MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'foreign'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 01:57:03 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5181762&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F2wBwW5zdM10%2F By Malou InnocentOver the past decade, American taxpayers have lost as much as $60 billion dollars to massive fraud and waste in the nation building campaigns of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report released today by the Commission on Wartime Contracting. The independent panel confirms much of what we already know about rent-seeking in wartime; nevertheless, the panel details specific reconstruction projects and programs that display a stunning array of mismanagement: A modest $60 million agricultural development program in northern Afghanistan expanded to the south and east to the tune of $360 million. The cash-for-work program was intended to distribute vouchers for wheat-seed and fertilizer in drought-stricken areas. Today, the program spends $1 million a day. The panel reports,... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5181762 Wed, 31 Aug 2011 18:54:37 +0100 5181762 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5174592&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FDF-QGvJxLUk%2F By Christopher PrebleEarly this year, Cato hosted a half-day conference to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dwight David Eisenhower’s farewell address, commonly known as the military-industrial complex speech. I also spoke on this issue at Gettysburg College, where Eisenhower retired and wrote his memoirs, and I offered my thoughts on the significance of the speech in a review of James Ledbetter’s Unwarranted Influence: Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Military Industrial Complex. This is such a rich topic that Ben Friedman and I decided to host an encore presentation at the American Political Science Association’s annual meeting in Seattle. The panel will be held on Thursday, September 1, at 2 pm, in Hyatt Portland AB (Don’t ask me what that means. Consult the conference program fo... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5174592 Mon, 29 Aug 2011 16:37:33 +0100 5174592 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5174595&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FEHOVxW4xrnU%2F By David BoazThe Wall Street Journal covers a single day in Mexico’s drug war, a day on which 25 people died in separate incidents. The summary paragraphs tell a story of failure: Since President Felipe Calderón took office in December 2006, declaring war on traffickers, roughly 43,000 people have been killed in drug-related homicides here, according to government figures and newspaper estimates. The pace of killings is escalating. More than half the dead, 22,000, were killed in the past 18 months, a rate of one every 35 minutes…. Mexico’s murder rate has more than doubled, to 22 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2010, in just four years, a period that parallels the drug war. Before that, it had been falling steadily. In the U.S. the murder rate is about 5 per 100,000. Thi... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5174595 Mon, 29 Aug 2011 15:54:17 +0100 5174595 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5169529&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FY6WPdlxaypQ%2F By Justin LoganIllustration by John Camejo for the Washington Times In today’s Washington Times, I argue that commentators should not take a victory lap—especially for NATO—in the wake of the Libya campaign, and instead should ask what, if anything, the costly commitment does for American security. NATO, I argue, now constitutes a transfer payment from U.S. taxpayers (and their Chinese creditors) to bloated European welfare states. If the current Washington climate of austerity can serve any fruitful end, surely it should be to reconsider such foolish alliances. NATO was created to counter the Soviet Union, but its broader purpose in Europe was summed up in an apocryphal quote attributed to Lord Ismay: to keep “the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.�... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5169529 Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:09:26 +0100 5169529 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5159009&cid=t_154644_88_f&fid=38129&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Flifeinthefastlane%2FWZHV%2F%7E3%2Fs7S_ZPgTeFY%2F A case-based Q&A on the assessment and management of patients presenting with suspected rectal foreign bodies. (Source: Life in the Fast Lane) Life in the Fast Lane blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5159009 Tue, 23 Aug 2011 00:00:50 +0100 5159009 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5139688&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FDdqHQ1G_3zk%2F By Ted Galen CarpenterAfter weeks of very little movement either militarily or diplomatically in Libya, there are apparent developments on both fronts in recent days. Rebel forces, aided by NATO’s air support, finally appear to be advancing into western Libya and cutting off supply lines to Tripoli, the long-time stronghold of support for Muammar Qaddafi. And reports are swirling about secret negotiations that might provide a peaceful exit from the country for the aging dictator. Those developments underscore that U.S. and NATO officials urgently need to consider what strategy they intend to pursue if Qaddafi’s more than four-decade hold on power finally comes to an end.  That is more crucial for the leaders of the European members of the alliance, since Libya is located on Europe’s... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5139688 Thu, 18 Aug 2011 15:48:28 +0100 5139688 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5139700&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fjc6_ifTclLk%2F By Daniel IkensonRhetorically, President Obama is a champion of industry—as long as it’s green. To put our money where his mouth is, the president has already devoted over $100 billion in direct subsidies and tax credits to promote investment in solar panel, wind harnessing, lithium ion battery, and other industries he deems crucial to “winning the future.” (See Economic Report of the President, 2011, P. 129, Box 6-2 “Clean Energy Investments in the Recovery Act” for a list of some of those subsidies.) Concerning those industries, the president said in his 2010 SOTU address: Countries like China are moving even faster… I’m not going to settle for a situation where the United States comes in second place or third place or fourth place in what will be ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5139700 Tue, 16 Aug 2011 17:57:17 +0100 5139700 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5130728&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FxDXT_bThQMU%2F By Christopher PrebleA wave of violence spread across Iraq today with 70 dead and some 300 injured. Iraqi security forces are blaming al Qaida affiliates, but no group has officially claimed responsibility. The New York Times puts the events in context: Coming a little less than two weeks after the Iraqi government said it would negotiate with the United States about keeping some of its 48,000 troops here after the end of the year, the violence raised significant questions about the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces. This is indeed a tragic loss of life, but this level of violence actually has become less common and usually occurs when the Iraqi government is making important decisions on the future of the country and U.S. troop presence. Each time a bomb is detonated in Iraq, comm... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5130728 Mon, 15 Aug 2011 18:41:59 +0100 5130728 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5125967&cid=t_154644_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FLSYf4qbxl5I%2F In another instance in which a drugmaker appears to have bribed overseas officials, Pfizer has “voluntarily” provided the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission with information concerning “potentially improper payments” made by Pfizer and Wyeth personnel in connection with certain unspecified sales activities outside the US. The move comes amid increased scrutiny by the feds into the pharmaceutical industry and its interactions with foreign health care systems. In late 2009, the head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division warned drugmakers that there will be more criminal enforcement against interactions with foreign officials as they seek violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (see here). In April, Johnson & J... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5125967 Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:36:53 +0100 5125967 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5118603&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FHUeY2V4PkxI%2F By Justin LoganYesterday, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland made the following comment regarding China’s maiden voyage in the old Varyag carcass it has been tinkering with for over a decade: We would welcome any kind of explanation that China would like to give for needing this kind of equipment. This echoes Donald Rumsfeld’s remarks at the 2005 Shangri-La Dialogue in which he puzzled in quintessentially Rumsfeldian fashion: Since no nation threatens China, one must wonder: * Why this growing investment? * Why these continuing large and expanding arms purchases? * Why these continuing robust deployments? Maybe, like me, the Chinese are reading Aaron Friedberg’s new book on U.S.-China security competition (Friedberg worked on Asia for Vice President Cheney). Perhaps high-ra... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5118603 Thu, 11 Aug 2011 19:22:51 +0100 5118603 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5118607&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FsIhHwzm_3Z0%2F By Jim HarperWith the Department of Homeland Security constantly spinning out new projects and programs (plus re-branded old ones) to investigate you, me, and the kitchen sink, it’s sometimes hard to keep up. But I was intrigued with a report that behvaior detection officers are getting another look from the Transportation Security Administration. Behavior detection is the unproven, and so far highly unsuccessful (Rittgers, Harper), program premised on the idea that telltale cues can reliably and cost-effectively indicate intent to do harm at airports. But there’s a new behavior detection program already underway. Or is it interrogation? Due to a bottleneck at the magnetometers in one concourse of the San Francisco airport (no strip-search machines!), I recently had the chance... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5118607 Thu, 11 Aug 2011 12:43:58 +0100 5118607 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5096169&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FZOrZ812LqXk%2F By Benjamin H. FriedmanThe legislation signed by President Obama yesterday, as a solution to the debt ceiling debate, includes the possibility of cuts to military spending. But as Chris Preble points out, the legislation guarantees no defense cuts. Republicans will try to dump all the required cuts on non-defense areas. And the White House has already distanced itself from the prospect of any real defense budget cuts, as did Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. Both support only the first round of cuts, which will at best halt Pentagon growth at roughly inflation. On The Skeptics blog, I take a more detailed look at deal’s likely impact on military spending. I also examine its political effect, arguing that it will cause at least four political fights. The first concerns war fun... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5096169 Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:29:42 +0100 5096169 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5086142&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fvob1l9ZUg34%2F By Christopher PrebleThe budget deal announced last night offers two sets of potential cuts in military spending. The first set of potential cuts, created by the budget caps, target “security” spending. That includes the Pentagon, State, foreign aid, the Department of Homeland Security and Veterans (the discretionary portion of Veterans spending, to be precise). The deal caps “security” spending at $684 billion for this fiscal year and $686 for the next. That requires little pain; the 2012 security cap is only $5 billion below what we’ll spend on those categories in fiscal 2011. The White House claims that the caps will generate $350 billion in savings from base defense spending for ten years. They get there, dubiously, by projecting security spending at the capped le... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5086142 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 18:15:34 +0100 5086142 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5077655&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FrcxAW_y4kgo%2F By Malou InnocentThe same week U.S. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta declared “we’re within reach of strategically defeating al-Qaeda”—an assessment that many believe reflects the efforts of seven years of CIA drone strikes—former director of national intelligence Dennis Blair called America’s “unilateral” drone war in countries like Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia a mistake. “Because we’re alienating the countries concerned,” Blair said, “because we’re treating countries just as places where we go attack groups that threaten us, we are threatening the prospects of long-term reform.” Given that our Nobel Peace Prize–winning president has drastically escalated the use of these flying, robotic hitmen, there seems to be some confusion at the White House. Speaking t... