Every so often I express amazement at intelligent, respectable, people quoting admiringly Justin Raimondo, of "antiwar.com," an infamous proto-fascist admirer of fascists, and staunch ally of Patrick Buchanan (Raimondo gave the nominating speech for Buchanan's Presidential campaign at the Reform Party convention).
What's truly amazing is that the people who are so respectful of Raimondo, a self-described "paleoconservative," are often leftists. Apparently the word "antiwar" is a magic cleanser.
Of course, Raimondo's "anti-war" stance is selective. He defends the Japanese attacks on China, the South Pacific, and Pearl Harbour, as entirely justified as "self-defense" while maintainng that the US should never have fought either the Japanese or Germans in WWII.
You may remember I'm sort of a fence-sitter when it comes to the Iraq war - while I think the US is morally justified invading Iraq, but I'm not convinced the war is in our best interest. It only makes things worse when Raimondo is regarded as a 'Libertarian' spokesman. I'd never heard of him before 9-11.
Posted by Walter at February 7, 2004 10:22 PMI am not one who will defend Justin. But I do have to wonder why you believe the US was "morally justified" in invading Iraq. I just don't see how we could have been morally justified in going to war. Remeber why we went to war in the first place, it wasn't because Saddam was a bad man he was just as bad when our government was funding his regime in the 80's. Remember we went in because Saddam MIGHT have some weapons of mass destruction, then he MAY give them to a terrorist, who then MIGHT be able to get said weapon over to the US soil, then they MAY be able to use it to cause some destruction. I don't know how you can say that this kind of reason for war constitutes moral justification.
Posted by: severin at February 9, 2004 01:50 PM Our declared motivations may have been muddled and our real reasons obscured, but that doesn't mean there was no good reason to remove Saddam.
That being said, I'm not convinced it was such a good idea. That's why I described myself as a fence sitter.
Justin Raimondo appears in the pages of Liberty going way back. Lemme dig out my back issues.
Posted by: Fûz at February 9, 2004 10:40 PMThe best justification to me seemed to be that it was an extention of the first Gulf War. But on the other hand is all the usual reasons not to go to war.
Posted by: Cal Ulmann at February 11, 2004 07:56 AM