(2003-02-25) Reason On Powell Iraq

Reason Mag's Tim Cavanaugh reviews Colin Powell's War On Iraq address - I agree with the point that only an AlQaeda connection might support military action at the moment. For this writer, whose many biases include a belief that the only business of the U.S. military is the protection of American lives and soil (and even that just barely), the only persuasion would be in the last third of Powell's speech, the one that attempts to establish a link between Saddam and Osama. Here, the evidence was flatly not persuasive. Powell's entire argument hinges on Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the limping Jordan-born Palestinian who fled Afghanistan for Kurdistan after the fall of the Taliban... How you viewed Powell's address depends on whether you always wanted to attack Iraq anyway. For those who believe there remain many methods available short of war, or that none of this is worth involving American forces in yet another foreign entanglement, or that this is the wrong war at the wrong time, Colin Powell's address seemed like a formality for a deal that was sealed some time ago.

Contrarily, Reason Mag's Ronald Bailey argues for a Interventionist US Foreign Policy which he thinks is still Libertarian. So I believe that libertarians need to devise a foreign policy aimed at building a free world sooner rather than later. The true ultimate aim of such a policy would be to guarantee our liberties at home by removing the justifications for an intrusive national security apparatus... Thirdly, and most controversially, the Federal government should revive the Reagan Doctrine - we should support, train, and finance insurgent movements aimed at overthrowing authoritarian regimes. And not just military training, but also training in the advantages and operations of free institutions. There is no absolute guarantee that such insurgents will in fact establish free societies when they come to power, but if it is understood globally that the United States backs such regimes, they would be bucking a worldwide trend.