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5077655 Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:05:04 +0100 5077655 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5077657&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FikJxoPNKE-4%2F By Doug BandowSen. John McCain has exhibited personal courage, but his geopolitical judgment is uniformly awful.  Over the last 30 years there has been no war or potential war that he has opposed.  In 2008 he wanted to confront nuclear-armed Russia over its neighbor Georgia, which started their short and sharp conflict.  It would have been ironic had the Cold War ended peacefully, only to see Washington trigger a nuclear crisis in order to back Georgia as it attempted to prevent the territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia from doing what Kosovo did with U.S. military aid:  achieve self-determination (by seceding from Georgia). Now Senator McCain is banging the war drums in Libya.  But he seems to have trouble remembering who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. Although n... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5077657 Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:49:40 +0100 5077657 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5077659&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FqQqjfL3BAxo%2F By Doug Bandow Many advocates of promiscuous military intervention angrily reject the claim that America is an “empire.” Granted, the U.S. doesn’t directly rule its imperial dependents. But Washington policymakers do insist on maintaining a military presence wherever and whenever possible, irrespective of America’s defense needs. The Obama administration’s attempt to pressure the Iraqi government into “inviting” the U.S. to remain is almost comical. Rather than requiring Baghdad to demonstrate why a continuing American presence is necessary, U.S. officials have been begging to stay. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said: “I hope they figure out a way to ask.” His successor, Leon Panetta, recently blurted out: “dammit, make a decision.” However, it is Washington t... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5077659 Thu, 28 Jul 2011 19:16:07 +0100 5077659 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5069439&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fn5jkkHOeR68%2F By Christopher PrebleA front-page story in today’s Washington Post reports that al Qaeda is a shadow of its former self, and finds that there is even talk among senior defense and intelligence officials of the organization’s imminent demise. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta declared during a recent visit to Afghanistan that “we’re within reach of strategically defeating al-Qaeda.” The comment was dismissed by skeptics as an attempt to energize troops while defending the administration’s decision to wind down a decade-old war. But senior U.S. officials from the CIA, the National Counterterrorism Center and other agencies have expressed similar views in classified intelligence reports and closed-door briefings on Capitol Hill, officials said. “There is a swagger within... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5069439 Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:13:05 +0100 5069439 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5069442&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fce8sbIDKoeA%2F By Julian SanchezBack in May, during the debates over reauthorization of the Patriot Act, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mark Udall (D-CO) began raising a fuss about a secret interpretation of the law’s so-called “business records” authority, known to wonks as Section 215, arguing that intelligence agencies had twisted the statute to give themselves domestic surveillance powers Congress had not anticipated or intended. At the time, I marshaled a fair amount of circumstantial evidence that, I thought, suggested that the “secret authority” involved location tracking of cell phones. Wyden backed off after being promised a secret hearing to address his concerns—but indicated he’d be returning to the issue if he remained unsatisfied. The hearing occurred early ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5069442 Tue, 26 Jul 2011 21:36:26 +0100 5069442 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5062225&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FmUjuFzdO54U%2F Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass has just published an article in Time magazine (also available here) that challenges many of the comfortable nostrums guiding U.S. foreign policy for at least the last twenty years. He scores a 9 out of 10 in his analysis of what is wrong: we have an inordinate fear of things that shouldn’t be that frightening; we have a misplaced faith in our ability to fix nettlesome problems in distant lands; and we repeatedly stumble into costly and counterproductive wars that we should generally avoid. Haass then proposes a new doctrine to “help establish priorities and steer the allocation of resources” and “that fits the U.S.’s circumstances.”  It is one that judges the world to be relatively nonthreatening and... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5062225 Mon, 25 Jul 2011 14:53:14 +0100 5062225 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5057714&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FJnvIEsa1Mhk%2F An op-ed by Peter Singer and Michael O’Hanlon in today’s Politico questions the impact of spending cuts on the military. “Substantial defense budget cuts are possible, make no mistake,” the Brookings’ scholars concede, “But they could mean loss of capability, and some may increase security risks.” Another Brookings scholar, Robert Kagan, is more emphatic, telling Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post that “[The proposed cuts are] utterly irresponsible and dangerous to national security.” Max Boot agrees. Cuts of up to $1 trillion over the next 10 years “would be nothing short of a disaster.” Lawmakers who are considering such cuts, Boot claims, “are flirting with eviscerating American combat capabilities — and with it t... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5057714 Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:53:00 +0100 5057714 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5050525&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FdnUNNsrIN_0%2F It’s tempting to believe that the Transportation Security Administration’s move to change the software in strip-search machines is a response to the court ruling finding that it violated the law in rolling out the machines, but it’s almost surely coincidence. The new software will show items that the software deems suspicious on a generic outline of a body rather than showing a detailed body image. The change will indeed reduce the invasiveness of the machine strip-search process. And because the image is less revealing, it can be viewed in the screening area instead of at a remote location. That means there doesn’t need to be a person dedicated to looking at denuded images of travelers. A major cost of running these machines—payroll—drops by a substanti... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5050525 Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:58:41 +0100 5050525 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5050526&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FkEln6-tme7A%2F Stories in DoD Buzz and the Christian Science Monitor this week cover a new Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment report on the Pentagon’s 2012 budget request. Both articles focus on the insightful section of the report explaining how the post 9-11 defense spending explosion has barely increased our war-fighting capacity. Unfortunately, both echo the report’s claim that all money spent on cancelled programs is money wasted and an indictment of the Pentagon acquisition system (page 36 and 37). Here’s how the Monitor put it: The new spending involves considerable waste, the report says. The Pentagon has spent nearly $50 billion since the 9/11 attacks on weapons systems that it never used due to technological failures or cost overruns, according to the study. “These are weapon... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5050526 Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:57:56 +0100 5050526 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5050533&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F5u6T3HrgOP0%2F Homeland Security Newswire reports: Last week, DHS officials chastised Representative Jason Chaffetz (R – Utah) for disclosing sensitive security information to the press. In a letter, Joseph Maher, DHS’s deputy counsel, scolded Chaffetz, the chair of the House Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense, and Foreign Operations, for openly discussing “sensitive security information” provided by the Transportation Security Administration(TSA). Maher wrote, “This document was marked as [Sensitive Security Information] and provided clear notice that unauthorized disclosures of the document violated federal law.” The letter comes in response to Chaffetz’s comments last week that revealed that there have been more than 25,000 security breaches at U.S. airports since Novemb... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5050533 Wed, 20 Jul 2011 13:58:41 +0100 5050533 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5008143&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F0Oghdzknxb8%2F By Benjamin H. FriedmanThe mythical al Qaeda is a hierarchical organization. After losing its haven in Afghanistan, it cleverly decentralized authority and shifted its headquarters to Pakistan. But central management still dispatches operatives globally and manages affiliates according to a strategy. The real al Qaeda is a fragmented and unmanageable movement. In the 1990s, it achieved limited success in getting other jihadists to join in attacking the West. It was not managerial innovation but the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and other governments’ pressures that destroyed  the limited hierarchy al Qaeda Central had achieved. Its scattered remnant in Pakistan controls little locally and less abroad. The leaders have cachet but lack the material incentives that real managers distribute ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5008143 Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:53:48 +0100 5008143 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5008146&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FD05UyuVj7sQ%2F By Justin LoganYesterday, AEI scholars Dan Blumenthal and Michael Mazza authored an interesting op-ed in the Wall Street Journal with a perplexing title: “Asia Needs a Larger U.S. Defense Budget.” There are a couple of more sensible arguments you could make: For instance, that Asian countries need larger defense budgets, or that U.S. interests in Asia require larger military expenditures that Asian countries can’t or won’t make themselves . Blumenthal and Mazza gesture at both of those arguments but don’t really make either one. As such, the piece is an emblem of what’s wrong with the Asia policy discussion–to the extent it exists–in Washington today. In the opening paragraph, the authors state that “it is…difficult to assess how ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5008146 Wed, 06 Jul 2011 20:07:16 +0100 5008146 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5008149&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F-PAiuE7VqFc%2F By Julian SanchezLast week—on the Thursday before a major holiday weekend—the annual Wiretap Report was finally released by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, fully two months behind schedule (the first time in over a decade it’s been so late). While we often focus on the growth of the surveillance state in the context of national security and the War on Terror—such as foreign intelligence wiretaps, which aren’t counted in this report—it’s clear that surveillance is on the rise for ordinary law enforcement purposes as well. State and federal investigators obtained 3,194 wiretap orders in 2010, an increase of 34 percent over the previous year, and a whopping 168 percent increase over 2000. Only one wiretap application was denied—which you can choose to... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5008149 Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:00:27 +0100 5008149 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5008152&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FO0LDr-urCMY%2F By David BoazThe Asian edition of the Wall Street Journal has just published essays by two Chinese liberal scholars who have spoken and written for the Cato Institute. Mao Yushi created quite a storm in China with his article on the website of Caixin magazine criticizing Mao Zedong (no relation). He received threatening phone calls and warning visits. Nevertheless, he has now published a version of the essay in English, translated by my former colleague Jude Blanchette, now working in China for the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. It’s still pretty tough: Mao Zedong was once a god. With the uncovering of more and more documents and information, he is gradually returning to human form. Some still view Chairman Mao as a god, however, and view any critical discussion of him as blasph... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5008152 Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:27:06 +0100 5008152 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4992656&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FBcvfvdOFEAU%2F By Christopher PrebleProps to Grover Cleveland at Pileus for his short but perceptive take on David Greenberg’s op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times. Cleveland places the piece in the “Not Worth a Read” category and asks: Hasn’t this kind of simplistic “history” and inaccurate categorization of today’s critics of liberal internationalism/neoconservatism been written about a million times already?  