In a his latest rant Libertarian writer, Jerome Tuccille equates Bush’s assault against Saddam’s Regime as a war against the “Iraqi” people:
Bush’s war against the people of Iraq is nothing less than a continuation of the imperialistic, colonialistic policies that have characterized European countries over the centuries, and U.S. foreign policy… [Stop Bush Now, March 27, 2003]
Pray tell, what the hell has Saddam been doing for the past decade in Iraq?
Now some may argue that I am painting Libertarians with an overly broad stroke. After all, some Libertarians support the war. To which I would argue that any “political philosophy” which includes both pro-war and anti-war views on Iraq is inherently contradictory, and is invalidated for that reason. Yet this is precisely what Libertarianism as a philosophy does–and by doing so it invalidates itself as a political philosophy in particular, and as a philosophy in general (since a given political philosophy necessarily assumes a larger philosophical foundation to be put into practice) as it provides no guidance on what actions are moral and proper in the political sphere.
What is needed is a political viewpoint based on the absolutism of individual rights (Objectivism provides this foundation nicely)–a philosophy that claims to support individual rights, but at the same time sanctions opposite “viewpoints,” merely muddies the waters leaving the individual rights based arguments diluted under a morass of eclectic statism posing as a defense of liberty.
Now some may argue that I am painting Libertarians with an overly broad stroke. After all, some Libertarians support the war. To which I would argue that any “political philosophy” which includes both pro-war and anti-war views on Iraq is inherently contradictory, and is invalidated for that reason. Yet this is precisely what Libertarianism as a philosophy does–and by doing so it invalidates itself as a political philosophy in particular, and as a philosophy in general (since a given political philosophy necessarily assumes a larger philosophical foundation to be put into practice) as it provides no guidance on what actions are moral and proper in the political sphere.
What is needed is a political viewpoint based on the absolutism of individual rights (Objectivism provides this foundation nicely)–a philosophy that claims to support individual rights, but at the same time sanctions opposite “viewpoints,” merely muddies the waters leaving the individual rights based arguments diluted under a morass of eclectic statism posing as a defense of liberty.