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Conservatives' core duty on WMD
CS Monitor ^ | July 08, 2003 edition | Doug Bandow

Posted on 07/10/2003 6:17:24 AM PDT by Int

Conservatives' core duty on WMD

There was a time when conservatives fought passionately to preserve America as a limited constitutional republic. That was, in fact, the essence of conservatism. It's one reason Franklin Roosevelt's vast expansion of government through the New Deal aroused such bitter opposition on the right.

But many conservative activists seem to have lost that philosophical commitment. They now advocate autocratic executive rule, largely unconstrained by constitutional procedures or popular opinions.

This curious attitude is evident in the conservative response to the gnawing question: Where are Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction? A surprising number of conservatives respond: So what? He must have had them; maybe he gave them away. And, anyway, Hussein was a bad guy. In their view, even to ask the question is to mount a partisan attack on President Bush, and that's downright unpatriotic.It always seemed likely that Baghdad possessed WMD. Not only did Iraq once maintain a WMD program, but how else to explain the regime's obstructionist behavior during the inspections process?

Yet it made equal sense to assume that a desperate Hussein would use any WMD to defend his regime - and that serious elements of Baghdad's arsenal would be quickly found.

There may be a logical explanation for the fact that WMD were not used and have not been located; significant WMD stockpiles might eventually turn up.

Moreover, it's hard to imagine the administration simply concocting its WMD claims. The president, though a practiced politician, isn't the type to lie so blatantly. Whatever the faults of his lieutenants, none seems likely to advance a falsehood that would be so hard to maintain.

But the longer we go without any discoveries, the more questionable the prewar claims appear to have been. The allies have checked all of the sites originally targeted for inspection, arrested leading Baath Party members, and offered substantial rewards for information. Even in Hussein's centralized regime, more than a few people must have known where any WMD stocks were hidden or transferred and would be able to help now.

Which means it is entirely fair to ask the administration, where are the WMD? The answer matters for the simplest practical reasons. Possible intelligence failures need to be corrected. Washington's loss of credibility should be addressed; saying "trust me" will be much harder for this president in the future or a future president.

Stonewalling poses an even greater threat to our principles of government. It matters whether the president lied to the American people. Political fibs are common, not just about with whom presidents have had sex, but also to advance foreign-policy goals. Remember the Tonkin Gulf incident, inaccurate claims of Iraqi troop movements against Saudi Arabia before the first Gulf war, and repetition of false atrocity claims from ethnic Albanian guerrillas during the Kosovo war.

Perhaps the administration manipulated the evidence, choosing information that backed its view, turning assumptions into certainties, and hyping equivocal materials. That, too, would hardly be unusual. But no president should take the US into war under false pretenses. There is no more important decision: The American people deserve to hear official doubts as well as certitudes.

The point is not that the administration is necessarily guilty of misbehavior, but that it should be forced to defend its decisionmaking process.

Pointing to substitute justifications for the war just won't do. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz notes that the alleged Al Qaeda connection divided the administration internally, and humanitarian concerns did not warrant risking American lives. Only fear over Iraqi possession of WMD unified the administration, won the support of allies, particularly Britain, and served as the centerpiece of the administration's case. If the WMD didn't exist, or were ineffective, Washington's professed case for war collapses.

Conservatives' lack of interest in the WMD question takes an even more ominous turn when combined with general support for presidential warmaking. Republicans - think President Eisenhower, for instance - once took seriously the requirement that Congress declare war. These days, however, Republican presidents and legislators, backed by conservative intellectuals, routinely argue that the chief executive can unilaterally take America into war.

Thus, in their view, once someone is elected president, he or she faces no legal or political constraint. The president doesn't need congressional authority; Washington doesn't need UN authority. Allied support is irrelevant. The president needn't offer the public a justification for going to war that holds up after the conflict ends. The president may not even be questioned about the legitimacy of his professed justification. Accept his word and let him do whatever he wants, irrespective of circumstances.

This is not the government created by the Founders. This is not the government that any believer in liberty should favor.

It is foolish to turn the Iraq war, a prudential political question, into a philosophical test for conservatism. It is even worse to demand unthinking support for Bush. He should be pressed on the issue of WMD - by conservatives. Fidelity to the Constitution and republican government demands no less.

Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. He served as a special assistant to President Ronald Reagan.



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: conservatism; dougbandow; government; iraq; war; wmd; wmds
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To: huck von finn
Attacking the messenger was easier than dealing with the article I suppose.
61 posted on 07/10/2003 8:14:27 AM PDT by JohnGalt (They're All Lying)
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To: Protagoras
Well, I guess that the Libertarians have not done a very good job of projecting a unified image, then.
62 posted on 07/10/2003 8:14:42 AM PDT by Eva
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To: jpl
That's assuming that the stuff is even still in Iraq and wasn't all transported to Syria during the year-long runup to the war.

You hit the nail on the head. From the beginning of this year, I believed the actual Iraqi WMD were hidden in another country. I believe the administration knows they are in Syria or somewhere else as well.

63 posted on 07/10/2003 8:16:11 AM PDT by af_vet_rr
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To: JohnGalt
Most Old Right libertarians of the Rothbard, Austrian school, Southern Jeffersonian liberal.. are closed borders, pro-life, state rightists, and have little in common with the left-libertarians who support interventions abroad and a strong central state to over-ride local laws (the Texas sodomy ruling two weeks ago was an excellent example of the split.)

Whew! Now I know what I am. lol

I didn't know if I was a small 'l' libertarian, a conservative libertarian, a republitarian or a liberpublican.

64 posted on 07/10/2003 8:17:32 AM PDT by eyespysomething (Turn down the hot water, don't turn up the cold!)
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To: Reaganwuzthebest
Cato is opposed to corporate welfare. On this issue, are you ignorant or dishonest?

Cato also does not advocate government "free trade" deals over unfettered free trade by individuals. They do advocate "freer" trade than we currently have. If that means saying a free trade agreement is better than the old government command and control tarrifs and trade restrictions on the way to true free trade, they do it.

Then we'll be stuck with the democrats for another 40 years.

No difference as far as I can tell. The slide into oblivion has been even faster under these people.

65 posted on 07/10/2003 8:19:24 AM PDT by Protagoras (Putting government in charge of morality is like putting pedophiles in charge of children.)
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To: huck von finn
Most of the people in this thread avoid the points raised by the article, it seems to me.

Only because it seems strange that an organization who isn't conservative is telling those who are what they should they think and do. It's no different than the DNC doing it to me.

66 posted on 07/10/2003 8:19:40 AM PDT by Reaganwuzthebest
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To: Eva
Just tell me what sources led you to believe that your absurd caricature was an accurate description of libertarians-- small 'l' or big 'L'.

67 posted on 07/10/2003 8:20:10 AM PDT by JohnGalt (They're All Lying)
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To: Eva
Well, I guess that the Libertarians have not done a very good job of projecting a unified image, then.

That isn't the goal. Do you even know what a Libertarian is? Or a libertarian?

68 posted on 07/10/2003 8:21:03 AM PDT by Protagoras (Putting government in charge of morality is like putting pedophiles in charge of children.)
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To: Protagoras; JohnGalt
I'm not going to argue with you. There have been many articles posted that project this image of Libertarians. You have your opinion and I have mine. There seem to be a lot of conservatives on this board who agree with my perceptions.

I maintain that the Libertarians are positioning themselves to be the new Ross Perot. They sure are in the Northwest, anyway.
69 posted on 07/10/2003 8:25:19 AM PDT by Eva
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To: JohnGalt
I look at it with a different view. It goes something like this;

Contributor....."Hey, don't you guys believe in my pet issue? (fill in the blank) It naturally follows your main goal of advancing civil society."

Cato......." We do, but we don't currently have the resources to cover every single issue".

Contributor......." What if I give you the money for it?"

Cato...."Cool, we'll do it then".

That's my take.

70 posted on 07/10/2003 8:25:43 AM PDT by Protagoras (Putting government in charge of morality is like putting pedophiles in charge of children.)
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To: Protagoras
Cato is opposed to corporate welfare.