And aren’t these types of pieces really just rhetorical bullying to prevent a serious discussion of American foreign policy? Answer: Yes, and yes. And Cleveland is hardly the first to make this observation. (e.g. here, here, and here)   As with other writers who have crawled out of the woodwork recently to write about isolationism (so-called), Greenberg is sure that it&... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4992656 Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:46:11 +0100 4992656 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4992661&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FVYLgI9h4gXQ%2F By David BoazA strong majority of voters in Virginia, a state that is home to the Pentagon, Naval Station Norfolk (the world’s largest naval base), U.S. Joint Forces Command, and the fourth highest percentage of veterans of any state, want American troops out of Afghanistan and Libya. According to a Quinnipiac University poll, 55 percent of Virginians polled think the United States “should not be involved in Afghanistan now,” and 60 percent oppose involvement in Libya. According to the poll, fewer Virginians support those wars than any of the other people or topics the poll asked about. Only 38 percent now support the Afghan war, and 31 percent support the Libyan military involvement, compared to 42 percent who don’t want to repeal the 2010 health care law, 43 percent ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4992661 Fri, 01 Jul 2011 13:53:47 +0100 4992661 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4975832&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F95kWXhww15U%2F By Gene HealyMy Washington Examiner column this week is on TSA, the federal agency that’s its own reductio ad absurdum. In the latest TSA atrocity, the agency forced a wheelchair-bound, 95-year-old leukemia patient to remove her adult diaper, for fear she might be wired to explode. “It’s something I couldn’t imagine happening on American soil,” her distraught daughter told the press: “Here is my mother, 95 years old, 105 pounds, barely able to stand, and then this.” My God, what is she on about? Proper procedure was followed! As I point out in the column: in a classic case of “mission creep,” TSA is taking its show on the road and the rails. Remember when, pushing his bullet-train boondoggle in the 2011 State of the Union, President Obama cracked that it would... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4975832 Tue, 28 Jun 2011 13:29:46 +0100 4975832 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4975837&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FXx6o1w2QaFM%2F Discussion This Wednesday, 4:00 p.m. is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4975837 Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:25:14 +0100 4975837 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4975843&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FyvtMdMJYGYM%2F By Jim HarperNews that Transportation Security Administration officers required a 95-year-old cancer patient to remove her adult diaper for search lit up the social media this weekend. It’s reminiscent of the recent story where a 6-year-old girl got the pat-down because she didn’t hold still in the strip-search machine. TSA administrator John Pistole testified to a Senate hearing that the agency would change its policy about children shortly thereafter. So, should the TSA change policy once again? Almost certainly. Will it ever arrive at balanced policies that aren’t punctuated by outrages like this? Almost certainly not. You see, the TSA does not seek policies that anyone would call sensible or balanced. Rather, it follows political cues, subject to the bureaucratic prim... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4975843 Mon, 27 Jun 2011 13:20:32 +0100 4975843 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4968454&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F7MfQLX26LBU%2F By David BoazBack in the day (February 2008), a senator named Barack Obama said, “I opposed this [Iraq] war in 2002. I will bring this war to an end in 2009. It is time to bring our troops home.” The following month, under fire from Hillary Clinton, he reiterated, ”I was opposed to this war in 2002. . . . I have been against it in 2002, 2003, 2004, 5, 6, 7, 8 and I will bring this war to an end in 2009. So don’t be confused.” Indeed, in his famous “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow” speech on the night he clinched the Democratic nomination, he also proclaimed, “I am absolutely certain that generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that . . . this was the moment when we ended a war.” So now the Congressional Budget Of... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4968454 Sat, 25 Jun 2011 21:49:05 +0100 4968454 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4968455&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FQ_UXIePt7DU%2F By John SamplesThe House of Representatives has taken two votes on the war in Libya. In the first, the House voted 295 to 123 against authorizing the war. 70 Democrats voted or 36 percent of the caucus voted against authorization. That’s pretty impressive given that the Secretary of State made a personal appeal to her fellow partisans prior to the vote. Eight Republicans said “yes” to war in Libya, a smaller number than I would have expected. Partisanship, deficits, and elections do matter, I suppose. On the other hand, the House also refused to cut off most funding for the war by a vote of 180-238.  Some 36 Democrats voted to cut off most funding; 144 Republicans joined them. This bill was said to be gaining strength but in the end, not nearly enough votes came over. ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4968455 Fri, 24 Jun 2011 20:49:05 +0100 4968455 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4968461&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FW7IHueScpvE%2F By John SamplesAs Congress begins (perhaps!) to hold up its end of the invitation to struggle over the Libyan adventure, Chris Preble, Gene Healy and I have prepared a video explaining what’s at stake in this latest American war. The War in Libya and Limited Government is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4968461 Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:32:37 +0100 4968461 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4960042&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FdIgkSA8z8qo%2F By Malou InnocentIn the last three years, the United States has tripled the number of troops in Afghanistan, increased the number of drone strikes in neighboring Pakistan, and killed Osama bin Laden—the highest of high-value targets. President Obama has more than enough victories under his belt to stick to his timeline and substantially draw down the number of troops from Afghanistan. Still, the pace of America’s withdrawal and the size of its residual combat presence, even after his decision Wednesday, will depend on two things: negotiations with the Taliban and political pressure to stay the course. These two factors will feature prominently in the months ahead, as the administration reconfigures the strategy and objectives for winding down the 10-year campaign. First, although many ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4960042 Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:33:35 +0100 4960042 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4960044&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fq6No5EoD8cM%2F By Christopher PrebleOver at World Politics Review, Justin Logan and I collaborated on an article about the supposed rise of  ”isolationism” within the GOP. The charges come mainly from Sen. John McCain, though presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty copped that line yesterday, drawing praise from the editors of The Weekly Standard. McCain directed his “isolationism” fire late yesterday at West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, one of 27 senators who signed a letter to the president calling for a substantial troop reduction in Afghanistan. On the floor of the Senate, Manchin explained his reasoning: “I believe it is time to for us to rebuild America, not Afghanistan.” According to McCain, Manchin’s comments “characterize the isolationist withdrawal,... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4960044 Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:02:27 +0100 4960044 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4960046&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F4VuHWlf7gf8%2F By David BoazToday’s Politico Arena question is about what President Obama should say in his speech tonight about Afghanistan. My response: If the president indeed withdraws 30,000 troops by the end of 2012, then we will still have about 70,000 troops in Afghanistan more than 11 years after the war began, and twice as many as President Bush deployed. If we can’t do whatever we want to do in 10 years, when will we achieve our purposes? U.S. troops have overthrown the Taliban and dispatched Osama bin Laden, and it’s time to end this war. Tonight, on June 22, the president should pick up some language from another June speech and tell the nation, “Generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we ended a war.&#822... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4960046 Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:54:03 +0100 4960046 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4960069&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fvariations-in-retrieving-a-foreign-body-from-the-stomach%2F2011.06.22 I have observed extreme variation in how my colleagues manage GI foreign-body retrieval from the stomach. Some always use general anesthesia and endotracheal intubation; others (myself included) use conscious sedation. Some use an overtube to withdraw the object into if possible; others simply pull it up to the endoscope and use the endoscope to guide it through the esophagogastric junction and upper esophageal sphincter. The reasons for this variation are clearly related to the perceived risk of airway compromise or gastrointestinal wall injury during withdrawal of the object from the stomach. So my questions to you are: 1)      When do you ask for endotracheal intubation during foreign-body retrieval? 2)      Do you use an overtube when removing foreign bodies from the stomach... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4960069 Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:00:52 +0100 4960069 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4952792&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FDx3xqqVqUR8%2F By Christopher PrebleTomorrow night, President Obama will announce how many troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan over the next 18 months. CNN.com reported this morning that the president is expected to announce a plan that would bring all 30,000 “surge” troops home by the end of 2012. This would give them two more fighting seasons in Afghanistan. The Los Angeles Times reported administration and Pentagon officials told them 10,000 troops will leave Afghanistan by the end of this year. In an effort to quell the leaks, White House officials told Fox News that Obama has not made a final decision and that the reporting is “all over the map.” But we should not allow this speculation over troop numbers to distract us from the bigger picture. Even if by the end of 2012 the size of th... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4952792 Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:11:20 +0100 4952792 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4952794&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FII6rtUWA2_4%2F By Gene HealySo for three months now, we’ve been at war in a country that the president’s own secretary of defense admits is “not a vital interest for the United States.” Turns out, it’s also a war that the president’s own attorney general believes to be illegal. That’s what I get from Charlie Savage’s recent reporting on how the White House “forum-shopped” its way to its current position on the War Powers Resolution, to wit, you’re not engaged in “hostilities” if you’re hitting someone but they can’t hit you back. As the WPR’s 60-day deadline approached, the Pentagon’s general counsel and, more importantly, the head of the president’s Office of Legal Counsel, Caroline D. Krass, advi... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4952794 Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:26:01 +0100 4952794 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4952799&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FczRzl1vXuRE%2F By Ilya ShapiroIn 1920, the Supreme Court decided an obscure case concerning the implementation of a treaty between the United States and Canada regarding migratory birds. Tucked into Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’s five-page decision in Missouri v. Holland was a sentence that expressed a truly startling idea: that Congress can transcend its enumerated powers via its power to implement treaties. That is, although Congress has no enumerated power to pass, say, general criminal laws, if a ratified treaty with France demands that we pass such laws, then Congress’s power expands to allow for such legislation. Thus, foreign nations and the executive branch are given the power to change, almost at will, one of the most hotly debated and carefully crafted sections of the Constitution,... