A Surprisingly Good Editorial about Foreign Policy from Senator Rand Paul — In this Instance, Usually Unworkable Libertarian Philosophy Gets It Right

© 2014 Peter Free

 

15 July 2014

 

 

Libertarianism’s modern appeal comes (in part) because it is sometimes less hypocritical than mainstream politics

 

Senator Rand Paul’s pique with (perennially unrepentant bonehead) Texas Governor Rick Perry was well expressed in a Politico piece yesterday:

 

 

Unlike Perry, I oppose sending American troops back into Iraq. After a decade of the United States training the Iraq’s military, when confronted by the enemy, the Iraqis dropped their weapons, shed their uniforms and hid.

 

Our soldiers’ hard work and sacrifice should be worth more than that. Our military is too good for that.

 

The let’s-intervene-and-consider-the-consequences-later crowd left us with more than 4,000 Americans dead, over 2 million refugees and trillions of dollars in debt.

 

Anytime someone advocates sending our sons and daughters to war, questions about precise objectives, effective methods and an exit strategy must be thoughtfully answered. America deserves this. Our military certainly deserves this.

 

Any future military action by the United States must always be based on an assessment of what has worked and what hasn’t.

 

This basic, common sense precondition is something leaders in both parties have habitually failed to meet.

 

© 2014 Rand Paul, Rick Perry Is Dead Wrong, Politico (14 July 2014) (extracts)

 

 

The moral? — Ask yourself why American leaders so often fail to meet the “assessment of what has worked and what hasn’t” test?

 

Self-interest.  In this case, that of the Military Industrial Complex, which benefits from imperialism and perpetual war.

 

Senator Paul apparently believes and is willing to act on the fact that killing people for economic imperialism’s gain alone is bad national (and probably moral) policy.  For that, I laud him.