War and Foreign Policy

Professor Elshtain is troubled. Many intellectuals do not realize the need for a  forceful American response to world Islamic terrorism.

William Bennett has updated the paperback edition of his book with two new chapters, one of which demands that Saddam Hussein and all his works be eradicated. 

The extent to which we are secure in our homes, property, and the places we shop is due in large part to the commercial marketplace. It is the free market that makes available alarm systems, locks, fences, cameras, security services, and in purchasing these items we are free to make a choice among competitive products. If they don't work, we can try something new. If there is fraud, we can hold the producer liable.

War gaming may be the newest term for the static trial runs that government officials use as proxies for a real world that always surprises them. If we want to call war planning a "social science"—that's how the Pentagon thinks of it—what we have here is a classic error: the belief that government policy and its effects can be modeled in the same way as the physical sciences.

This book frightens me. The authors do not confine themselves to a justification of the American invasion of Iraq, 

The web and print publications overflow with ideas on what kind of country Iraq ought to be and what the U.S. should do to bring it about. But let us not forget that self-government is a first principle of freedom. That cannot be achieved so long as the U.S. military is there. The U.S. has done enough damage to this poor country. The proper U.S. plan for Iraq consists of one priority: get out!

The experience of "regime change" in Iraq raises fundamental questions about political economy and philosophy. For example, the looting and vandalizing that occurred after the military defeat of the Saddam Hussein government in Baghdad has been cited as proof of the necessity of a state. Hans Hoppe refutes the idea.

Foreign aid seems to many as the only answer for Iraq's shattered economy. Judging on the historical record of foreign aid, however, Iraq is in for a long, tumultuous ride. Because foreign aid is welfare for governments, the Iraqi project's success will largely depend on how little aid is given. 

Can a few courageous writers like Tom DiLorenzo and his colleagues, using logic, evidence, and moral suasion, negate what their opponents thought they had won with over a million troops on battlefields 138 years ago?