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In war, goes the old saw, the first casualty is truth. That was certainly the case in the Kosovo war/bombardment/whatever, but it is important to remind ourselves and others of the fact. Lies will certainly be told during the next conflict – and who among us can doubt that there will be a next conflict. … Continue reading “The First Casualty”

LIBERTARIAN AND GEORGIST Frank Chodorov (1887-1966) could well be called a libertarian’s libertarian. The eleventh child of Russian immigrants on the Lower West Side of New York, he was named Fishel Chodorowsky but was "always known as Frank Chodorov."1 A 1907 graduate of Columbia University, he had a textile business, followed by a mail-order clothing … Continue reading “Frank Chodorov: A Libertarian’s Libertarian”

The Betrayal of Democracy in Post-Soviet Georgia by Chad Nagle British Helsinki Human Rights Group Special to Antiwar.com 11/30/99 Maybe, when the Soviet Union collapsed, it was infeasible for the West to hold Nuremberg trials for all the Communist Party nomenklatura members who had hounded, arrested, imprisoned, tortured and executed dissidents and political prisoners for … Continue reading “The Betrayal of Democracy In Post-Soviet Georgia”

I wrote last week about the disappointment Steve Forbes has been in his foreign policy statements – essentially embracing Cold War nostalgia and Great Power clichés about the continuing need for the United States to be wary of enemies and especially to pursue a needlessly provocative policy toward China. Last week George Dubya weighed in … Continue reading “DUBYA’S EXPANSIVE VISION”

A Policeman’s Lot Is Not a Happy One – at Home and Abroad GOVERNOR EDWARD EYRE AND THE ‘JOYS AND SORROWS OF EMPIRE’ Edward John Eyre (1815-1901) was a great builder of the British Empire. After a career as a magistrate in Australia, where an occasional lake is named for him (occasionally there’s water in … Continue reading “A Policeman’s Lot Is Not a Happy One – at Home and Abroad”

While the war in Chechnya was preoccupying delegates to the OSCE summit in Istanbul last week another potential crisis was developing in the Balkans. On 14th November the small republic of Macedonia elected a new president, Boris Trajkovsky. But supporters of the losing candidate Tito Petkovsky – who led by a considerable margin in the … Continue reading “Macedonia: the Next Balkan Flashpoint”

Not so many years ago I really wanted to like Steve Forbes – and to tell the truth, I still can’t help liking him personally; I find his clumsy, crooked grin endearing and I think he’s one of the more substantive candidates American politics has coughed up in recent years. Before he started running for … Continue reading “THE FORBES DISAPPOINTMENT”

A PROGRESSIVE HISTORIAN Last week in a discussion of Charles Austin Beard, "isolationist" Progressive historian, I mentioned Beard’s influence on a number of younger scholars, among them William Appleman Williams and Murray N. Rothbard. Williams emerged in the late 1950s as the spearhead of New Left diplomatic history and has had an enduring influence on … Continue reading “William Appleman Williams: Premier New Left Revisionist”

It is Veterans Day today, which brings up the question of how to honor veterans of America’s various wars responsibly and honorably. I submit that the most sincere honor is paid by resolving not to allow our political leaders to get us involved in wars in which servicepeople are asked to give their lives in … Continue reading “HONORING VETERANS HONORABLY”

A PROGRESSIVE HISTORIAN Charles A. Beard (1874-1948) was a central figure in the American historical profession in the first half of this century. Born into a substantial Midwestern family in Indiana, he studied at Spiceland Academy, a Quaker institution. He spent 1898-1902 at Oxford University. He returned to the United States and by 1904 had … Continue reading “Charles Austin Beard: The Historian as American Nationalist”