Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

To Make War, Presidents Lie
LewRockwell.com ^ | 1 October 2002 | Robert Higgs

Posted on 10/01/2002 3:13:22 AM PDT by Greybird

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 221-233 next last
To: gulfcoast6; backhoe
<< How soon a lot of folks forget, the Twin Towers were locatd in Ney Yark City, located in the state of New York which is located in the United States 0f America and yes, we do have a beef with the radicals. >>

Pretty darned uncomplicated, eh?
21 posted on 10/01/2002 3:55:31 AM PDT by Brian Allen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: piasa
I am not a pacifist. Nor am I part of any "crowd."

Curious: What are some examples of pacifists getting more people killed than any hawk?
22 posted on 10/01/2002 3:56:16 AM PDT by Petronius
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Greybird
<< So Bush may be telling the truth. >>

Bet your life on it.

[Convincing Argument: FRogs are green. This tree is green. Therefore this tree must be a FRog]
23 posted on 10/01/2002 4:00:15 AM PDT by Brian Allen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Greybird
Bill Clinton approach worked fine, right?

Bluster and posture, fire a few missles timed to remove headlines from the papers. This lead OBL and radical Muslims to believe America was weak and they could gain admiration and power with their misguided followers by poking the US in the eye.

And why not? America wouldn't do anything about it. America was past it's prime, old fat, gluttonous with a sign on it's back saying "kick me".

This may be your vision of how America should be, but many more have pulled their heads out of the sand since 9/11/01.

Saddam has and continues to commit horrors against his people, he continues to starve them for a source of media propaganda while he builds his palaces filled with who know what evil.

24 posted on 10/01/2002 4:00:24 AM PDT by listenhillary
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: R. Scott
We went to war because of Pearl Harbor.

Oh, I understand now. Roosevelt lied. We weren't attacked by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. He made it all up.

I understand Buzz Aldrin never walked on the moon either.

25 posted on 10/01/2002 4:01:52 AM PDT by patriciaruth
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Greybird
Professor Higgs, a wise and erudite man and author of Crisis And Leviathan, arguably the best book ever written on the subject of Federal expansion, is unfortunately off base here.

In his other indictments, he is largely correct. However, no reasonable doubt remains about the Iraqi nuclear and bioweapons programs, nor about the significant chance that Iraq would use them in a war of aggression against a neighboring state, nor about the unacceptable risk that terrorist groups would get access to weapons of mass destruction by way of Saddam Hussein.

The entire warlike enterprise is about Black Tuesday: September 11, 2001, and all that has flowed from it.

Black Tuesday was not the sinking of the Maine; this is not the Spanish-American War.

Black Tuesday was not the Zimmerman Telegram; this is not World War I.

Black Tuesday was not the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution; this is not Vietnam.

Black Tuesday was a belated awakening to the identity and ferocity of those who hate America and her ideals most fervently.

This case really is different. The pity of it is that, to those of us with a grasp of history and a knowledge of the political bases of previous wars, it should be so difficult to set aside those earlier, shameful episodes, so that we can proceed without crippling doubts. Of course, there are numerous voices raised at this time in the attempt to intensify those doubts. I trust that, in Professor Higgs's case, it's a matter of sincere misunderstanding rather than an attempt to deflect war through obfuscation and deceit.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com

26 posted on 10/01/2002 4:12:07 AM PDT by fporretto
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Petronius
Cambodia
27 posted on 10/01/2002 4:13:55 AM PDT by GopherIt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: backhoe; .30Carbine
Apparently "imperial" is one of their new buzzwords, too.
28 posted on 10/01/2002 4:14:22 AM PDT by Howlin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Trickyguy; Petronius; Greybird
Tell all your democrat friends, the writing is on the wall:

Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin.

29 posted on 10/01/2002 4:15:37 AM PDT by .30Carbine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Petronius
What are some examples of pacifists getting more people killed than any hawk?

September 11, 2001.

30 posted on 10/01/2002 4:16:30 AM PDT by Howlin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Howlin
Stay on 'em, Howlin!
31 posted on 10/01/2002 4:16:52 AM PDT by .30Carbine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Howlin
one of their new buzzwords

I'm convinced they get this stuff via focus groups & push polls- FWIW!

32 posted on 10/01/2002 4:21:16 AM PDT by backhoe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Howlin
Yes, we've been real "imperial" in taking over the government of Afghanistan, you see. It's a US colony now, didn't you hear?
33 posted on 10/01/2002 4:23:17 AM PDT by copycat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: .30Carbine; .45MAN
"America did not start this war, but she is damn sure gonna finish it."

