July 29, 2004
More on war and libertarian principles
Toward the end of a long post, Randy Barnett quotes extensively from my claim that strong Libertarianism is inconsistent with fighting foreign wars. He notes with resentment my rather impolite suggestion that Libertarians may be more concerned, in practice, with their own rights than with the rights of those who don't resemble them.
What he doesn't do, or even try to do, is answer my challenge: to explain how a Libertarian could support waging war abroad, given the certainty that doing so will violate the rights of others.
Just to be clear: I think that foreign wars are sometimes necessary for national self-defense and sometimes worth waging on humanitarian grounds. That's just one of many reasons I can't take Libertarianism seriously. But not being deeply versed in Libertarian doctrine, I might be wrong. If I am, I hope that Barnett or someone else will explain why.