How reassuring. Except that's exactly what free trade deals with third world countries is, or haven't you noticed? Companies dump Americans, move to China, pay workers .20 an hour then flood our markets with those products at the same price as when they were made here. Now's who getting rich thanks to government sanctioned policies?

There was a time not long ago when we would slap tariffs on companies who did that to protect American jobs. Now people like you and the Cato Institute call it "free trade". Sure it is.

71 posted on 07/10/2003 8:28:26 AM PDT by Reaganwuzthebest
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To: Int
Most Americans believe that action against Saddam's Iraq was necessary, justified, and successful; that it was in the best interest to eliminate a safe haven for Al Qaeda and other terrorists; that Saddam was a weapon of mass destruction based on all the mass graves containing the bodies and bones of masses of people who were mass-destructed; that we had to protect a strategic resource (oil); that we should topple another despotic government in addition to the Teliban in response to 9/11; that our long-term interests were better served, etc. It's hard to argue with success.

I think these types of articles are being written cover the butts of individuals and organizations "just in case" it gets out of hand, and to play mind games with Republicans, and especially with Conservatives.

72 posted on 07/10/2003 8:28:37 AM PDT by Consort
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To: Protagoras
Fair enough, but appreciate that Rothbard disowned the organization he helped to start (Cato) becuase he thought they were getting a little to cozy with certain interests. Jeffersonian libertarians by rule are suspect of anything that goes on in the big city, so call it a cultural difference.

Liberty regards,
73 posted on 07/10/2003 8:28:54 AM PDT by JohnGalt (They're All Lying)
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To: Blzbba
Sorry - but that's not the same as "is not capable of".

Well no, not if you reason that as a human being he's also 'capable' of punching his mother in the face.
I'm not being a smartass here, I just want to explain my point in an unambiguous way.

No biggie, though. I think he'll be proven correct, ultimately. I sure hope so.

W will be proven correct, I know so.

Keep the faith, Blzbba, because the other side sure won't.

74 posted on 07/10/2003 8:29:34 AM PDT by jla
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To: Eva
I maintain that the Libertarians are positioning themselves to be the new Ross Perot.

Duh! The Libertarian Party (as differing from libertarians) have positioned themselves as an alternative to the other parties long before Perot had the idea. They ARE a political party with the goal of being elected and instituting their policies.

As to your "unified" view, organising libertarians is like herding cats.

75 posted on 07/10/2003 8:30:20 AM PDT by Protagoras (Putting government in charge of morality is like putting pedophiles in charge of children.)
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To: JohnGalt
"Can you give an example?"

Paleo-libertarians use ideological arguments based on natural rights all the time. See Lew Rockwell's writings, for example.

"As far as ideology goes, Rothbard's Old Right has a fairly long, consitent intellectual history."

Didn't you just state that paleo-libertarianism is not an ideology?

76 posted on 07/10/2003 8:31:00 AM PDT by Truthsayer20
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To: JohnGalt
Regards
77 posted on 07/10/2003 8:31:07 AM PDT by Protagoras (Putting government in charge of morality is like putting pedophiles in charge of children.)
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To: Protagoras
In a free society, Bandow can and rightfully should, hold politicions feet to the fire on any and all issues and processes they find appropriate.

What people like Bandow are doing is more like pouring gasoline on the fire. He should know better, and I believe he does. So what's he looking to gain by subjecting W to this charade?

It's the essence of freedom

Bandow is abusing his essence.

78 posted on 07/10/2003 8:33:17 AM PDT by jla
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To: Protagoras
You are spinning, using circle reasoning. The Cato Institute presumes to speak for Libertarians.
79 posted on 07/10/2003 8:33:40 AM PDT by Eva
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To: Truthsayer20
Ideology has a meaningful definition, I am not pretending the word does not exist.

Rockwell mostly makes political economic arguments which are based in the study of economics rather than ideology. I rarely see him use the natural right defense unless its part of explaining an intellectual history of the American culture.

As to your second question, paleo-libertarianism relies more on ideology than paleo-conservatism, fair point, however, perhaps it was my misunderstanding for how you were employing the word 'ideology.'
80 posted on 07/10/2003 8:36:01 AM PDT by JohnGalt (They're All Lying)
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