Will the wars ever end? I often hear it stated that once the US invades a country it never withdraws its forces. Not completely. For instance, WW2 ended in 1945, but we still have troops in Japan and Germany. 

The media propaganda about troop reduction seems to never end. A good number of voters in this country consider the war in Iraq to be over even though it's not, ended by the great peace president Barack Obama, and the war in Afghanistan to be drawing down. Warmongering Republicans don’t help by reinforcing the illusion that Obama has ended wars by attacking him for a supposed weak foreign policy.    

Our country doesn’t even do some of its fighting under its own flag. We have instead allowed for our dirty work to be carried out under the NATO banner or by mercenaries who commit so many atrocities they have to change their company name every few years to keep negative publicity from catching up with them (e.g. Blackwater/Xe/Academi).

The real question is not will it end. It has to end. We’re broke. As Ron Paul has said, “The financial calamity is going to be much worse than anybody ever invading this country.” And yet the spineless hawks continue to bang the drums of war. Sanctions are passed and the stage is continually set for more war. So will we reach a point where we demand peace or will we just crumble internally as all great empires do. Sadly, my money is on the latter.

How many times have you seen the anti-war activist out on the streets with a Che shirt on (normally one size too small for some reason) trying to tell you all about how free markets are bad and capitalism is evil? How socialism is the only way to fight corporate interest and keep things fair for everyone? (Because obviously there are so many examples of this working well in history.)

I have come to the realization that the only way to truly advocate for peace in any realistic way is not by wearing the face of a violent revolutionary on your torso and yelling at people on the streets while sign waving, but rather to promote the ideas of  Austrians economics, free markets, and free trading with other nations. As Dr. Ron Paul has said many times, “Nothing promotes peace better than free trade. Countries that trade with each other generally do not make war on each other, as both countries gain economic benefits they do not want to jeopardize.”

So the secret to spreading world peace is economic freedom. As Daniel Griswold of CATO put it, “Much of the political violence that remains in the world today is concentrated in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa -- the two regions of the world that are the least integrated into the global economy.” This explains how so many lives have been lost in conflicts in Africa over the last 50 years; without sustained economic growth in most of Africa the result has been erratic violence. Peace is not socialism; peace is business.

Cook County has experienced some of the worst effects of the housing crisis of any area in the US. As it stands today, there are 199,778 homes (9.16% of all) that are vacant in Chicago.

As a resident of Cook County for a good portion of my life, I have seen the steady rise of foreclosures and abandoned homes up close over the last few years. In response to the largest inventory of foreclosed properties in nation, Cook County commissioner Bridget Gainer has proposed an item called the "Chicago Land Bank." This plan will allow an appointed panel to: claim eminent domain on abandoned homes and supercede bank foreclosures as banks have "no accountability to our local communities planning needs or wants," per Commissioner Gainer's report.

The plan goes further -- after seizure the county may transfer and acquire any property with an underwater mortgage through power of eminent domain.  The idea of taking homes and voiding contractual obligations seems very compassionate and helping the communtiy to some. 

Now, the funding the seizure and redevelopment will be supplied through Illinois' Tax Increment Finance project (or TIF). And they are only to be used to restore industrial development. In Cook County, districts that gain revenue from property taxes must give that money to the nearly 900 million-dollar reserves in the TIF funds. These revenue could be used to pay down our debt. However, with this newly created land bank, the excess revenue will be handed to unions responsible for building the project housings (or affordable housing) or to provide the new land bank with ability to rewrite mortgages.

Eleven years ago today, America was the victim of the most brutal terrorist attack in our history. Nearly 3,000 men, women, and children, were taken from us by “faceless cowards,” who crashed jumbo jets into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and western Pennsylvania (which did not meet its intended target thanks to the heroism of the passengers on board the hijacked United 93.)

We mourned as a nation then, and we still do today, as the peaceful world many of us knew gave way to a world of war, fear, and resolve. As for the area where those 110-story buildings once stood, there will soon be a new building that is as much a tribute to those lost as it is to American resolve and perseverance: One World Trade Center.