Amen!

9-11-2001...NEVER FORGET!

34 posted on 10/01/2002 4:23:34 AM PDT by dansangel
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: .30Carbine
Have you completely forgotten what happened on September 11, 2001?!

America did not start this war, but she is damn sure gonna finish it.

Have you managed to convince yourself that Iraq had anything to do with September 11?

The .30 caliber carbine is a pipsqueak, minor caliber round.

Appropriate.

Regards

J.R.

35 posted on 10/01/2002 4:28:00 AM PDT by NMC EXP
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Greybird
Do unto others before they can do it to you.
36 posted on 10/01/2002 4:28:03 AM PDT by mtbrandon49
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Greybird
Remarkable how often Democrats have lied to get us into war. The WWII example is quite remarkable; 80% of the American public was isolationist on Dec 6, 1941.

The immediate results of FDR's success in getting us into that war were 20,000 casualties in the Philipines and loss to U-boat action of about 400 ships before June 1942.

Most interesting of all was the reason for FDR's eagerness to fight. FDR was an anglophobe. Who else was allied with us in WWII? The Soviet Union! And FDR's enthusiasm for the fight seems to date from June 22, 1941; there seems to be no example of a major US policy which did anything to disadvantage of the Soviet Union.

FDR recognized the USSR the year he took office . . .

37 posted on 10/01/2002 4:31:19 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Howlin
Apparently "imperial" is one of their new buzzwords, too.

True. But only as a result of the fact that "Pax Americana" is now the neo-con buzz phrase.

Regards

J.R.

38 posted on 10/01/2002 4:36:29 AM PDT by NMC EXP
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Greybird
Ah, but how you are confused....

WORLD WAR 1
United States President Woodrow Wilson declared a U.S. policy of absolute neutrality on the same day Britain declared war, 4 August, an official stance that would last until 1917 when Germany's policy of unrestricted submarine warfare - which seriously threatened America's commercial shipping (which was in any event almost entirely directed towards the Allies led by Britain and France) - forced the U.S. to finally enter the war on 6 April 1917.

WORLD WAR 2
"Yesterday, 7 December 1941-a date which will live in infamy-the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."
President Roosevelt, 12/8/41

We did not start these wars. Our enemies did. Saddam likewise created the conflict with America when he occupied Kuwait in 1991, and refused to comply with U.N. demands for his immediate withdrawl. It is true that a former American mabassador to Iraq told Hussein, on the eve of his invasion, that the United States would "take no interest" in his impending military action. However, only a fool would have taken this mans words as official policy. Saddam severely underestimated American concern with the delicate balance of the Middle East.

The events of Sept. 11th clearly justify our actions in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan. However, American intelligence has failed to show a clear link between members of Al Quaida and the Iraqui regim. Do not blur the two conflicts by suggesting a connection absent of evidence. A second Gulf War would be motivated by a policy of pre-emption. The fear is that Saddam could, at some point in the future, either launch a direct nuclear/biological attack, or supply terrorist cells with these weapons.

We should have ousted him from power in 1991, when his military machine was crippled and his global support waning. However, for political reasons, Bush Sr. signed a desperate Iraqui-offered cease fire with American troops only miles from Baghdad.
39 posted on 10/01/2002 4:37:18 AM PDT by talk2farley
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: fporretto
no reasonable doubt remains about the Iraqi nuclear and bioweapons programs

Granting your assumption, there are effective and practical ways to deal with those programs. One easy one is use carrots instead of sticks: drop economic sanctions in exchange for complete inspections. Think about all the possible states with similar programs, are we going to invade them all? How many resources would that divert from the war on terror?

Iraq would use them in a war of aggression against a neighboring state

Boxing Saddam in has dealt with that threat

nor about the unacceptable risk that terrorist groups would get access to weapons of mass destruction by way of Saddam Hussein.

There's a pandora's box of possibilities after we invade. Here's just one: Iran takes advantage of the situation by increasing its support of terrorists while blackmailing our occupation forces in Iraq which are now in range of their missiles.

The fact of the matter is once Iraq has been invaded, no more countries will be invaded no matter how much they support terrorists, no matter how many of their own people they kill because we will be bogged down in the mother of all nation building and quickly lose all political support for new adventures. Terrorists will then quickly gain new footholds in new countries.

40 posted on 10/01/2002 4:42:40 AM PDT by palmer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 221-233 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson