To debunk the distortions of warmongers is not to defend tyranny. How should libertarians assess the crisis in Ukraine? Some would have us believe that a true commitment to liberty entails (1) glorifying the “Euromaidan revolution” and the government it installed in...
A list of must-reads compiled by Scott Horton for the anniversary of the start of the Iraq War
War, Terror, and the Ethics of Extinction “Violence begets violence” is a phrase famously used by Martin Luther King, Jr. And the "cycle of violence" is a well-known concept in the study of domestic abuse. In the days following 9/11, Harry Browne applied both to war...
From the earliest states to the Islamic State There has been some controversy over whether ISIS, or the Islamic State, is truly a state. Even according to the standard definition of “territorial monopoly of force” (which I think is too restrictive anyway), it would be...
I hold no brief for State Department spokesperson Marie Harf, who spends most of her time shilling for her bosses’ catastrophic policies in Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, and beyond. But it bodes ill for our prospects of peace that the most sensible thing I’ve ever heard her...
Yesteryear’s Generation Kill Quick, name this late 1960s serial killer. If you wrongly guessed Charles Manson, you could hardly be blamed, especially since he’s been in the news again recently. As you can see from the picture of the real Manson below, this skinny...
The most harrowing scene in American Sniper involves an Iraqi character nicknamed "The Butcher" torturing and executing an Iraqi child by taking a power drill to his skull. The scene lends credibility to the narrative of Chris Kyle as basically a hero facing villains....
"There are four types of people who join the military. For some, it’s a family trade. Others are patriots, eager to serve. Next you have those who just need a job. Then there’s the kind who want a legal means of killing other people." - The title character of the 2012...
One of the Paris terror suspects was radicalized by outrage over American torture and the invasion of Iraq. The Huffington Post reports: "The Associated Press said that Cherif Kouachi was tried in 2008 for helping funnel fighters to Iraq and sentenced to 18 months in...
Last October, The New York Times ran a story about the effects of abandoned chemical weapons in Iraq from a program that was abandoned in the early 90s, and so had nothing to do with Bush Administration WMD accusations that were used to justify the 2003 invasion of...
