Being “Antiwar” Is Not Enough for Freedom
A popular mantra among libertarians is being “antiwar.” One problem with that mantra, however, is that it can be construed to mean that libertarians are pacifists — that is, that they are opposed to all wars, including defensive wars. In other words, if the United States were invaded by a foreign army, pacifists would refrain from opposing the invaders by force and would favor passively letting our nation be conquered and subjugated by the foreign power.
I think it’s safe to say that most libertarians are not pacifists — that they do believe that people have the right to wage a defensive war in the event their nation is invaded by a foreign army. Therefore, the better term to describe libertarians would be “anti-foreign war” instead of simply “antiwar.”
But even that is insufficient to achieve a genuinely free society. Simply settling for being “anti-foreign war” leaves intact things like foreign aid, foreign coups, sanctions, embargoes, foreign military bases, state-sponsored assassinations of foreigners, engendering hatred for certain foreign regimes, and provoking wars and conflicts between other nations (e.g., Ukraine and Russia). Those types of things not only produce death, suffering, and destruction of liberty abroad, they also bring the destruction of liberty here at home.
Thus, the best term to describe genuine libertarianism is “non-interventionist” or non-interventionism.” That would bring an end not only to foreign wars but to all forms of foreign interventionism.
But even being anti-interventionist is not enough to achieve a genuinely free society. That’s because the national-security state form of governmental structure under which we have all been born and raised is at the root of the foreign wars and foreign interventionism. So long as you leave the national-security state intact, the nation is going to continue experiencing foreign wars and foreign inter
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