The Warfare State: the Biggest Issue for Libertarians

I just realized that I've been doing an anti-state blog and have yet to have a good post about the American warfare state. I'm sorry. I should've done one sooner, but at least I can say this is still a fairly new blog.

The reason this is such an important topic is because war is the very lifeblood of the state. I'm sure you've heard that phrase before if you're familiar with the anarcho-capitalist/radical libertarian movement. I've actually had a lot of contact with the American military as a former Air Force brat. You don't realize the utter stupidity of the ONGOING Korean conflict until your dad has to deploy to the dreaded place for an entire year. He made multiple trips to the Persian Gulf but none of them were individually as long as the trip to S. Korea.

Even as a young child I could sense that there was at least something a little strange about American foreign policy. At one point I was told that the Gulf War was finished; that we won. I asked if Saddam Hussein had been defeated since he was, after all, the "bad guy." He wasn't, but I did not realize until years later that the reason he was not defeated was because the U.S. does not fight traditional wars for the purpose of "winning." No, instead the goal is to a) show off our military might and intimidate international deviants, b) turn a huge profit for the military-industrial complex, c) use it as an excuse to destroy civil liberties, and d) all of the above.

Also, as a former military brat, I can attest to the occupied-country's sense of indignation toward Americans who hog their land for military purposes. It was always a rather big thing in Okinawa, a 60-mile long island over-run by about a dozen or so U.S. military bases, including Kadena, the largest in the Pacific theater. Every once in a while, I would hear about the locals wanting to have sound-proof walls to muffle the jet blast. There were always a few Okinawan politicians who used "getting rid of the bases" as part of their platforms. The various Vietnam War movies have it correct when they illustrate the relationship between GIs and sex workers. On Kadena, it was pretty common knowledge that Gate 2 Street, leading off the base, was a complete red light district by nightfall. Wanton, underground sex goes well with the military lifestyle.

People tend to forget that there are not only a handful of bases left in S. Korea, but also in Germany and Japan as well. The occupation of Germany, thought to have ended in 1949, has never entirely rescinded, not as long as four installations remain. This just corroborates another point about how much land is wasted for military adventures. So much of our debt could be paid off if we simply sold the land that is possessed by the state yet hardly used (military and civilian alike).

Oddly enough, I don't know that I have as many clever insights to contribute to the libertarian anti-war school of thought. It's been so well covered already (see Murray Rothbard, Karen Kwiatkowski, Lew Rockwell, Butler Shaffer, and a whole lot more for a good dose). I'll admit it's rather difficult to convince the same lay people who don't have a clue about the number of countries in the world that the 700-some-odd U.S. military bases are absurd. I try to imbue people with Facebook statuses that put things into perspective. How well that works is anybody's guess.