Posts in "reconstruction"

By Roy Antoun at 7:09AM

Feb 24, 2010

Just a Question or Two...

Stuart Bowen On Tuesday night I paid a visit to 1333 H Street here in Washington, DC for what I thought would be an interesting debate over reconstruction issues in Iraq, an event held by the National Security Network.

Inspector General Stuart Bowen was present and delivered an interesting opening statement laying out his plans for fixing bureaucracy and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. He spoke proudly of the $53 Billion (of our tax dollars) that is being spent on reconstruction and the efforts the United States puts in “protecting its interests abroad.”

Why does the United States need interests abroad? It seems as if Mr. Bowen, a residue of the Bush Administration, is only promulgating a message of perpetual war, especially when he laid out his plans for reconstruction.

Ron Paul Votes "No" on Government Aid to Haiti

Ron Paul was the only Congressman yesterday to vote against a resolution to authorize government reconstruction plans for Haiti. His explanation for his vote is here, in which he argues that a US reconstruction plan is just a gateway to establishing Haiti as a long term US protectorate. This concern has been echoed by the non-profit Doctors Without Borders.

But even if we grant the US government the best of intentions, even if we dismiss these concerns as conspiracy, however dubious our reasons for doing so, we should still oppose US aid to Haiti. Extreme cases like this have a certain educational value, in that they separate the libertarian wheat from the chaff. They separate those whose libertarianism is rooted in a philosophical adherence to the non-aggression axiom and those whose libertarianism is only an emotional predisposition toward less government.

Libertarians and conservatives are right to argue that government welfare programs are immoral because they rob a certain subset of taxpayers for the benefit of a subset of tax consumers, and because the taxpayers never consented to the redistribution. Welfare programs are therefore legalized theft. No doubt many of the 411 congressmen to vote in favor of the Haiti resolution (I'm looking at you, Michelle Bachmann) have argued thusly. So how is the same extorted welfare for Haitians morally justifiable?