Posted on 07/25/2013 8:32:09 PM PDT by Nachum
ASPEN, Colo. — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Thursday offered a clear broadside against Republicans drifting toward a more libertarian view of foreign policy, lumping Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in with them and suggesting they explain their position to victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The House earlier this week narrowly voted against a reduction in funding for the National Security Agency, as libertarian-leaning members from both sides joined together to vote for the amendment. “As a former prosecutor who was appointed by President George W. Bush on
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I like the way he misrepresents what I perceive Libertarian beliefs to be.
A true libertarian is not a pacifist, indeed they are probably some of the most vociferous defenders of a military because they realize the need to protect liberty from reach of tyrants
Would a libertarian have been able to stop 9/11? I doubt it. Just like neither the Bush administration nor the Clinton administration could have.
The issue is not what happened. It is what is done about it. Libertarians are not pacifist. They just oppose preemptive invasions
A related issue
I don’t actually blame the invasion of Iraq so much on GW Bush as I do Tony Blair. He had been agitating for an invasion of Iraq since at least 1998 but the UK is too weak to do that and Bill Clinton wouldn’t bite. I don’t think G.W. Bush would have invaded if not for 9/11.
Iraq, or so it appears to me was playing a dangerous game.
I believe the Iraqi government was afraid of Iran and wanted the region to think it had vast stocks of chemical weapons to deter an attack by the Iranians. The Iraqi government knew they were not liked and didn’t think they could count on any help0 from anyone else. (Probably a wise assumption) but by playing games with the inspectors they kept a seed of doubt alive in the minds the Iranian military. I don’t think the Iraqi government thought they would ever be invaded.
You have a point: since there is no unified libertarian manifesto (not all subscribe to the von Mises one), one cannot tell; individual prominent libertarians (self-professed) seem all over the place on such matters. For example, the United Kingdom Independence Party calls itself libertarian, but while opposing gay marriage on the religious plane, it supports gay civil unions.
I have seen self-described “libertarians” even go so far as to oppose age of consent laws on sex as well as oppose laws against incest.
Not a lecture, just a fact, Libertarians are not Conservatives no matter how much they try to claim they are.
bump
If no man may aggress against another; if, in short, everyone has the absolute right to be “free” from aggression, then this at once implies that the libertarian stands foursquare for what are generally known as “civil liberties”: the freedom to speak, publish, assemble, and to engage in such “victimless crimes” as pornography, sexual deviation, and prostitution (which the libertarian does not regard as “crimes” at all, since he defines a “crime” as violent invasion of someone else’s person or property). Furthermore, he regards conscription as slavery on a massive scale. And since war, especially modern war, entails the mass slaughter of civilians, the libertarian regards such conflicts as mass murder and therefore totally illegitimate. …Think such positions might grossly offend a conservative? especially a pro-family one that sees the so-called “victimless crimes” for the attack on the family that they are? Never mind the views on war that just do not jibe with George Washington’s notions of readiness for same.
Pork Porkie, running for president. Wow. (yawn)
I bet 90% of all those who call themselves “libertarians” only do so because they think it’s about making weed legal.
Beyond that they have no clue.
Chris “I helped elected Obama” Christie has a lot of nerve.
I bet he runs as the Hildabeast’s VP in 2016.
When I first read this I thought it said “Christie goes after Librarians — hard”
Same difference.
This is the same Fat Christie who supported the Islamic Terrorist supporting Mosque being built at Ground Zero.....Christie supports the Islamic Terrorists who cheered 9/11
Christie would be a disaster for the US if elected president. Weak elbows and bent knees are bad leadership qualities
So you’re all for the NSA domestic spying?
What does Christie have to do with either conservatives or libertarians?
That’s a painful contortion to not blame Bush for his policies.
>> What makes you think libertarians support either of those ideas?
Unfortunately the Libertarian Party platform has defined what it means to be ‘libertarian’. I’ve grown tired of defending the libertarianism that I believe is something quite different especially concerning migration and morality.
>> [Christie] suggesting [libertarians] explain their position to victims of the Sept. 11, 2001
A super-idiotic ‘suggestion’ if that is indeed what Christie intended — there was no active war component at the time.
I expect you'll see a lot more people calling themselves Republicans who couldn't even give you a decent definition of a republic without Google, support legislation that effecively destroys the boundaries between the state a national governments.
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