Young Americans for Liberty – Ole Miss Chapter

More than half a year after Bush left office, our country still finds itself involved with two wars. Barack Obama flew into the White House with a message of change. So far he has kept Bush’s policies of bailing out failed companies with taxpayer money, continues to support State’s Secrets, has called for the creation of internment style prison systems, supports the denial of habeas corpus to prisoners in Bagram airbase, and has escalated Bush’s side-war in Afghanistan.

I am failing to see the change that Obama promised us. Turns out I’m not alone.  There might be a few of us who remember Cindy Sheehan. She was the woman who courageously protested against the War in Iraq outside of Bush’s Texas ranch. Well unlike most people of today, she understands that there still is a war going on in the Middle East even though Obama has taken office. She is now protesting Obama’s wars in the Middle East, actually calling his policies “worse” than Bush’s. Not surprisingly, the Left who once supported her and her negativity toward Bush, are not so happy with her anti-Obama rhetoric. Go here to read her words on how quickly the Left has ‘left’ her side (pun intended).

I have been called a “racist” from the so-called left. In these people’s opinion, I was totally justified in protesting Bush, but I am a racist for protesting the same policies under Obama…There are many people in this country who oppose Obama because they’re racist, but I am not one of them. I oppose Obama’s policies because they are wrong…

Due to the negative press the US has gotten over its military reports concerning the air strikes in the Farah Province in Afghanistan and their “possible” murder of 86 innocent civilians, General McChrystal has issued a tough new order for his troops: don’t fight so close to innocent people. 

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who took command of international forces in Afghanistan this month, has said his measure of effectiveness will be the “number of Afghans shielded from violence,” and not the number of militants killed.

Of course, the problem could be the simple ignorance of the rules of engagement with total impunity. However, It seems Gen. McChrystal may be on to something. Perhaps, his new goal of low civilian exposure to violence will be best achieved by simply leaving Afghanistan. I believe then the civilians there would be under no threat of violence from US forces whatsoever. You want less violence and less death Gen. McChrystal?  How about stop bombing (and torturing) the world.

In his article for the Daily Times, Brian Cloughley argues that the sanctions the US uses to try and put an end to nuclear ambitions from “rogue” nations only succeeds in punishing the already destitute civilian population of the targeted country. However, the leaders of those countries continue to ride high with lifestyles MTV Cribs should consider for their next episode.

[Sanctions]  penalise the poor, and not their leaders. One only has to look at the appalling situation in Zimbabwe, where President Mugabe, a corrupt and brutal dictator, is disgustingly rich (as are his evil henchmen), while the majority of citizens are starving.

Cloughley also argues that the US is extremely fickle in its implementation of sanctions. While Madeleine Albright says the benefits received from US sanctions  are worth the deaths of half a million Iraqi children, Washington is quick to remove them when they are need of help from our not-so-fortunate Middle Eastern “allies.” Cloughley uses the US’s on-again-off-again sanction policy toward Pakistan to explain this concept: as Pakistan’s assistance is needed in US foreign policy blunders, sanctions are conveniently lifted. However, when Pakistan’s usefulness has run out, sanctions are quickly reapplied.

An oldie, but a goody.  Laurence Vance, as usual, provides a powerful jeremiad that will, sadly, go ignored by the American people.  But they’ll get up in arms about who deserved to win American Idol.

It is no stretch for one to conclude that terrorism has replaced socialism as the new perceived threat to America. Our government has found it exponentially more convenient to use mythical terrorist threats to scare US citizens into saluting the flag and pledging support for all horrendous atrocities being carried out in our names. These scare tactics are to be expected post Cold War because America needs a new reason to justify its empire, as well as its increasing control over the lives of the population. However, a recent court case has me questioning the arbitrary definition our government has placed on terrorism.

According to Al Jazeera, A US court recently sentenced the former heads of the charity organization Holy Land Foundation to 65 years in prison for providing funds to Hamas. Prosecutors claimed that the charity was spreading Hamas ideology by providing aid to its schools, hospitals, and social welfare programs inside Palestinian territories. They also accused the charity of allowing Hamas to fund its fighting with the charitable donations. Bush labeled this case another battle in the War on Terror. However, while I would not agree with this charity funding Hamas’s violent actions, the case does expose the hypocrisy of the US government in dealing with Israel and Palestine.

