^The Times of Israel (August 29, 2013)
In the name of winning a Syrian arms race, the two Cold War superpowers increasingly risk crossing swords in the Mediterranean. In the name of fighting an evil empire that no longer exists, the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949 mandates we readily pay any price and bear any burden to prop up today’s unpopular Neo-Ottoman Turkey. In the name of spreading democracy, an unwritten entangling alliance commits similar treatment to a monarchy in Jordan – one on the brink of revolution. Though the Soviet bloc has long since fallen on the ash heap of history, and Osama Bin Laden is now dead, it still seems all that’s changed is the name of the name game politicrats play. If all mention of communism, containment (of the former), and police action were replaced by terrorism, containment (of chemical weapons), and overseas contingency operations, a Spring 1965 issue of Left and Right would describe an eerie resemblance to the modern state of empire Leonard P. Liggio once warned about. On the home front then, conscription, higher taxes, bloated bureaucracies, centralized intelligence, and empire building were sold as necessary to defeat communist expansion abroad. Now that liberty has been sold out for promises of security against terrorism, both have ultimately been lost.
Liggio’s published essay, Why The Futile Crusade, can be read here in its entirety.
Every issue of Left & Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought is freely available at Mises.org.
Founded by Murray Rothbard (the libertarian 60′s radical), Karl Hess (a former Goldwater speechwriter and tax protester), Leonard P. Liggio (now a George Mason professor), and George Resch (a late friend of Ron Paul’s), the 3-year publication ran from Spring of ’65 to December ’68.