Libertarian Musings
by Russell D. Longcore
[email protected]

Exclusive to TLE

I'm writing an article today because the esteemed editor of The Libertarian Enterprise asked readers to do so. I am an amateur, having only had articles published on rare occasion in other publications.

Of late, I have found an increasing desire to communicate my thoughts and beliefs on various topics. However, in most instances, letters to the editor of the local newspaper do not get published. Consequently, I get steamed about some current event, and find no relief valve for that steam. Perhaps this is the opportunity I have needed.

I do not have a particular topic for today's article... yet all related as I look at them though the Libertarian world view. Please be kind as you read through this article. I have come to Libertarianism over the last three years, having been a pretty radical Republican heretofore. There may be areas in which I still need more application of the principles of Liberty..... help me sort this stuff out.

Here we go.

An Iraqi Constitution

I've heard and read a lot recently about George Bush's speech to the United Nations, and specifically about his overture to the assembled statists and socialists that they assist in drafting a new constitution for the Iraqi people. Why are we asking the other nations of the world to get involved? How about presenting the Iraqis with the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the United States? It is arguably the greatest document on the history of mankind as regards self government. It strictly limits the powers and duties of the Federal Government, and reserves to the people the powers not acceded to the State. It fiercely protects individual property rights and freedom of religion. That freedom of religion stuff might just be attractive to Iraqis who are not Islamists. If our constitution is the greatest ever written, how is it that we would consider presenting Iraq with anything less?

I think the answer to this question is fairly evident. The Bush Administration, as most of the presidential administrations over the past 50 years, hates the Constitution. The Bushies are doing everything they can to bury the Constitution, not the least of which is waging an unconstitutional offensive war in the Middle East. It would be pretty difficult to advocate the adoption of a document that the Bush Administration, by their actions, are shredding on a daily basis.

Oil Revenues to Iraqi People

We have all heard George Bush state in speeches that the revenues generated from the crude oil under Iraq belong to the Iraqis. But, kindly stop just a moment and think about that statement. Under Saddam Hussein, the oil revenue belonged to the State, not individuals. The State was not the people of Iraq, it was the Hussein regime. In a constitutional republic, individuals own real property, including the mineral rights under that property. Then they are free to contract with others to extract those minerals and enjoy the revenue. How exactly is the Bush Administration going to honestly facilitate the return of the State-owned oil industry into the hands of individuals? Seems a daunting task to me, and one for which the Bush Administration is ill equipped philosophically..... they being the biggest of the Big Government types to come along in decades. Big Government advocates hate the concept of individual property rights.

Free Elections

Yet another Tar Baby for the Bre'r Wolf(owitz) Administration is the fa�ade of free elections in Iraq. How can elections be truly free when only those meeting Bush's approval may run for office? What will happen if the Iraqi populace rejects the candidates chosen by Bush, or simply refuses to vote at all? Might those Bushies experience some embarrassment by various kinds of rejection that the Iraqi populace may visit upon them? How about the kinds of retribution that the various factions and tribes in Iraq may visit upon the candidates themselves, who may be thought of as collaborators with a foreign invader?

Concluding this article, I assert that the Bush Administration is simply the logical end result of the socialism that has slowly seeped into nearly every pore of the sponge that is the American Federal Government. Socialism is the logical conclusion of any government that seeks to grow itself, and all governments seek to grow themselves. And, Humanism is the root of it all....the belief that the Creator God doesn't exist, and that man is the measure of all things and autonomous in his existence.

Thanks for reading.

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