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Libertarian author Bill Kaufman has written a book that discusses the long history of anti-war sentiment.  He provides a timely reminder that not all Americans celebrated war while their government sent their sons to die.  Even more timely is Kaufman’s reminder that most opposition to war used to come from conservatives.  Hopefully Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and the entire War Party will discover authentic conservatism.

Click here for a book review.

A new documentary is shedding some light on the US invasion and assualt on Fallujah.  It follows Mark Manning as he travels into the Iraq war with no security of his own to document the true nature of war. Visit the site for more information here.

THE ROAD TO FALLUJAH follows the story of Mark Manning, the only westerner to live with the people of Fallujah, Iraq immediately following the November 2004 battle that destroyed their ancient and holy city.  With unique access to both sides of the conflict, the film gives a voice to the people directly involved and affected by the war and takes an in-depth and humanizing look at the issues in Iraq, breaking through the myths and misconceptions surrounding the violence and offering alternative solutions to war.

Disillusioned with the lack of un-biased information about the war in Iraq, Manning leaves his job as a diver on the offshore oilrigs of California and travels to the Middle East, where he meets and joins forces with an Iraqi woman, Rana Al-Aiouby, a humanitarian aid worker and journalist from Iraq.  Together, they travel into the heart of the Iraq war, unembedded and without armed security, to experience and document the reality of war from the perspective of the Iraqi people.

As one Military Commander said, “As went Fallujah, so went Iraq.”  THE ROAD TO FALLUJAH gives a detailed analysis of the circumstances that led to the siege of Fallujah, the actual events of the siege itself, and the consequences of the battle that have shaped the present situation in Iraq and beyond.  With a clear presentation of the reality on the ground in Iraq, the film provides a human perspective of U.S. policy in the Middle East, offering a new direction towards solutions to the current crisis and a guide for future foreign policy decisions.

As most of you may have heard, memos concerning the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” have been released to the public by the Department of Justice. We thought it necessary to provide everybody with a copy of these disgraceful documents. Download them here.

I would like to point out that the position the Obama Administration has taken to not prosecute individuals responsible for carrying out these techniques is in direct violation of the UN  Convention Against Torture. The US is a signatory of this convention and ratified it as a treaty, which under the US Constitution gives it the full authority of law within the United States. As Ryan Powers from Think Progress puts it:

Indeed, Article 2 of the convention on torture explains that “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever” can be used to legally justify torture. Further, the convention states that an “order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.”

STANDARD: CIA torturers are according to U.S. President Obama not to be prosecuted. Is that decision supportable?

NOWAK: Absolutely not. The United States has, like all other Contracting Parties to the UN Convention Against Torture, committed itself to investigate instances of torture and to prosecute all cases in which credible evidence of torture is found.

Therefore, President Obama is now in violation of US law. The American people should demand a full investigation of the Bush Administration and the current Obama Administration and have all guilty of war crimes brought to justice. If not, we are setting a dangerous precedent for future presidents.

Big government supporters have been quick to point to Somalia as what happens when government is relinquished and the free market is allowed to run wild. Well as it turns out, these big government supporters are not paying attention to history (surprise, surprise). Go here to read Jesse Walker’s article for Reason Magazine discussing the bloody history of Somalia. The article is a series of questions he answers dealing first with the pirates of Somalia, and then the history involved with how the piracy came to be such a large problem. As the article explains:

Let me get this straight. To combat communism in east Africa, the United States propped up a Marxist dictator. After sending troops to battle the warlords, it intervened again to assist the warlords. It did this about-face to stanch the growth of Islamism, but the effect was to put an Islamist group in charge of the country. And after Washington backed an invasion and occupation of the nation to end the Islamic Courts Union’s control, the result was a government run by a former commander of the Islamic Courts Union?

You can see why I’m skeptical about a war on the pirates. It’ll probably end with Obama dedicating a 60-foot statue of Blackbeard in the middle of Mogadishu.

So how do we fix the problems on the mainland, if we don’t invade and don’t send aid?

We butt out. If we can’t solve Somalia’s problems, we can at least refrain from making them worse. The closest the country has had to a period of optimism and growth came when the international community—with the ignoble exceptions of the fish thieves and waste dumpers—largely left the place to its own devices.

It is not lack of government that causes these type of massive humanitarian disasters. As the 20th century shows, with over 100 million murders to their names, big governments are a plague on society. They always seem to promise safety and comfort, but bring pain, death, and suffering.