NY) held congressional hearings to determine whether there has been an increase in American Muslim radicalization. Given our ongoing War on Terror it’s not surprising that recent headlines have revealed that some have indeed become radicalized. It’s also not unreasonable to assume that more will follow.

Mar 8, 2011

Freedom Watch Episode 3/7/11 with Jack Hunter

On Tuesday, March 7th, Jack Hunter made a Live studio appearance at the Fox Business Network as guest on Freedom Watch.

In this video, Jack discusses Libya with Judge Napolitano and what America’s role should be, or not be, in their revolution.

Jack’s appearance comes in at 14:00 in the video.

Feb 25, 2011

Is Isolationism on the Rise?

In the 1980’s the United States funded Iraq’s Saddam Hussein yet considered Palestine’s Yasser Arafat and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi terrorists. And they were. But so was Saddam, who at that time was terrorizing his own people, gassing Iraqi Kurds while receiving America’s financial and political support. In the 1990’s, the US declared Hussein a menace and we apparently changed our mind about Arafat, who was even invited to the White House to shake hands with Bill Clinton. In the 2000’s George W. Bush went back to calling Arafat a terrorist, went to war with Saddam, who we also began calling a terrorist, but made amends with Gaddafi by taking Libya off our official list of state sponsors of terror and sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to shake Gaddafi’s hand. Mind you, this is the same Libyan dictator that Ronald Reagan once called the “mad dog of the Middle East” and who was responsible for blowing up an airplane full of American school kids over Lockerbie Scotland in 1988.

Feb 22, 2011

An End to Foreign Aid

The reasons for the current protests in Wisconsin are somewhat complex but ultimately represent the need to address an unsustainable status quo versus a deep, although understandable, attachment to it. Naturally, government and union workers don’t want their pay or benefits reduced, just like those in the private sector don’t like it when they are downsized, fall victim to budget cuts or are outright fired. But whether private or public, changing circumstances often mean, well, circumstances must change. Such realignments are almost always controversial, even when they make sense. This is particularly the case when any such reform proposals target longstanding assumptions or deeply held, status quo attachments.

Feb 8, 2011

Dreading Democracy

When the United States backed dictator Saddam Hussein throughout the 1980′s, we were told it was as a bulwark against Iran, the influence of which could give rise to an Islamic Iraq. When we ousted Hussein in 2003, we were told that we were giving Iraqis democracy, yet we remain in that country almost a decade later, due in large part to the fear that a free Iraq might choose Islam.

As evidenced by Iraq, American foreign policy seems to be that dictators are good so long as they’re our dictators and democracy is good so long as it’s our kind of democracy, and those who consistently push for US foreign intervention will argue for either accordingly.