Random Rant: Preemptive War Muggering, Iraq, and "The Meth Lab Next Door"

So I'm helping man the Tarrant County Libertarian table at the Fort Worth Gun Show last Saturday, when up strolls the inevitable NeoCon Republican ready to educate us on why the libertarian policy of "isolationism" is just flat WRONG and why Uncle Sam was perfectly justified in the mugging of Iraq.

First of all, it's a "non-interventionist" foreign policy, not an "isolationist" policy....there is a HUGE difference between the two. See, Libertarians believe in "National Defense" in it's purist form, the optimal word of the phrase being "defense". If our nation is attacked, we believe in kicking the buh-jesus out of the attackers. We do not, however, subscribe to the notion of "The best defense is a good offense"...that phrase belongs on the football field, not in the State Department.

If libertarians had an "isolationist" policy, we would be against trade with other nations, which would contradict our pro-free market economy positions. Again, we believe in a non-interventionist approach when the military might of the US is concerned. The cost and unintended consequences of U.S. meddling in the middle east has been staggering. A non-interventionist approach would have saved us trillions, not to mention the lives that would NOT have been destroyed as a direct result of said meddling.

Anyway, the NeoCon mentioned above tried to rationalize the mugging of Iraq and preemptive mugging in general by comparing the baddies of the world to a hypothetical meth lab two doors down from your house. The meth lab, like Saddam, is a threat to your life and that of...wait for it...the chilllldren.

First of all, there wouldn't even BE a meth lab two doors down from you, much less one that would be a threat, if we would end this ridiculous and costly "War on Drugs"...but don't get me started on that...I'll save it for another post. Second, this guy's analogy is flawed beyond repair. In his world, it is the responsibily of the Arkansas State Police to eliminate the meth lab next door...you know, the one next door in...BOSTON (go Red Sox!). Which leads to, lastly, IT IS NOT THE JOB OF THE U.S. MILITARY TO POLICE THE FKING WORLD AND "SPREAD DEMOCRACY".

"But Saddam wanted to destroy us!"

Well, so does North Korea, Venezuela, and countless other nations around the world...so why aren't we in North Korea and Venezuela? North Korea has nukes and Kim Jong Il's horrible fashion sense, while Venezuela has the noxious fumes emitted from Hugo's armpits. Said NeoCon didn't have an answer to either one.

"But all the Kurds slaughtered by Saddam...how do we just let that happen?"

The same way we let millions die at the hands of warlords in Africa, gawd knows how many under Kim Jong Il, and countless others killed under the rule of other despots around the globe. The U.S. is not the world police, nor did the founders intend for us to be:

"...it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government, and consequently those which ought to shape its Administration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations. Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none."
-- Thomas Jefferson, from his 1801 inagural address.

...THAT dear readers, is the heart and soul of a non-interventionist foreign policy.

The U.S. would be MUCH better off if we'd keep our noses out of other nations affairs. The cost and unintended consequences just aren't worth the price.