Ivan Eland

Ivan Eland is a senior fellow at the Independent Institute and author of Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty.

Reducing Defense … Cuts

The strength of the military-industrial complex (MIC) was made readily apparent by President Obama’s latest proposal to House Speaker Boehner to avoid the fiscal cliff. Other than raising taxes on rich Americans, Republicans have been most horrified by the fiscal cliff’s cuts in defense spending. With Obama’s most recent proposal, Republicans can relax because even … Continue reading “Reducing Defense … Cuts”

America’s Wars: The Gifts That Keep on Giving

The U.S. government recently designated the Syrian opposition group Jabhat al-Nusra Front a foreign terrorist organization. The move was designed to built Western support against the Syrian government by alleviating fears that money and weapons donated to the opposition would flow to a militant group. The designation means that Americans cannot have financial ties to … Continue reading “America’s Wars: The Gifts That Keep on Giving”

US Intelligence: Redundancy Increases as Budget Pressure Mounts

With a $16 trillion debt that is growing in yearly increments of more than $1 trillion (the annual budget deficit), the country facing future fiscal Armageddon, and talk of defense budget cuts, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is upping its game in collecting covert human intelligence — a field that has heretofore been dominated by … Continue reading “US Intelligence: Redundancy Increases as Budget Pressure Mounts”

Forget Benghazi and Focus on What Matters

For weeks and months, the foreign policy debate in the United States has focused on the non-issue of whether the Obama administration played politics with the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Although the more important issue should be how to improve the security of diplomatic facilities in Libya, Republican and media focus … Continue reading “Forget Benghazi and Focus on What Matters”

How Israel’s Assault on Gaza Is Like the War of 1812

What do Israel’s assault on Gaza and the American War of 1812 have in common? Much more than meets the eye. The stated purpose of the Israeli assassination of Hamas’s military leader, which provoked the conflict in Gaza, was to impede the group’s rocket firings on southern Israel. Yet the rocket fire has been going … Continue reading “How Israel’s Assault on Gaza Is Like the War of 1812”

The Real Petraeus Scandal

Nothing titillates the nation’s capital like a sex scandal masquerading as a policy controversy. The American news media will use any excuse to get into public officials’ private lives so it can try to achieve the ratings of Entertainment Tonight-style celebrity gossip shows while maintaining a veneer of “responsible journalism.” In America’s unique celebrity-driven culture, … Continue reading “The Real Petraeus Scandal”

Meddling in Mali

The United States is meddling in another internal civil war to prevent a “terrorist haven” from developing. This time it’s not in Somalia or Yemen but instead in the West African country of Mali. The United States and France are concerned that Islamists have taken over northern Mali, and the two countries are heavily leaning … Continue reading “Meddling in Mali”

Sumptuous Counterterrorism Spending Must End

More than 11 years after the 9/11 attacks, the American public is still barraged with sensational media coverage of the occasional uncovering of a terrorist plot. Many of these are so-called sting operations, which, rather than saving America from significant destruction from terror attacks, have the primary effect of showing off to the public how … Continue reading “Sumptuous Counterterrorism Spending Must End”

Middle East Peace Remains Elusive

Jimmy Carter recently made news by traveling to Palestine two weeks before a U.S. presidential election and berating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama, an American president of his own party, for — despite their rhetoric to the contrary — virtually abandoning the “two-state solution” for peace to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Carter additionally … Continue reading “Middle East Peace Remains Elusive”

The Enemy Is Among Us

We are regularly told by interventionists — whether they be U.S. government employees or neoconservative government wannabes — that the United States can readily determine who is friendly and who is not in remote civil wars in the developing world. The first basic rule in any war — whether it be a conventional or counterinsurgency … Continue reading “The Enemy Is Among Us”