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International Society for Individual Liberty > Barbarians at the Gate

Photo: WTC plane crash

EDITORIAL . . . .

Barbarians at the Gate

by Vince Miller

Many things went through my mind as I witnessed the shocking events of September 11. First a feeling of horror at the terrible violence – and the thought of so many innocent people perishing in that hellish fireball.

Secondly, anger at the sight of such a barbaric assault on these great symbols of American capitalism.

Thirdly, shock: a loss of innocence, I guess – the same thing one experiences after having one's home burgled – only on a much more massive scale. The feeling that one could be safe in "fortress America" was smashed forever as I watched the great World Trade Center Towers crumbling, in agonizing slow motion, into clouds of dust and debris.

And lastly, as a libertarian, I realized that this event could have ominous repercussions for freedom in America . . . and the world.

In the following weeks, the extent of the horror sank in as the news reports poured in and the casualty count mounted. The great acts of heroism by firefighters and other rescue workers – and the outpouring of sympathy and support from Americans across the country (and the world) were inspiring, and helped temper the shock – but still there was this great weight on our backs – a sense of sorrow and impending doom. America was at war – and for the first time in our lives the battlefield included our own back yard.

One thing that kept flashing through my mind throughout all of this was the vital importance of pushing ahead with ISIL's work of expanding the worldwide movement for liberty and peace. Poverty, tyranny and violence surely are the breeding grounds for terrorism.

We at ISIL feel, as I'm sure you do, that the only real long-term solution for these problems is seeing the core ideas of libertarianism widely adopted: free markets, social tolerance, respect for the rights and dignity of each human being, and the smallest possible government, operating in the most decentralized manner possible.

A tall order, given our limited resources – but our ideas are powerful – and they are right. And they will prevail. To quote Margaret Mead, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed persons can change the world. Indeed it's the only thing that ever has."

After the attacks, we took a hard look at what unique role ISIL might be able to perform to help bring about peace and defuse the terrorist threat. On September 19th, we issued a special e-mail bulletin concerning the crisis and our preliminary plans. Response was very positive (a selection of them are presented in the "Letters to the Editor" column.

Note: Many of our members saw our e-message, but about half of the readers of "Freedom Network News" are NOT on the ISIL "World Freedom E-Bulletin list." The list is completely private, and the messages are normally short news bits sent out when the occasion warrants. They are designed to keep you informed of ISIL developments as they develop. We hope you will either send your e-address by mail, or contact: JamesRElwood@cs.com

The Roots of Terrorism

As the international wing of the libertarian movement, we have some positive suggestions and are making preparations to work (with the resources available at our command) to help bring about peaceful solutions – or at least plant some seeds. But first let's cast some light on the roots of this crisis – and later on look at some solutions.

Let me say that as much as we were shocked and deeply saddened by this tragedy, we were not surprised. For years we and other libertarians have warned that America's insane foreign policy could only end up in tragedy at home.

Some libertarians and Objectivists are claiming that the recent murderous attacks were motivated by a hatred of freedom, of America's wealth, or of our capitalist system. I don't believe that. Other relatively rich capitalist countries, like Switzerland, or Canada for instance, don't have their embassies bombed or suffer hostage takings or terrorist attacks. Whatever faults these countries may have, they each mind their own business.

John Pugsley in the Sovereign Individual newsletter states:

"It is not hatred for freedom or materialism that caused these individuals to sacrifice their lives in their attack. As Joseph Sobran said: 'You delude and flatter yourself if you think someone hates you for your virtues.' Their deep hatred is rooted in years of bullying by the US government, whose embargoes, bullets, bombs and cruise missiles have been brought to bear on them whenever American politicians felt it in their own interests to do so."

American journalist/architect Bevin Chu stated in the Taiwan Times:

". . . Now do you get it? Finally? Now do you understand why libertarians have insisted the world's only remaining superpower could not get away with dispatching carrier task forces and stealth bombers all over the world, casually inflicting 'collateral damage' from 15,000 feet on anyone we labeled 'evil,' blithely assuming the American public would remain safe and snug, immune from deadly retaliation?"

Foreign Policy Madness

Shortly after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, DC, Senator Orrin Hatch confessed that bin Laden has been on the CIA payroll since the early 1980s – and it was revealed that just five months ago, Secretary of State Colin Powell had given $43 million to Afghanistan in exchange for declaring that growing opium is "against the will of God" (another good reason to end America's disastrous "War on Drugs"). This was only a part of $125 million in foreign aid the US gave the Taliban this year. And of course this does not include the $3-billion given to ben Laden's forces in the battle with the Soviets. True, it helped bring down the "Evil Empire," but now those guns are turned on America.

And it goes on, and on. The US government provided Panama's dictator Manuel Noriega (another CIA operative) with $33.5 million and spent $8.2 million to train Panamanian military personnel at the Pentagon's International Military Education and Training Program. Prior to the Gulf War, the Reagan and Bush administrations supplied "critical military technologies" – including chemical weapons – that were used to build the Iraqi war machine for Saddam Hussein's war on Iran.

