The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power Gene Healy Cato Institute, 2008 367 pp. By Doug Bandow American liberty is dying. For years the process has been slow strangulation, as successive Congresses and presidents, irrespective of...
Washington is filled with politicians, policy analysts, journalists, pundits, and other know-it-alls. Why did it take seven and a half years after the Bush administration took office for one insider to make the simple observation: wars "should only be waged when...
There is a tragic consistency to Memorial Day year in and year out. Bereaved relatives visit gravesites of loved ones. Patriotic citizens wave flags and attend parades. Vote-seeking politicians wax eloquent about sacrifices made on behalf of freedom. This year was no...
Ain't My America: The Long, Noble History of Antiwar Conservatism and Middle-American Anti-Imperialism Bill Kauffman Metropolitan Books, 2008 284 pp. By Doug Bandow American politicians routinely chatter about peace while inaugurating war. Indeed, despite the...
Few countries are as tragic as Lebanon. Once viewed as the Switzerland of the Middle East, some three decades ago the country collapsed into a bitter civil war. The finely tuned sectarian political system fractured amidst numerous Christian and Muslim factions....
For decades most Americans weren't aware that there was a Georgia other than the southern state. Today most Americans probably still aren't aware that there is another Georgia. Yet U.S. officials are breathing fire at Russia for confronting the country of Georgia, a...
Christianity and War and Other Essays Against the Warfare State Laurence M. Vance Vance Publications (Pensacola, Fl.), 2008 418 pp. By Doug Bandow One of the great ironies of modern Christianity is how warlike many Christians are. Not all Christians, certainly. And...
Sen. John McCain is a man of physical courage and personal honor. He's also a warmonger, with little concern for those who would die in his military adventures. The Democrats won't say that. But it's the truth. Earlier this year Sen. Barack Obama was appearing at a...
We are winning in Iraq, so the administration tells us. Gen. David Petraeus has appeared on Capitol Hill to explain the winning strategy. But his equivocal endorsement of current policy never answered the question he posed to a reporter at the war's start:...
The conservative movement is dead. At least, anything resembling the traditional conservative movement. As represented by the Bush administration, Republican congressional majority, and right-leaning punditocracy, conservatism means more federal spending, an...
