Thursday, November 19, 2015

Should France, Perhaps, Be Trying Liberty and Peace?

By Robert Wenzel

In response to the terrorist attacks in France, French President Francois Hollande has ordered more bombing raids on Syria. That is a sure way to push more Syrians toward ISIS. As if France hasn't already shown its military might in numerous spots in the Muslim world.

Eric Margolis writes:
France is a prime target because of its extensive and deepening military interventions in the Muslim world.  Some 10,000 French soldiers or airmen and large numbers of intelligence operatives are involved in Syria, Iraq, the Gulf, Libya, Chad, Mali and Ivory Coast.  France props up the authoritarian rulers of Algeria and Morocco

France is playing a central role in its former colonies, Syria and Lebanon.  Paris appears to have long-range plans for expanding its influence in the Levant, including installing regimes attuned to French policies.

French warplanes are bombing Syria and this writer believes French special forces have been  in combat in Syria, as they were in Libya when the western powers combined to overthrow the Khadaffi government.

In short, France has made many enemies for itself across the Mideast.
Is it any wonder why France is a prime target of terrorists?

On the domestic front, Hollande has called for a three-month state of emergency.

As all libertarians know, governments use crises to increase power. Hollande's actions, both on the foreign front and on the domestic front, are a perfect example of this.

The libertarian answer to the terrorist attack would be completely different.

The first step would be, of course, to bring all troops home that are stationed overseas and to stop the overseas bombings.

On the domestic front, protection would be left to the private sector. The idea that Hollande and his government-trained killers are going to defeat hidden terrorist cells by martial law is absurd.

Terrorists are patient, during a period of heightened military presence, they can just lay low. Or perhaps choose soft targets that exist even during the escalated military presence.

The best solution is to leave protection to the private sector. Certainly, not all venues are equal targets. Let each individual business decide what measures it wants to take n terms of protection.

Over time, to the degree the terrorists are driven by anger at French interventions that will pass as France withdraws from its overseas interventions. To the degree terrorists are somehow fanatics on a religious mission to kill infidels, French intervention overseas will never stop them. Nor will a state of emergency, which will only punish decent French citizens. The free market must be used to develop protection from fanatics to the degree such fanatics exist.The free market will be much more creative and efficient at protection, and less intrusive into daily life, then a bureaucratic military presence that will actually be easier for fanatics to circumvent,

In short, France should try peace and liberty.

 Robert Wenzel is Editor & Publisher at EconomicPolicyJournal.com and at Target Liberty. He is also author of The Fed Flunks: My Speech at the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Follow him on twitter:@wenzeleconomics
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3 comments:

  1. Seen and Unseen Dept:
    Libertarians should despise Reagan, right? After all he was Rothbard's bete noir for a while and betrayed the fledgling right/libertarian movement, right?
    But let's give the Gipper some credit where it's due. After the Lebanon Marine barracks outrage, he ignored the howls for revenge, and yanked our troops the hell out of there.
    http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/02/07/when-reagan-cut-and-run/
    Maybe it's a Nixon goes to China thing. Maybe Le Pen can pull it off? One can hope...

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    1. I think most libertarians agree that him pulling out of Lebanon was one of the few things that they can praise him on.

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