In Haiti, prior to US troops landing on their shores, the American government delivered $2.6 million in weapons to Haitian dictator Jean Bertrand Aristide.

In Somalia the US furnished $1-billion in aid to Somalia's oppressive government, including $154 million in weapons. When US troops arrived in the ill-fated 1993 peace-keeping mission, they were confronted with American-made M-16 rifles, machine guns, howitzers, armored personnel carriers, and anti-tank missiles.

According to the Cato Institute, from the end of World War II and the 1990s the US government has distributed more than $950 billion in foreign or military aid to more than 100 nations -- more often than not arming both sides of conflicts.

Americans need to be made aware of just how irrationally dangerous their foreign policies are – and how the failure to rein in these "beltway" guys and bring our troops home can only result in an escalation of terror – until suitcase nukes start going off in our major cities.

And there's the specter of increased roles for the UN and expansion of New World Order powers. Libertarians know all to well that further empowerment of these already-dangerous agencies is to be avoided at all costs.

Steve Mongomery and Steve Farrell, writing in the Sierra Times, stated:

"We (Americans) can do it alone. The internationalists tell us that these kind of problems are too big for any one nation to solve. What utter nonsense. Whose troops, aid, and technology have defended Europe for eighty years? Who paid for the rebuilding of Europe for eighty years? Who paid for the rebuilding of Europe after WWII, and continues to carry the brunt of Europe's defense budget today? Who has, for a half century defended Japan and Korea, and thus in essence, propped up their economies? Who was it, in fact, propped up the whole Communist world with George F. Kennan styled aid? Who financed and built the Kama River truck factory – the very factory that constructed the vehicles that invaded Afghanistan in the first place – thus leading to all its troubles?

"We can do it alone. We already have. We, it seems, were the financier of everything good – and so much of that which was bad – in this past century. The real solution is to concentrate on ourselves, stop aiding our enemies, and let the rest of the free world grow up. . ."

For factual information on the blunders of US foreign policy, the Cato Institute www.cato.org is a terrific source. Another great source is www.anti-war.com.

What We Can Do

Our greatest strength at ISIL is our global network of high-powered activists. We have some of the brightest, most knowledgeable and principled people on the planet in our membership. We have members and friends in many leading thinktanks and organizations who have access to considerable research facilities. We also have many fine writers, and some very good media spokespeople.

We plan to use our network structure and networking strategies as the basis for ISIL's "Libertarian Peace Offensive." Our challenge is two-fold – to do what we can to contain the current crisis, and to work on a long-term campaign of public education.

The stakes have never been higher. If we fail, at the very least the results could be a rapid move towards an Orwellian police state in America. A great leap forward to an authoritarian New World Order is also a spectre that raises its ugly head. And at worst it could escalate into a world war which could have unthinkable consequences for the entire human race.

We currently see the outlines of our peace plan to be the following:

(1) Help limit military response: We ask each of you to join with other libertarians around the movement in calling for a restrained military response. If we don't want to see many more thousands of people killed – including more American civilians – we as libertarians have to persuade people to keep their emotions under control and stop the knee-jerk "nuke the towelheads" sort of hysteria we're seeing too much of lately.

Tracking down bin Laden and his associates and administering stern justice should be an intelligence and information operation, not a military one. It's going to be dull, painstaking, quiet work to track these criminals down and get rid of them. These should be strategic surgical hits, not Rambo "shoot-em-up" scenarios executed in broad brush strokes.

As this is written, President Bush and the British have launched cruise missile attacks on Afghanistan. While this may be mostly political posturing and international live theater (the bad guys, if they have any brains at all, are long gone from this area) it is still risky. Collateral damage in bombing runs could add fuel to the rage around the Muslim world and possibly escalate the terror.

(2) Fight Back. We also need to stand tall for liberty here in America. It was the failure of security systems and victim-disarmament policies that left airline passengers and crew so totally defenseless – and which allowed these attacks to succeed. At the very least pilots should be carrying firearms. Most pilots are ex-military anyway and will most likely have small arms training. Even if they aren't proficient with small arms they should be. The airlines have a moral obligation to protect the lives of the passengers they have so thoroughly disarmed (not even deadly toenail clippers are allowed now, it seems).

Front Sight Firearms Training Institute in Nevada, a world leader in intensified courses in the defensive use of firearms, in the wake of the WTC disaster, has offered free training for all certified airline pilots and co-pilots in the country – so there's no excuse. And there are frangible bullets that are designed to break up upon hitting walls. These should prove useful in a fragile environment like an aircraft. Even if a perforated cabin and subsequent depressurization were to occur as a result of an armed confrontation with terrorists it would be far preferable to a major crash in which thousands might be killed – such as we saw in New York (the oxygen masks drop down, and the plane descends to lower altitudes -- no big deal).