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4952799 Mon, 20 Jun 2011 20:35:51 +0100 4952799 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4952804&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F04p9GU35RGM%2F By Daniel J. MitchellOne of the tax increases buried in Obamacare was an onerous and intrusive “1099″ scheme that would have required businesses to collect tax identification numbers for just about any vendor and then send paperwork to the IRS whenever they did more than $600 of business. Send one of your sales people to New York for a couple of nights? They would have to get the tax ID for the hotel and submit a form to the IRS. Buy a printer for the office? The printer company would need to provide a tax ID and the purchaser would have to submit a form to the IRS. o Have a retirement dinner for somebody in the accounting department? Get the restaurant’s tax ID and submit another form to the IRS. This system was seen as a nightmare, even leading to rather amusing cartoons mocking ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4952804 Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:55:16 +0100 4952804 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4952805&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F1rQIWfTFO8c%2F By Gene HealyAs David Boaz notes below, a few blocks away at 17th and M, the foreign policy and defense analysts at the American Enterprise Institute have discovered a threat that’s even more disturbing than the possibility of a Chinese “Space Force” armed with particle-beam weapons [.pdf].  It seems there’s a spectre haunting America–the spectre of “isolationism.” It’s such a threat that AEI, one of our leading conservative think tanks, is calling on President Obama to man the bully pulpit and use his magic rhetorical skills to raise awareness. I did a double-take on Tuesday when I saw a post at AEI’s blog titled, “With Growing Isolationism, We Need Obama to Lead Now More Than Ever.” And yet, when I got up the next day, I ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4952805 Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:55:18 +0100 4952805 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4952806&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FTabNtc9_JBI%2F By David BoazAt the Encyclopedia Britannica Blog, I take a look at the new hysteria about “isolationism” in the Republican party. There’s lots of hand-wringing at the American Enterprise Institute, and the Sunday morning shows were full of denunciations. But, I note: What they’re really worried about is not so much the Republican leaders as the people. The country folk just don’t see the British coming any more. Rubin noted “a distinct isolationist streak that was very much in evidence in the questions from the audience last night.” Della Rocchetta’s main concern was “a growing isolationist sentiment espoused by the U.S. public”… But here’s the specter that is haunting the neocons, a graph from the Pew center (using Gallup data) showing a striking ri... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4952806 Mon, 20 Jun 2011 12:55:52 +0100 4952806 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4934097&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FQifV1CO3_to%2F By Gene HealyPardon the somewhat trite Orwell reference in the title to this post. But sometimes this administration’s wordgames make it hard to resist invoking our keenest analyst of politics and the English language. Some months ago, the Obama team began telling us that the Libyan War wasn’t a war—it was a “kinetic military action.” (Go here to watch Defense Secretary Robert Gates try—and fail—to maintain a straight face selling that line to Katie Couric on 60 Minutes). In April, the president’s Office of Legal Counsel made the (bogus) argument that the president hadn’t violated the War Powers Resolution because the WPR recognized his authority to engage in hostilities for at least 60 days without congressional approval.  We’re... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4934097 Thu, 16 Jun 2011 20:40:16 +0100 4934097 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4934103&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F6DG6V1dfIC0%2F By Ilya ShapiroHard cases make bad law, the saying goes.  Well, a bizarre case that the Supreme Court decided unanimously today has set a good precedent for the enforcement of residual Tenth Amendment powers.  As I described in December when Cato filed a brief in Bond v. United States: Carol Anne Bond learned that her best friend was having an affair with her husband, so she spread toxic chemicals on the woman’s car and mailbox. Postal inspectors discovered this plot after they caught Bond on film stealing from the woman’s mailbox. Rather than leave this caper to local law enforcement authorities to resolve, however, a federal prosecutor charged Bond with violating a statute that implements U.S. treaty obligations under the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention. Bond pled guilty and was... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4934103 Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:48:12 +0100 4934103 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4921381&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fo88B5L4tJGw%2F By Benjamin H. FriedmanLast week, the House passed a homeland security appropriations bill slashing funding for grants to states and localities. The New York Times has now noticed and unleashed an indignant editorial: House Republicans talk tough on terrorism. So we can find no explanation — other than irresponsibility — for their vote to slash financing for eight antiterrorist programs. Unless the Senate repairs the damage, New York City and other high-risk localities will find it far harder to protect mass transit, ports and other potential targets. The programs received $2.5 billion last year in separate allocations. The House has cut that back to a single block grant of $752 million, an extraordinary two-thirds reduction. The results for high-risk areas would be so damaging — wit... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4921381 Fri, 10 Jun 2011 21:01:43 +0100 4921381 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4921383&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fp8nCs_K7-Ys%2F By Christopher PrebleI had the good fortune of attending a speech by Sen. Rand Paul earlier this week in which the senator from Kentucky made the case for a “conservative constitutional foreign policy.” His office has recently posted the text of his remarks, and it is worth a closer look. Senator Paul tweaked President Obama for disagreeing with Senator Obama when it comes to the war power, a point that I highlighted here a few weeks ago. But Paul’s remarks went well beyond the Libyan war. He explained that he was trying to stake out a middle ground between the extreme of intervening militarily everywhere, all the time, and nowhere, none of the time. What I’m talking about here has a relatively recent example: Ronald Reagan. [...] Reagan’s foreign policy was o... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4921383 Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:45:39 +0100 4921383 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4921388&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FhcmUhNIRnzM%2F By Christopher PrebleMy title above can’t really top the one DOD Buzz gave its summary of Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s comments to NATO ministers yesterday. Here is the passage from Gates’s speech that is getting the most attention: The blunt reality is that there will be dwindling appetite and patience in the U.S. Congress … to expend increasingly precious funds on behalf of nations that are apparently unwilling to devote the necessary resources or make the necessary changes to be serious and capable partners in their own defense. The gist of his comments were quite clear: the NATO allies must do more, spend more, and take their security responsibilities more seriously. A parade of U.S. presidents, dozens of secretaries of defense and state, and countless lower... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4921388 Fri, 10 Jun 2011 16:03:38 +0100 4921388 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4911450&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FmxymmNehZsA%2F By Malou InnocentAs confirmed by yet another U.S. government report, this one prepared by the Democratic majority staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, America’s nation-building mission in Afghanistan has had little success in creating an economically viable and politically independent Afghan state. The Washington Post’s Karen DeYoung writes: The report also warns that the Afghan economy could slide into a depression with the inevitable decline of the foreign military and development spending that now provides 97 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. [Emphasis added] U.S. leaders could look at that statistic and justify prolonging the mission. In fact, the report suggests, “Afghanistan could suffer a severe economic depression when foreign troops leave in 2014... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4911450 Wed, 08 Jun 2011 17:10:41 +0100 4911450 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4911456&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FyajqIONqHiE%2F By Ian VasquezThe last 10 years have probably been the best decade in Peruvian history in terms of economic growth and social progress. As I’ve described before, Peru has become an increasingly successful market democracy. Growth averaged a yearly 5.5 percent since 2001 and the poverty rate fell from 54 to 30 percent in the same period. And yet, Peruvians elected leftist Ollanta Humala as president on Sunday in a contentious, polarizing and very tight race. Humala narrowly beat Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, now serving a 25-year prison term for corruption and human rights abuses conducted during 10 years in power (1990-2000) that also saw the defeat of the Shining Path guerrillas and the liberalization of the Peruvian economy. Fujimori had trouble condemn... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4911456 Wed, 08 Jun 2011 02:13:06 +0100 4911456 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4911459&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FH--GMMz4C1o%2F By Malou InnocentThe United States will begin drawing down troops in Afghanistan this July. The White House is desperately trying to seize the narrative of the withdrawal claiming that the cuts will be “real” even as Defense Secretary Robert Gates is arguing for the opposite. This week, the New York Times revealed that some in President Obama’s national security team are seeking steeper reductions, particularly after the death of Osama bin Laden and the increasing costs of the war. Steeper reductions are certainly warranted. A limited counterrorism mission must be on the table. The president will try to claim credit for keeping his pledge to reduce the U.S. troop presence, but when we consider that there are three times as many troops in Afghanistan today compared to when Obama too... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4911459 Tue, 07 Jun 2011 18:50:49 +0100 4911459 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4902402&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FnXL7E_9howw%2F By Justin LoganThat’s the argument Ben Friedman and I made in our “Think Again” piece for Foreign Policy magazine. Our point there was that someone reading newspapers and watching television would think that Secretary Gates was some sort of transformational figure who took hold of a boneheaded grand strategy, two failing wars, and one broken bureaucracy and made them into successes. We argued that this description, which one finds almost everywhere one finds the secretary’s name, is wrong. (For responses to some of the critiques of our piece, Ben has a post up at The Skeptics.) Dana Milbank, Defense Analyst Over the weekend Dana Milbank authored a column demonstrating the tendency to represent Gates as something of a messiah. He does so by juxtaposing…Sarah Pa... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4902402 Mon, 06 Jun 2011 19:56:26 +0100 4902402 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4893390&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FVbD6rCsA4DM%2F By Christopher PrebleBetter late than never. The House of Representatives today debated two different resolutions purportedly aimed at forcing the Obama administration to comply with its statutory and constitutional obligations to secure formal authorization for the ongoing military campaign in Libya. I say “purportedly” because it seems quite clear that the real intent of House Speaker John Boehner’s resolution was to lure away a sufficient number of Republicans who otherwise would have been inclined to vote for Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s (D-OH) measure. Whereas the Kucinich resolution would have compelled the Obama administration to withdraw from all military operations in Libya within the next 15 days, Boehner’s resolution bars the administration from deploying... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4893390 Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:55:56 +0100 4893390 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4893400&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FVLM7qNDhWjI%2F By Benjamin H. FriedmanThe Wall Street Journal reports that the Pentagon will soon release a policy document explaining what cyberattacks it will consider acts of war meriting military response. Christoper Preble and I warn against this policy in an op-ed up at Reuters.com: The policy threatens to repeat the overreaction and needless conflict that plagued American foreign policy in the past decade. It builds on national hysteria about threats to cybersecurity, the latest bogeyman to justify our bloated national security state. A wiser approach would put the threat in context to calm public fears and avoid threats that diminish future flexibility. Reuters headlined our piece: “A military response to cyberattacks is preposterous.” Actually, our claim is not that we should never use milit... