That dog won't hunt — I understand
completely the arguments of libertarians who opposed the Iraqi War on
isolationist grounds. Isolationism is the intelligent — and the idealistic
— tradition of our country. There may be problems, of course, with a sudden
isolationism. Once you've gotten yourself into a poker game, you have to insist
that the other players abide by the rules. But the isolationist position is by no
means silly or self-contradictory.
What I do not understand is libertarians who argued against the war, not
simply because it was contrary to American traditions and interests, but because
it represented "interference" with or "aggression" against another state. This is
a bizarre phenomenon: people who have little or no respect for any state, as
such, but have a pious reverence for the boundaries, constitutional provisions
(if any), and self-determination of the Republic of Iraq.That dog won't hunt. If I see my neighbor gassing his kids, I have a perfect
right to walk into his house and kill him. Should I kill my own kids in order to
do that? No. Would it be better to call the cops? Usually, yes. But that would
not be the time to get pious about the neighbor's title to his city lot. And
governments in general have much less claim to respect than property owners in
American cities. When it comes to Iraq . . .
No, I'm sorry. You can't be a statist and a radical libertarian at the same
time. — Stephen Cox
The stability crisis — One of the
many disappointing things about media coverage of the Iraqi war has been the
anxiety of the talking heads about "civil disturbances." As soon as looting of
government offices broke out across Iraq, the networks and the classy newspapers
started demanding that it be stopped, forthwith. The thought of "anarchy"
was intolerable. Even some of the people on Fox News, by far the most pro-war,
pro-military outfit, got into the act. A Fox correspondent went about the streets
of Amman, Jordan, interviewing young men who professed themselves profoundly
concerned about "the breakdown in law and order" in the neighboring country.
There was no followup question about the breakdown in law and order during Iraq's
past generation as a police state.
I remember talking to the late Russell Kirk, doyen of American conservatives,
on a summer day in 1991. It was one of the many days when Yugoslavia was breaking
apart and Western governments were worrying themselves sick about the need to
"stabilize" the place. "Stability," he growled. "They're always concerned about
stability." Russell Kirk was no libertarian. But he knew that there are a lot of
things more important than what people call law and order. — Stephen Cox
