I don't extend trust easily. But this is really not a matter of trust. The firepower that the government can bring to bear is now our only hope to preserve what freedoms we have left.
On that basis, I don't think that Rob Moody has much of a point, and I expressed that view to Lew Rockwell himself several days ago, before this thread appeared. Here was our e-mail exchange:
To Mr. Rockwell:
I'm ashamed to call myself a "small l" libertarian this week.
Yes, I know the U.S. has long poked its nose into situations where it had no business, but nothing justified what happened on September 11th.
The string of subsequent articles on your site collectively accusing the United States of "deserving it" are an abomination.
Is it coincidence that when libertarians act this way, they can be rightfully referred to as a "collective?"
Sir, rightly or wrongly, our nation is AT WAR. Our way of life is at stake, which would include the First Amendment that allows LRC to exist in the first place. What the hell are you and your columnists trying to do?
His Reply:
Sorry, Mr. xxxxxxx, but it is at times of war that telling the truth against the State and its media is most important.
Look at Lincoln's war, Wilson's, and FDR's. This is the one time when a few Americans need to be able to think outside of the State-media approved boundaries, and speak outside of them.
As to owing free speech to the government, that's nonsense. It wants us to have no freedoms, except to agree.
Freepers, I'll give Rockwell credit for some sound ideas in the past, but he's twisting his own philosophy here. None of us OWES free speech to the government, nor did I make that statement as you can read above. Freedom of expression is a natural (God-given, if you'd rather) right that others (such as fanatical Islamists) would love to obliterate.
Only a strong government (such as ours) has a chance of preserving such rights, and stopping such madmen in their tracks. And as annoyed, frustrated and enraged as I've become over the U.S. government chipping away at our individual freedoms, I'll support to the bitter end its right to kick some serious Islamic ass, and hang the collateral damage.
This pacifistic alternative of self-flagellation is too horrible to contemplate.
"Yes, I know the U.S. has long poked its nose into situations where it had no business, but nothing justified what happened on September 11th."
I'm trying to get this straight: Us bombing them (ten years going in Iraq) does NOT justify them bombing us. But them bombing us (WTC, Pentagon) DOES justify us bombing them?