Current gun laws have set up American citizens as "government certified defenseless prey." Victim disarmament does not seem like a very rational idea at the best times – but in times of war? Is Congress on the magic mushrooms again?

(3) Reducing longer-term conflict through the promotion of libertarian decentralist peace programs. This may be the area where ISIL with its world network can make the most unique contribution.

We have a good starting point. For 15 years, we have promoted the pathbreaking work of ISIL Advisory Board members and Nobel Peace Prize nominees Frances Kendall and Leon Louw, who prepared Swiss-style decentralist plans in their books South Africa: The Solution (published in the US as After Apartheid), Let the People Govern and Heart of the Nation.

Their work has inspired ISIL members around the world, including ISIL Rep Rigoberto Stewart with his Limón Real autonomy project in Costa Rica and ISIL Serbian Rep Tomislav Krsmanovic and his work to promote libertarian decentralization and human rights in the Balkans.

We need to develop versions that can apply to the Middle East, whether through geographic devolution of power, or through parallel legal systems for different religious or ethnic groups within a given territory. Dialogue on Middle East peace plans has already been established between ISIL, some Israeli academics, and libertarians in some of the Arab countries. This will now be pursued much more vigorously.

We are exploring our network for others who have expertise in the area, or know where to find research resources. The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is the most important one to deal with, but there will be others like Lebanon and the Kurds.

If you have ideas and information to accelerate these peace initiatives, please contact us. We will be encouraging dialogue and will publish the most interesting comments in the Freedom Network News -- as well as on our e-mail bulletins.

(4) Create a groundswell for liberty among the Muslim people. This is a long-term project, and the most challenging. But it is vital for world peace.

A very effective device for promoting liberty is whenever possible to use examples of libertarianism from a peoples' own history and culture. Fortunately, the history of Islam includes the Saracen Empire in the Middle East which was once one of the most libertarian societies in history. The Saracens were enjoying freedom, peace, prosperity, and great advances in science, medicine and learning while Europe was mired in the Dark Ages. (See Rose Wilder Lane's classic book "The Discovery of Freedom" for more details).

Many of the Islamic teachings are also pro-peace. They are the only major religion that explicitly condemns racism. ISIL Advisory Board member Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad has made a good start in compiling pro-liberty Islamic materials with his Minaret of Freedom Foundation (www.minaret.org).

Another starting point is a wonderful book that was produced in Pakistan by an ISIL rep. Titled In Search of Truth, it is a charming story about an ongoing (Socratic) dialogue between a wise old professor and young radical student that explores freedom as the solution to poverty and war. It is written in the verse format used in the Muslim world. Picture Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson written in the style of Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. We have the English version on disk (still in need of some minor editing). It will be put on line as soon as editing is finished. Finding a source for an Arabic translation would be valuable.

Of course, the terrible condition of most Muslim countries is due to statism. Most are overwhelmingly corrupt, backward and oppressive satrapies from which millions of the brightest and best have already escaped . . . to the West.

Development and launching of a massive educational campaign to bring liberty to the Middle East is a high priority for us. It's the only sure way to defuse the causes of terrorism. And it will greatly improve the daily life of the Muslim people.

Along the way, we must smash the fantasy held by many Arabs that destroying Israel will somehow suddenly make life grand.

Once again, any contacts and resources any of you may be able to provide to help get this process going will be appreciated.

Getting Started

We are working to form a coalition of libertarian organizations and key individuals to launch the various components of this libertarian peace "offensive".

Around the movement, we are grateful that the Advocates for Self-Government has launched an excellent special website about this crisis at www.theadvocates/terrorism.html. Our friends at the Cato Institute and the US Libertarian Party have also fought gallantly for non-interventionist foreign policy for years.

We will be sending progress reports as thing proceed. As I mentioned, being on the ISIL E-Bulletin list will be the easiest way to keep up with the latest developments.

One Final Note

For the last 20 years ISIL has been laboriously building a world libertarian movement. One need only attend one of our world conferences to see how much has been achieved. And we have done this with almost nothing – except sheer determination – and the support of our membership. There's no Ted Turner dumping a billion dollars on us as he did with the (evil) UN. So please maintain your support and help us expand our base.

We will need your help to be able to be effective with this peace initiative. If you are unable to afford a large lump-sum membership or contribution, please consider the alternative of an affordable monthly credit-card pledge. Once again, all contributions to ISIL are tax-deductible in the USA.

These are indeed interesting times – times of crisis. But the Chinese symbol for "crisis" contains not only the symbol for danger but opportunity as well. We urge you to help us seize the day.

"No one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. None can stand aside with unconcern; the interests of everyone hang on the result. Whether he chooses or not, every man is drawn into the great historical struggle, the decisive battle into which our epoch has plunged us."
Ludwig von Mises

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