republicans Archives - Antiwar.com

Against Stereotype, Budget Hawks and War Hawks Edition

French President Francois Hollande, by reputation, is an unlikely budget hawk; as a candidate for office, he ran against austerity measures. But the realities of governing sometimes complicate politicians’ promises. After taking office, the euro crisis is now forcing Hollande to pledge to cut the French budget deficit down to 3% of GDP by the … Continue reading

The Iron Fist in Tampa

As the Republican convention-goers gather in Tampa, Florida, the Republican party Establishment is eager to crush any public expressions of dissent — both inside and outside the convention hall. Inside, efforts are underway to make it impossible for delegates pledged to antiwar libertarian Ron Paul to place their candidate in nomination — an effort the … Continue reading

Grover Norquist Takes On the War Party

Grover Norquist is a bit of a punching bag for both the Hollywood–DC left and the neoconservative right. On the left, he’s often held up as an example of everything that’s supposedly wrong with the conservative movement and the GOP: his “no tax hike” pledge is excoriated by the Huffingtonpost–MSNBC–TPM axis of Obamaism as typical … Continue reading

Return of the War Party?

Is a vote for the Republican Party in 2012 a vote for war? Is a vote for Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich a vote for yet another unfunded war of choice, this time with a nation, Iran, three times as large and populous as Iraq? Mitt says that if elected he will move carriers into … Continue reading

Saturday Night Frights

Saturday’s GOP presidential debate focused on foreign policy, and it was a disgrace — not simply because of the moderators’ blatant disregard for Rep. Ron Paul (the only candidate from either political party advocating peace was given 89 seconds to speak in the first hour), and not simply because of the hideous lagging in the … Continue reading

No Party for Smart Men

There is no room in the Republican Party today for a noninterventionist conservative, at least in presidential politics. This flies in the face of many hopeful signals and predictions over the last year among conservative and libertarian writers — including some on these pages — that the Tea Party zeitgeist, combined with a federal budget … Continue reading

America’s Elites Look Out for Each Other

Excerpted from With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful by Glenn Greenwald, published October 25th by Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Copyright © 2011 by Glenn Greenwald. All rights reserved. Given the clarity of this law [Article 2 of … Continue reading

Clueless Republicans Demand More Militarism

While the Republicans who are running for president seem to have grasped the truth about the economic abyss that the country is peering into, there continues to be an air of unreality whenever the discussions turn to foreign policy and national security issues. Perhaps it is fortunate that the leading candidates rarely venture into those … Continue reading

Republicans Bungle War-Powers Pushback

Although John Boehner, speaker of the House of Representatives, laudably sent a recent letter to President Barack Obama suggesting the possibility of a violation of the War Powers Resolution in the attack on Libya, he was 90 days too late. Obama’s violation did not occur this past weekend, but when the first American aircraft attacked … Continue reading

Return of the Anti-Interventionist Right

Late last month, when U.S. air strikes caused civilian casualties in Afghanistan, an angry Hamid Karzai issued an ultimatum. If future U.S. strikes are not restricted, we will take “unilateral action” and America may be treated like an “occupying power.” That brought this blistering retort from one Republican hawk. “If President Karzai continues with these … Continue reading