Many of my conservative friends tolerate my libertarianism, because so many of them knew me before they knew much about my three-decade commitment to it. Some, along with liberal friends, think of me as merely naive, lost in some ideological utopian vision. They are kind, and seem to have affection for me as an entertaining and interesting, though misguided, pet. Some, to their credit, have agreed with me on some issues and have politely debated with me on others. They remain my friends (and loved ones), because they don't just fill me with kind words to avoid offending me. Others frequently try to get me to support some Republican cause or candidate, even though I have repeatedly railed against Republican complicity with Democrats to continually expand the Welfare/Warfare state. My liberal friends know better than to ask me to support their political causes. At least they're honest, with their rhetoric usually revealing their true intentions.
Recently reminded about tomorrow's celebration of America's non-defensive militarism and foreign nation-building, I have contemplated writing about it. The dangerous and destructive growth of American government since that fateful day a decade ago has hurt most Americans far more than external enemies have. Over the last 10 years, I have seen the greatest expansion of government against liberty in my life. Reading about HOOVER AND ROOSEVELT in the 1930's was just history to me. Living through Johnson, Nixon and the Vietnam War as a college student and then an Air Force officer was the experience of a young and uninformed citizen dangerously naive about politics until I ran for Congress twice in the eighties. I am reminded of the Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz' quote about the subject: War is politics carried on by other means. Perhaps this is why Democrats, who portray themselves as the "peace" party, have involved America in more wars than Republicans.
The Welfare/Warfare state desperately needs both complimentary sides of its left/right symbiosis to maintain its illusions of aggression disguised as protection, theft rights disguised as compassion (see my June blog post CONFUSION ABOUT RIGHTS) and democratic tyranny disguised as statesmanship or representation, when only about 20-25 percent of Americans actually elect the President and Congress.
I just today stumbled on the recent writings of Karen Kwiatkowski, a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel who was at the Pentagon on 9/11/2001. In the following article, she says so many of the things I would scream at the top of my lungs if I had given it more thought.
I hope you enjoy Col. Kwiatkowski's take on tomorrow's climactic, but endless and obsessive, celebration moving America further away from the things that made it great and toward bigger government, dependency, tyranny and blaming foreign scapegoats to justify an aggressive military foreign policy designed to fight the now-defunct Soviet Union. Like most Americans, I blame the Syrian and Egyptian terrorists who flew the planes into the World Trade Center for the mass murders on 9/11/2001, as well as their Syrian mastermind and banker, Osama Bin Laden. What I do not do is assume they acted without provocation by the U.S. Government. This government has installed and maintained brutal dictators all over the world for decades, and deserves at least some of the blame conveniently bestowed by a revenge-obsessed populace on a nebulous thing called "Radical Islam." President Bush should have found and killed Osama bin Laden and destroyed his terrorist organization within a year or two after 9/11. Instead, he invaded Iraq under false pretenses, an undeclared war that has killed more Americans than the 9-11 terrorists. At least Afghanistan was a plausible hiding place for Bin Laden in the early years.
If you like the sentiments and principles propounded by Col. Kwiatkowski below as I do, you might also like to see some of her other articles at Lew Rockwell.com:
THE BEST OF KAREN KWIATKOWSKI
Here's an excerpt from her 9/11 article I really liked, which says more than I could have with fewer words:
Farce, gross incompetence, and tragedy is the hallmark of big centralized government, wherever it develops. Big centralized government has developed in the United States year after year since the 1930s, and it has both solidified and metastasized since 9-11. Today, we live at the will and by the grace of a dystopian and grasping government. There is not an exceptional amount of time left before this government collapses, but before it does, we the people will suffer far more than we have suffered to date. Banking collapses, mortgage fraud at the highest levels, government bailouts, currency printing, and inflation in food and energy are just a foretaste of the future, led by the same Washington public-private cartel we have suffered for decades.
HOW I'LL REMEMBER 9-11 THIS YEAR
by Karen Kwiatkowski
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