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4893400 Fri, 03 Jun 2011 15:05:13 +0100 4893400 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4893407&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FuczY8ZO9Tq4%2F By Caleb O. BrownAs Justin Logan puts it, we borrow money from China to make precision-guided munitions which we then give to the Europeans so they can drop them on Libya. This is a product of U.S. involvement in NATO. In this new video, Christopher A. Preble, Benjamin H. Friedman and Justin Logan provide analysis about our involvement in NATO with specific respect to the Libya campaign. Read more of Cato’s work on NATO. Get Out of Libya, Get Out of NATO is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4893407 Thu, 02 Jun 2011 17:19:38 +0100 4893407 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4893410&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FxkW1ceqwI50%2F This report is certainly going to receive a lot of media coverage in the upcoming days. It is, until now, the highest profile endorsement of drug policy reform that we have seen at a global level. And, by having Prime Minister Papandreou as one of the signatories, it offers the hope that other top office holders will also call for an end to the failed war on drugs. Report: ‘The Global War on Drugs Has Failed’ is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4893410 Thu, 02 Jun 2011 15:27:54 +0100 4893410 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4883554&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fsi7L_NQ6gjc%2F By David RittgersI have an article in today’s Los Angeles Times pointing out that waterboarding is dead as a tool for U.S. interrogators. So get over it. I also make the point that it died under Bush’s watch, so the next time Dick Cheney trots out a proposal to bring back waterboarding, he’s quarreling mostly with his old boss and not the current commander-in-chief. Over at the Washington Post, Allen McDuffee thinks this is unfair: It may well be the case that Cheney has unfinished business with Bush over dropping the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, but it is at least a selective reading for Rittgers to suggest that Cheney’s words are not directed at Obama with the hope that they carry political consequences for the administration. It is unlikely that even Cheney himse... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4883554 Tue, 31 May 2011 20:39:35 +0100 4883554 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4883560&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fab1C-zrG_-0%2F By David BoazIn Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith, when Chancellor Palpatine transforms the republic into an empire, Senator Amidala remarks: So this is how liberty dies . . . with thunderous applause. But it can also happen in silent acquiescence. For decades now, successive Congresses have evaded their responsibility to make decisions about the deployment of U.S. armed forces abroad. I write about the latest instance of this, in Libya, in today’s Britannica column: Presidents have an obligation to obey the Constitution and the law. But one of the ways that separation of powers works is that each branch of government is supposed to jealously guard its prerogatives from usurpation by the other branches. Too often Congress ducks that responsibility, preferring to let presidents make ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4883560 Tue, 31 May 2011 14:30:57 +0100 4883560 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4872063&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FG8QBGtVTCmU%2F By Jim HarperFederal officials blitzed Texas this week to fight a bill pending in Austin that would control TSA groping of air travelers in that state, reports Forbes’ “Not-So-Private Parts” blogger Kashmir Hill. Federal government officials descended on the Capitol to hand out a letter … from the Texas U.S. Attorney letting senators know that if they passed the bill, the TSA would probably have to cancel all flights out of Texas. As much as they love their state, the idea of shutting down airports and trapping people in Texas was scary enough to get legislators to reconsider their support for the groping bill… The federal government’s threat to shut down air travel is serious, but empty. As we’ve seen time and again with the REAL ID Act, the federal g... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4872063 Thu, 26 May 2011 20:42:03 +0100 4872063 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4872066&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fb0SjQG99-84%2F By Julian SanchezTo judge by the hysterical statements issuing from elected officials—not to mention the breathless press coverage—you’d think the three little-used Patriot Act provisions set to expire unless reauthorized today are like the doomsday timer from the TV show Lost: Fail just once to keep pushing the reset button and some unspecified catastrophe is sure to result!  Under the headline “Patriot Act Battle Could Hinder Investigators,” the New York Times quotes an alarmed anonymous official calling it “unprecedented” and warning that “no one could predict what the consequences of a temporary lapse might be.” The Washington Post agrees with the need for reform, but editorializes that “[at] this late hour, it is most important to e... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4872066 Thu, 26 May 2011 18:26:08 +0100 4872066 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4872067&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fz-y_2tycP0U%2F By Christopher PrebleFormer Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty’s brief visit to Cato yesterday elicited some snide commentary in the blogosphere, especially this piece by the Huffington Post’s Jon Ward. Ward notes how the just-declared presidential candidate has been pretty adept at annoying audiences with his answers to questions. This one rankled the questioner, and a number of others in the auditorium. I’m not one who is going to stand before you and say we should cut the defense budget. [...] I’m not for shrinking America’s presence in the world. I’m for making sure that America remains the world leader, not becoming second or third or fourth in the list. One can sort of forgive a governor for not knowing much about foreign policy, although governors ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4872067 Thu, 26 May 2011 17:53:25 +0100 4872067 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4872068&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fx0E9qtGqUGY%2F By Justin LoganI don’t know what the right word is here, but there is something remarkable about the fact that the United States is currently borrowing money from China to buy precision-guided munitions to give to the Europeans to drop on Libya, isn’t there? At AEI on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates responded to a question about removing U.S. troops from Europe by saying that bringing them back home and having to build facilities to base them here actually would be about a wash, money-wise. That’s probably correct, but the real question is why we shouldn’t bring them home and disband their units. On that logic, Gates remarked that Europe “is one of the places where an American presence has a significant impact on our allies, on our friends, and on ever... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4872068 Thu, 26 May 2011 16:22:11 +0100 4872068 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4872071&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fa_Un7_4waZg%2F By Ted Galen CarpenterThe arrest of Ratko Mladic is a welcome development that should remove the last major obstacle to closer relations between Serbia and the United States and the EU nations.  For too long, the Western powers have placed an excessive emphasis on his apprehension as a condition (explicit or implicit) for Serbia’s full inclusion in the Western community. If the objections now continue, Serbs will understandably conclude that the Mladic issue was little more than a convenient excuse that Western governments used to justify a less-than-friendly policy toward Belgrade.  An expected improvement in relations now that Mladic has been apprehended is especially pertinent with respect to Serbia’s path toward membership in the European Union. The arrest will have li... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4872071 Thu, 26 May 2011 14:02:17 +0100 4872071 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4862506&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FkOrWUGoBEMU%2F By Julian SanchezBack in February, Democratic leader Harry Reid promised fellow senator Rand Paul that—after years of kicking the can down the road—there would be at least a week reserved for full and open debate over three controversial provisions of the Patriot Act slated to expire this weekend, with an opportunity to propose reforms and offer amendments to any reauthorization bill.  And since, as we know, politicians always keep their promises, we can look forward to a robust and enlightening discussion of how to modify the Patriot Act to better safeguard civil liberties without sacrificing our counterterror capabilities. Ha! No, I’m joking, of course. Having already cut the legs out from under his own party’s reformers by making a deal with GOP leaders for a four-year ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4862506 Wed, 25 May 2011 18:41:19 +0100 4862506 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4862509&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F3XLKKkQF-xs%2F By George Scoville DON’T FORGET: Today at 2:00 p.m. Eastern at Cato, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty will detail specific spending cuts Congress can make as it tries to rein in the size and scope of the federal government in “Limiting Government: What Washington Can Learn from Minnesota.” Tune in at our live events hub, or watch on Facebook. It’s not low taxes that caused the Greek crisis, but high spending. A new Internal Revenue Service account reporting rule would drive out foreign capital. A defense budget that does not force trade-offs assumes the United States can take on any mission, and that all are necessary. If the Affordable Care Act is so great, why are so many people seeking waivers? Wednesday Links is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institu... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4862509 Wed, 25 May 2011 16:00:32 +0100 4862509 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4852841&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FnU1nadyGicA%2F By Christopher PrebleWhen President Obama meets with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London, they should focus on the two wars that involve both the U.S. and British militaries (Afghanistan and Libya). But these discussions will take place in the context of diminishing British military capability. At a time when the United States should be shedding some of the burdens of policing the globe, and encouraging other countries to step forward to defend themselves, the British are moving in the opposite direction. They are cutting their military, and tacitly becoming more dependent upon U.S. power. The end result will be a United Kingdom that is less able to assist us in the future. The United States today spends far more on its military than does the United Kingdom, and the gap is like... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4852841 Mon, 23 May 2011 15:39:42 +0100 4852841 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4852844&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FTwPlOqQeK_0%2F By Doug BandowIn the midst of difficult domestic political battles, Barack Obama begins a lengthy European trip today.  He should encourage the continent to increase its defense capabilities and take on greater regional security responsibilities. Presidential visits typically result in little of substance.  President Obama’s latest trip will be no different if he reinforces the status quo.  His policy mantra once was “change.”  No where is “change” more necessary than in America’s foreign policy, especially towards Europe. Despite obvious differences spanning the Atlantic, the U.S. and European relationship remains extraordinarily important.  The administration should press for increased economic integration, with lower trade barriers and streamlined regulations to encoura... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4852844 Mon, 23 May 2011 14:10:00 +0100 4852844 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4841427&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fku2dMnrIqz8%2F By Christopher PrebleSix Republican senators are challenging President Obama’s authority to conduct an open-ended war in Libya without congressional authorization. The six conservative lawmakers (Rand Paul (R-KY), Jim DeMint (R-SC), Mike Lee (R-UT), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Tom Coburn (R-OK), and John Cornyn (R-TX)) sent a letter to the president on May 18th asking if he intends to comply with the War Powers Resolution. The full text of the letter can be found here. The law stipulates that the president must terminate military operations within 60 days, unless Congress explicitly authorizes the action, or grants an extension. The clock on the Libya operation started ticking on March 19, 2011. Congress has neither formally approved of the mission, nor has it granted an extension. The... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4841427 Thu, 19 May 2011 20:49:45 +0100 4841427 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4841449&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FN95MFU-TZlQ%2F By Christopher PrebleThe news media is abuzz with speculation about what President Obama will say in an address this Thursday at the State Department. The topic is the Middle East, and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney explained, “we’ve gone through a remarkable period in the first several months of this year…in the Middle East and North Africa,” and the president has “some important things to say about how he views the upheaval and how he has approached the U.S. response to the events in the region.” The speech, Carney hinted to reporters, would be “fairly sweeping and comprehensive.” If I were advising the president, I would urge him to say many of the same things that he said in his June 2009 speech in Cairo, this time with some timely references... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4841449 Tue, 17 May 2011 13:44:14 +0100 4841449 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4828847&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FMRNpqSh8qcs%2F By Julian SanchezIf you’re a telecommunications firm that helped the National Security Agency illegally spy on your customers without a court order, Sen. Barack Obama will happily vote for legislation he once promised to filibuster in order to secure retroactive immunity. If you’re implicated in the use of torture as an interrogation tactic, you can breathe easy knowing President Barack Obama thinks it’s in the country’s best interests to “look forward, not back.”  But if you were a government official spurred by conscience to blow the whistle on government malfeasance or ineptitude in the war on terror?  As Jane Mayer details in a must-read New Yorker article, you’d better watch out! This administration is shattering records for highly selective... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4828847 Mon, 16 May 2011 22:17:42 +0100 4828847 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4828858&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FtJzNi-eaX4U%2F By Jim HarperThe May/June issue of Foreign Affairs focuses on “The New Arab Revolt” (also the focus of an event at Cato a month ago). Some of the articles have a touch of datedness because they refer to the continuing pursuit of Osama bin Laden. But not so Stephen Flynn’s “Recalibrating Homeland Security,” ($) a terrific discussion of how the federal government’s post-9/11 policies have failed to meet the challenge of terrorism. Flynn throws a sentence at the living icon of al Qaeda, but the insights of his article are well worth taking in. Most insightfully, Flynn theorizes just why it is that “nearly a decade after al Qaeda struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Washington still lacks a coherent strategy for harnessing the nation’s... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4828858 Mon, 16 May 2011 14:18:20 +0100 4828858 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4820808&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fn7hVKmAGIQ4%2F By Christopher PrebleThere is an interesting article posted over at the blog Hegemonic Obsessions discussing the need to reform military pay and benefits. One need not agree with the author’s suggestion that the U.S. Army might go the way of General Motors to understand his broader point: personnel expenses are consuming a larger and larger share of the DoD’s budget. Indeed, this has been one of Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ leading complaints for years. The article provides some of the details: The Defense Business Board estimates the average cost of a military member at $80,004 per year. Thankfully the military is made up mostly of junior enlisted personnel who leave the service well before they are eligible for a pension. There are, however, 1.9 million military ret... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4820808 Fri, 13 May 2011 19:35:46 +0100 4820808 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4820809&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FwNPlaBvH9Rs%2F By Jim HarperThe fiscal 2012 Department of Homeland Security spending bill is starting to make its way through the process, and the House Appropriations Committee said in a release today that “the bill does not provide $76 million requested by the President for 275 additional advanced inspection technology (AIT) scanners nor the 535 staff requested to operate them.” If the House committee’s approach carries the day, there won’t be 275 more strip-search machines in our nation’s airports. No word on whether the committee will defund the operations of existing strip-search machines. Saving money and reducing privacy invasion? Sounds like a win-win. House Approps Strips TSA of Strip-Search Funds is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4820809 Fri, 13 May 2011 19:04:39 +0100 4820809 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4820817&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FiqW6qF3mtAc%2F By Malou InnocentThe drawdown of U.S. forces from Afghanistan will start this July, with a complete withdrawal of “combat troops” by the end of 2014. The newly emerging conventional wisdom, however, is that Afghan security forces are not ready to take over responsibility, since serious efforts to strengthen those forces only really began in 2009. But rather than validate an open-ended mission to build national institutions in Afghanistan, looming problems in the hand-off from foreign to indigenous forces epitomize the flawed process of state building. The 285,000-strong Afghan army and police, under the authority of the Ministries of Defense and Interior, respectively, are expected to increase to a total of 305,000 by this October. However, numbers tell only part of the story. In a ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4820817 Fri, 13 May 2011 15:22:07 +0100 4820817 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4820821&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FQ-ymWDORPMA%2F By Benjamin H. FriedmanIf you like bloated nuclear arsenals, executive discretion to wage endless war, large checks to countries that aid our enemies, and institutionalizing hostility toward gays in the military, you will love the defense authorization bill passed yesterday by the House Armed Services Committee. Below are the lowlights. For slightly better news from the Appropriations Committee on homeland security spending, skip to the end. The bill contains a provision replacing the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force against the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks and their hosts. The Committee evidently found that legislation, which the last two administrations have used to justify all manner of power grabs, insufficiently open-ended. They add groups “affiliated” with al Qae... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4820821 Fri, 13 May 2011 11:14:55 +0100 4820821 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4813248&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FjvfxlWlE_Rw%2F By Gene HealyOver at the American Conservative, I have a review of Eric Posner and Adrian Vermuele’s new book Executive Unbound: After the Madisonian Republic. Funny enough, the working title for my book on presidential power was “Executive Unbound,” but P&V have a very different take on the dangers of concentrating power in the executive (they coin the term “tyrannophobia,” for irrational fear of executive abuse). From the review’s intro: The New York Times book editors assigned their review to the Straussian political philosopher Harvey Mansfield, the self-styled expert on “manliness” who’s as rabid a supporter of the imperial presidency as you’re likely to find. In the late Bush era, Mansfield wrote a 3,000-word Wall Street Journal op-ed, ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4813248 Wed, 11 May 2011 16:30:24 +0100 4813248 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4813250&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FuNKtjcc03sI%2F By Justin LoganWhat Does This Mean? (Reuters/Ceerwan Aziz) Today’s New York Times has a piece on the running discussion in Iraq about the prospect of U.S. military withdrawal from their country. As the article highlights, the discussion itself “reflects a nation still struggling with issues of sectarian identity, national pride, and how to secure its future.” One of the few things former President Bush said about Iraq that I agreed with was his claim on Al Arabiya in 2005 that “the future of Iraq depends on Iraqi nationalism and the Iraq character—the character of Iraq and Iraqi people emerging.” In general, I am not very fond of nationalism, but if you want to hold together a country of 25 million people, especially when they have been riven by decades of s... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4813250 Wed, 11 May 2011 15:15:33 +0100 4813250 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4813264&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FcjyuOJ8FHdw%2F By David RittgersI make the case that domestic military detention for all terrorism suspects isn’t necessary in this piece over at the Huffington Post. Legislative proposals by Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) would mandate military detention instead of criminal prosecution for all those suspected of international terrorism. I oppose this policy change for reasons both principled and practical: If the civil rule of law handles terrorist threats adequately, then invoking military jurisdiction is a counterproductive overreaction. That was the case with one of the handful of domestically detained enemy combatants, Ali al-Marri. Al-Marri was an honest-to-goodness Al Qaeda sleeper agent masquerading as an exchange student. The FBI indicted him on charges that could have car... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4813264 Tue, 10 May 2011 16:42:55 +0100 4813264 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4803037&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FQGXl3pgyssU%2F By Malou InnocentBy spring 2002, less than a year after the initial U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, President George W. Bush decided to pull most of America’s Special Operations Forces and CIA paramilitary operatives off the hunt for Osama bin Laden so they could be redeployed for a possible war in Iraq. I’ve written about this before, but I did not know the extent to which the war in Iraq contributed to our loss of bin Laden until I read this piece from the Washington Post: The American campaign [in Afghanistan] was conducted primarily from the air. Despite the pleas from CIA operatives, U.S. officials were reluctant to send in ground troops to flush out bin Laden. They told officers on the ground in Afghanistan that Pakistani troops would help them, cutting off bin Laden if he tried... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4803037 Mon, 09 May 2011 16:01:16 +0100 4803037 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4794837&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FRacTWK9nNPo%2F By William A. NiskanenMartin Feldstein, a distinguished economist and a former colleague, made a surprising case for maintaining a large U.S. defense budget, despite a huge federal budget deficit, in the annual Irving Kristol lecture Thursday night at the American Enterprise Institute. On one point, he was clearly right: we can afford it. “There is no danger of bankrupting ourselves by so-called ‘imperial overreach’ when we spend less than 5 percent of GDP on defense” (in fact, 5.6 percent of GDP in 2010). But he failed to make a convincing case that we should spend this much for defense, especially given the dire outlook for federal deficits and the debt. In 2010, U.S. real (inflation-corrected) spending for national security was over twice the annual spending during the Ford and ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4794837 Sat, 07 May 2011 02:29:49 +0100 4794837 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4794846&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FtXrB8-L_WSI%2F By Tim LynchMatthew Alexander, former senior military interrogator in Iraq, says the abuse and torture of prisoners hurt the U.S. by giving up the moral high ground.  He says the policy also helped al-Qaeda recruit and very likely slowed the effort to find bin Laden. More here, here, and here. On Prisoner Treatment and Interrogation is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4794846 Fri, 06 May 2011 15:15:31 +0100 4794846 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4803024&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=35060&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthnewsblog.com%2Fblog%2F505111 Karen Butler woke up speaking a British accent after being heavily sedated for dental surgery. MSNBC reports that she is suffering from foreign accent syndrome, a rare disorder that only affects about 100 people worldwide. She grew up in Oregon, but woke up afer surgery with an accent described as "Irish, Scottish and northern British, with perhaps a dash of Australian and South African." Preliminary tests suggest she has no neurological conditions other than her voice changing. Take a look: Permalink | Facebook | Twitter | Recent Headlines | News Feeds (Source: HealthNewsBlog.com) HealthNewsBlog.com blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4803024 Thu, 05 May 2011 20:00:00 +0100 4803024 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4789207&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fcst2r3NddJM%2F By Benjamin H. FriedmanThe tendency to treat Osama bin Laden’s killing as national holiday akin to V-E day is both understandable and unfortunate. Everyone with a sense of justice appreciates the death of mass murderers, particularly the terrorist sort. But celebrating as if we killed Hitler or won a war plays into al Qaeda’s self-serving myth. Paul Pillar put it well: An unfortunate irony of the huge reaction to the killing of Bin Ladin is that it continues to give him in death what he worked so hard to achieve in life: the status of arch foe of the most powerful nation on earth. It is a status that conforms with Bin Ladin’s narrative of himself as the leader of the Muslim world, protecting that world against the predations of the Judeo-Christian West, the leader of which is the... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4789207 Thu, 05 May 2011 18:36:02 +0100 4789207 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4789208&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FWBu8A6aiGns%2F By Justin LoganAP Photo/David Guttenfelder There are not going to be many better opportunities to change course in Afghanistan than the one presented by the killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad. It may be worth highlighting how ripe an opportunity this is: The politics on the Hill are changing. It probably comes as no surprise that Reps. Walter Jones (R-NC) and Jim McGovern (D-MA) would like to end the Afghanistan war, but their “Afghanistan Exit and Accountability Act” has brought on co-sponsors like Tea Party stalwarts Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Justin Amash (R-MI). This means that in the days and weeks to come, there will be Republicans on television and radio making the case for withdrawal. That could have a profound effect on where the debate goes from here. On t... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4789208 Thu, 05 May 2011 18:12:45 +0100 4789208 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4789214&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FBS1K4C03CSs%2F By Christopher PrebleNot that I think it will happen for the next several days, but it’s time for the chattering class to move past the White House’s decision not to release death photographs of Osama bin Laden. The focus on this largely media-driven issue is an unnecessary distraction from what should be a broader discussion about the direction of U.S. counterterrorism efforts. Photographic evidence is not necessary to establish Osama bin Laden’s death. Al Qaeda has not disputed that its founder and leader is, in fact, dead. And photographic evidence has not stopped the conspiracy theorists from claiming that Americans never landed on the moon. If anything, AQ might wish for the photos to be released to keep the focus on them, and on bin Laden. Pakistan’s civilian and mil... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4789214 Thu, 05 May 2011 13:52:24 +0100 4789214 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4789221&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FDFJHbY9hE34%2F By Malou InnocentOsama Bin Laden’s death marks a significant achievement in the fight against al Qaeda. It also highlights the fact that our ostensible objective for continuing the war in Afghanistan has been achieved. Although some lawmakers have been quick to claim that bin Laden’s demise proves that our nation-building mission is showing signs of success, others recognize that this momentous achievement justifies scaling down our presence in Afghanistan. Indeed, rather than expansive counterinsurgency campaigns, targeted counterterrorism measures would suffice. It is encouraging that Republican members of Congress are questioning the mission. Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed his concern yesterday: [Senator Lugar] s... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4789221 Wed, 04 May 2011 17:48:52 +0100 4789221 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4780294&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FmTsy4fUJEFk%2F By David RittgersA lot of people are asking whether the White House will release photographic proof of Osama bin Laden’s death. It should. The operation to get OBL has been very successful thus far, including the decisions to conduct a raid instead of a standoff bombing and the burial at sea. The latter avoided a repeat of the race to dig up Che Guevara. The Obama administration should release photos to confirm that we have ended bin Laden’s life. We do not need a decade of OBL sightings and conspiracy theories to undermine the positive steps taken in the last two days. Obama’s birth certificate has been vindicated, and Osama’s revoked. End of story. And in case you’re wondering, it appears that no informant will qualify for the $25 million OBL award. Release the OBL Photo is a p... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4780294 Tue, 03 May 2011 15:09:22 +0100 4780294 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4780297&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F6uq0Gov-s54%2F By David RittgersAs Chris Preble noted early Monday morning, Osama bin Laden is dead. In addition to celebrating V-OBL Day, we should take a moment to reflect on wars of the last decade and the civil liberties we have sacrificed since September 11, 2001. Malou Innocent makes the case for reconsidering our foreign policy, and Jim Harper asks if he can have his airport back. We lay out these thoughts in more detail in this Cato video, After bin Laden. The phrase “after bin Laden” has a nice ring to it. Cato held counterterrorism conferences in 2009 and 2010, and there’s more Cato work on counterterrorism and homeland security here. After bin Laden is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4780297 Tue, 03 May 2011 12:49:54 +0100 4780297 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4775372&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FSMVDE0lMtw4%2F By Jim HarperEven while it was a rumor that President Obama would announce that Osama bin Laden had been killed, Americans began to digest the ramifications, asking, for example, “can I have my airport back please?” Pleasing though it is to have in contemplation, the question is premature. Students of terrorism, such as those who attended our 2009 and 2010 counterterrorism conferences, know that the killing of bin Laden will have little direct effect on the network he spawned. Its indirect, discouraging effect on terrorism is something I mused about in an earlier post. What about the effects on the rest of us, the people and actors in our great counterterrorism policymaking apparatus? Osama bin Laden’s survival helped shore up the mystique of the terrorist supervillain, w... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4775372 Mon, 02 May 2011 14:59:06 +0100 4775372 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4775375&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F9dVCgzRb50o%2F We examined the role of the Internet in Middle Eastern freedom movements at a Cato on Campus event a few months ago.) Few beyond the kids that made their way to the White House Sunday night believe that bin Laden’s death mean it’s “over” for al Qaeda and terrorism. Indeed, a key question is whether bin Laden’s death will give the U.S. and its allies an upper hand against terrorism, and for how long. In this, the issues are the same as they have always been. As we noted in the introduction to the Cato book, Terrorizing Ourselves: “Terrorists have motivations, there is a strategic logic to their actions, and examining these things can reveal strategies that frustrate and dissipate their efforts.” The killing of bin Laden begs the question: How, and ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4775375 Mon, 02 May 2011 12:23:17 +0100 4775375 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4762747&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F4D2pubWPm0Q%2F By Justin LoganToday in Politico I have an op-ed titled “How Washington changed Obama.” In the piece, I argue that the recent appointments of Leon Panetta as secretary of defense and Gen. David Petraeus as director of the CIA, combined with revelations in the recent New Yorker article by Ryan Lizza, suggest that President Obama has given up on changing U.S. foreign and defense policy: Panetta is a dubious choice to fulfill Obama’s recent pledge to trim military spending. Any secretary charged with realizing that pledge would need extraordinary credibility with Capitol Hill Republicans, many of whom are determined to continue raining money on the Pentagon regardless of the nation’s parlous fiscal position. Despite having once been a Republican, Panetta ran for Congress as Democr... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4762747 Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:04:31 +0100 4762747 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4758739&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FUzDsC43VEhQ%2F By Christopher PrebleThe report that Leon Panetta will be appointed Secretary of Defense, and Gen. David Petraeus will become the new CIA director, does not come as a huge surprise. But I worry that President Obama’s decision to fill these positions from within his administration signals an unwillingness to rethink U.S. foreign policy. Such a reevaluation is desperately needed. Leon Panetta brings some experience in national security affairs to DoD, including his stints at CIA and on Capitol Hill, and as a member of the Iraq Study Group. His more relevant experience, however, may be as Director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton administration. Bob Gates effectively shielded the Pentagon from spending cuts, but that merely postponed the reckoning that Panetta ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4758739 Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:04:46 +0100 4758739 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4753667&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F_ey1ICD1Z5g%2F By Justin LoganThe Belgian painter René Magritte is famous in part for the painting pictured below. What’s surprising is how much Magritte can tell us about our war in Libya. To recap where we are in Libya, our military objective is to “protect civilians” in that country. Except there’s this paragraph opening the recent New York Times article on the war: WASHINGTON — NATO planners say the allies are stepping up attacks on palaces, headquarters, communications centers and other prominent institutions supporting the Libyan government, a shift of targets that is intended to weaken Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s grip on power and frustrate his forces in the field. The Times also runs these quotes from officials in charge of the war: “Now we are going after his rear e... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4753667 Tue, 26 Apr 2011 19:06:14 +0100 4753667 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4753670&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FfVlc7wkjMWg%2F By Christopher PrebleAn interesting window into the politics of the Obama administration’s war in Libya may open this week, when Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) reintroduce a resolution expressing the sense of the Senate “that it is not in the vital interests of the United States to intervene militarily in Libya,” and calling on NATO member states and the Arab League, two parties who are directly threatened by the violence in Libya, to provide the necessary assets to the mission. Such resolutions almost never have a direct impact on the conduct of military operations. Hutchison-Manchin isn’t even the first attempt to constrain President Obama’s ability to wage war in Libya. A resolution offered by freshman Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), and cosponsored by S... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4753670 Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:25:33 +0100 4753670 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4753672&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FO98ldZBeOgI%2F By Gene HealyBack in 2002-03, when France opposed going to war in Iraq, conservatives spared no venom for the country some called “Our Oldest Enemy.” In retrospect, though, France was a better friend to us then than she’s been in our ongoing Libyan debacle. As the bombing began last month, the LA Times ran a piece showing that French bellicosity (yes) had been instrumental in dragging the US to war: Earlier in the week, French papers reported that when Sarkozy asked [Secretary of State] Clinton to come out more forcefully in favor of action in Libya, she replied, “There are difficulties” and refused to be drawn out further. “Frankly, we are completely puzzled,” a French diplomat told one of his European counterparts. “We are wondering if Liby... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4753672 Tue, 26 Apr 2011 15:22:21 +0100 4753672 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4747599&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fhwji2Oqv4oo%2F By George Scoville “Sadly, in Egypt’s case, a freely elected civilian government may prove powerless in the face of the deeply entrenched and well-organized military.” “Washington politicians from both parties, and bureaucrats, have for decades successfully decreased our freedom and liberties as they have regulated more and more of our lives, including our retirement.” “The Ryan proposal correctly focuses on achieving debt reduction through spending cuts, but this very gradual debt reduction schedule is a weakness that could lead to its downfall.” “Nearly two years ago Sen. McCain, along with Senators Graham and Lieberman, was supping with Qaddafi in Tripoli, discussing the possibility of Washington providing military aid.” Cato media fello... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4747599 Mon, 25 Apr 2011 15:03:50 +0100 4747599 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4742369&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fmq6NodllV4s%2F By Gene HealySo it turns out that, per CBO’s numbers, the “epic” budget showdown didn’t even produce enough cuts to pay for a week of bombing Libya. On that subject, as I noted last week, the Obama administration’s Office of Legal Counsel recently released its memo arguing that our Libyan adventure is constitutional. And that memo is one sorry piece of work. Over at the Washington Examiner’s “Beltway Confidential” blog, I’ve been commenting on various aspects of the OLC memo, and I thought I’d link to some of that discussion here. Recently, I addressed two of the OLC’s arguments: (1) that what we’re doing in Libya isn’t “war”; and (2) that the 1973 War Powers Resolution gives the president a 60-to-90-day “free ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4742369 Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:49:34 +0100 4742369 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4734060&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F_w3pyeTsKZ0%2F By Gene HealyMy Washington Examiner column this week covers two developments last week that may make you somewhat less likely to “Give Thanks for the TSA” as former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen urged on National Review’s website. The first is the viral video of a TSA agent at New Orleans airport giving the “freedom fondle” to a six-year-old girl. The second is Friday’s revelation that among the “behavioral indicators” TSA uses to scope out travelers who deserve extra manhandling is the “arrogant” expression of “contempt against airport passenger procedures.” Because, clearly, making a scene on an airport security line is sound strategy for anyone trying to sneak a bomb onto a plane. Is it possible that anyone with an IQ above room temperature bu... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4734060 Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:06:53 +0100 4734060 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4719880&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F1aPkIMF85rM%2F By David RittgersTSA screeners and behavior detection officers may give you extra attention if you complain about security protocols (video at the jump). Former FBI agent Michael German sums up my feelings pretty well: It’s circular reasoning where, you know, I’m going to ask someone to surrender their rights; if they refuse, that’s evidence that I need to take their rights away from them. And it’s simply inappropriate. In related news, the GAO recently told Congress that the TSA’s Screening Passengers by Observation Technique (SPOT) is not scientifically grounded. The GAO testimony is available here. More Cato work on TSA screening here, here and here. TSA: If You Object to Giving Up Your Rights, We Should Take a Closer Look at You is a post from Cato @ Liberty -... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4719880 Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:52:08 +0100 4719880 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4719885&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FjFmU0d2pZjw%2F By Christopher PrebleA little over a year ago, I posted two different graphs (with the help of my colleague Charles Zakaib) that showed the growth of U.S. national security spending vs. that of other NATO allies over the last ten years. The data, based on the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ annual Military Balance, showed that U.S. taxpayers spend far more on our military, both as a share of total economic output, and on a per capita basis, than do any of our allies. New data, for 2009, was made available in IISS’s Military Balance 2011, and the revised graphs are shown below. (Again, thanks to Charles for his help). As I suspected, the gap remains as wide as ever. In a few cases, it has grown wider. As you can see, the $2,101 that every American man, woman, and child ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4719885 Fri, 15 Apr 2011 15:37:31 +0100 4719885 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4719886&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FRQQo0k1r9IM%2F By David BoazJack Goldstone, who will speak Monday at a Cato Forum, “Civil Resistance and Revolution in the Arab World,” has two interesting articles published today in Foreign Affairs and the Washington Post. In the Post, Goldstone, who is the Hazel Professor and director of the Center for Global Policy at George Mason University, suggests that China’s rapid economic growth is going to slow down. In Foreign Affairs, more relevantly for Monday’s forum, his topic is “Understanding the Revolutions of 2011” (reg. req.). The magazine’s summary: Revolutions rarely succeed, writes one of the world’s leading experts on the subject — except for revolutions against corrupt and personalist “sultanistic” regimes. This helps explain why T... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4719886 Fri, 15 Apr 2011 14:35:06 +0100 4719886 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4714718&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FEumFvlNW1GQ%2F By Benjamin H. FriedmanBoth President Obama and the House Republican leadership now deem it politically expedient to pretend to cut defense spending. That’s progress. Last year, the President explicitly excluded security spending from his proposed discretionary spending freeze, and the standard Republican position on defense spending was “more.” Obama said yesterday that he wants to cut Pentagon spending by $400 billion over twelve years through “a fundamental review of America’s missions, capabilities, and our role in changing world.” Better late than never. You cannot save big money on defense without reconsidering our defense strategy, which now essentially says that our safety requires running the world by democratizing it, stabilizing unruly states, and defending rich alli... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4714718 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 20:38:53 +0100 4714718 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4714719&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F0L_rtXa14iM%2F By Julian SanchezBatman’s archnemesis the Joker—played memorably by Heath Ledger in 2008′s blockbuster The Dark Knight—might seem like an improbable font of political wisdom, but it’s lately occurred to me that one of his more memorable lines from the film is surprisingly relevant to our national security policy: You know what I’ve noticed? Nobody panics when things go “according to plan.” Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it’s all “part of the plan.” There are, one hopes, limits. The latest in a string of videos from airport security to provoke online outrage shows a six-year-old girl being subje... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4714719 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 20:34:10 +0100 4714719 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4714724&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FKXlxjMTfgT0%2F By Roger PilonThe modern liberal’s quest for equality over liberty takes many forms, and you can count on the editorialists at The New York Times to promote them all, sooner or later. Today, they’re urging the Pentagon to “officially integrate small armor and infantry units with women.” Why? Well, female soldiers, they note, are already involved in de facto combat situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, at least peripherally. But the main reason, they make clear, is that women’s “careers are crimped as leadership promotions flowed more to men with combat experience.” Indeed, the editors tell us that the March 7 report of the Military Leadership Diversity Commission found “ethnic, gender and cultural problems hindering career advancement in the military,” leading the Times to ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4714724 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:57:15 +0100 4714724 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4709187&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FhUp7yJ2func%2F By Gene HealyLast week, the Obama Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel released its formal opinion [.pdf] on the President’s “Authority to Use Force in Libya.” OLC is the professional corps providing advice to the president on the legality of his actions, and it’s a much-coveted berth for ambitious lawyers. But, reading the memo over (it’s officially dated April Fool’s Day—make of that what you will), it occurred to me that, personally, I’d sleep better at night as  in-house counsel for Fannie Mae or Archer Daniels Midland. Though the Office is supposed to help the president “take Care that the laws be faithfully executed,” OLC lawyers typically end up telling their immediate employer, “why, yes: the action you’ve already decided to take turns... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4709187 Wed, 13 Apr 2011 19:03:43 +0100 4709187 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4704622&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FsekdUPDCf4M%2F By Christopher PrebleLast week I expressed my disappointment with Paul Ryan’s budget plan, specifically about his unwillingness to cut military spending. Some people think that he does cut spending through his acceptance of Secretary Gates’s $78 in “cuts.” (see, for example, Sen. John Sununu; Sen. Joseph Lieberman, AEI’s Gary Schmitt and Tom Donnelly; and the Heritage Foundation’s Baker Spring). So either I am wrong, or they are. Let me try to set the record straight. First, all of Ryan’s other savings — savings which I support — were projected either against the Obama administration’s FY 2012 budget or against the current budget baseline. For example, according to Ryan’s own “Key Facts” his plan “Cuts $6.2 trillion in government spending over the next d... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4704622 Tue, 12 Apr 2011 16:02:15 +0100 4704622 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4704627&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F37Y-u-NanmY%2F By Gene HealyThat’s the topic of my Washington Examiner column this week. In it, I discuss last week’s budget battle and the failure of “policy riders” designed to rein in the Obama EPA’s attempts to regulate greenhouse gases without a congressional vote specifically authorizing it. The Obama team believes it has the authority to implement comprehensive climate change regulation, Congress be damned. Worse still, under current constitutional law–which has little to do with the actual Constitution–they’re probably right. Thanks to overbroad congressional delegation, “the Imperial Presidency Comes in Green, Too.” At home and abroad, the legislative branch sits on the sidelines as the executive state makes the law and wages war, despi... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4704627 Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:59:32 +0100 4704627 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4704631&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FHEPjxbDAV_c%2F By Julian SanchezThe Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings last week on the need to reform the increasingly badly outdated Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the 1986 legislation that governs how the cops conduct telephone and Internet surveillance in criminal investigations. Two officials from two different government agencies offered up rather strikingly different testimony. Cameron Kerry of the Commerce Department acknowledged what legal scholars and technologists have been saying for years: The law’s byzantine and inconsistent standards—which provide wildly varying levels of protection for the same e-mail as it’s being composed, sent, received, read, and archived—are wholly out of touch with the ways we actually use technology today. The distinctions the law draw... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4704631 Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:18:01 +0100 4704631 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4693503&cid=t_154644_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F4qYFmFlSQzk%2F The healthcare giant was charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by bribing public doctors in several European countries - and paying kickbacks to Iraq - to illegally obtain business. The FCPA forbids US companies from bribing foreign government officials (read here). Specifically, various Johnson & Johnson units paid bribes to public doctors in Greece who chose J&J surgical implants; public doctors and hospital administrators in Poland who awarded contracts to J&J, and public doctors in Romania to prescribe J&J meds. The subsidiaries - including DePuy and Janssen Pharmaceutica - also paid kickbacks to Iraq to obtain 19 contracts under the United Nations Oil for Food Program, according to the SEC complaint. T... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4693503 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 20:03:33 +0100 4693503 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4693272&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FgCEly6uUjxk%2F By David BoazThe government of China finally confirmed that it has detained the artist Ai Weiwei. Meanwhile, Evan Osnos writes from Beijing for the New Yorker about China’s “Big Chill”: Step by step—so quietly, in fact, that the full facts of it can be startling—China has embarked on the most intense crackdown on free expression in years. Overshadowed by news elsewhere in recent weeks, China has been rounding up writers, lawyers, and activists since mid-February, when calls began to circulate for protests inspired by those in the Middle East and North Africa. By now the contours are clear: according to a count by Chinese Human Rights Defenders, an advocacy group, the government has “criminally detained 26 individuals, disappeared more than 30, and put more than 200... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4693272 Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:59:05 +0100 4693272 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4684264&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F3V-WKxgXuaU%2F By David BoazPresident Obama's incomprehensible "kinetic military action" in Libya has driven George Will to distraction, and to mordant wit: At about this point in foreign policy misadventures, the usual question is: What is Plan B? Today’s question is: What was Plan A? Not to mention literary allusion: Perhaps the CIA operatives should have stayed home and talked to some senators who seem to know what’s what. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) refers to the Libyan rebels as part of a “pro-democracy movement.” Perhaps they are. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) must think so. Serving, as usual, as Sancho Panza to Sen. John McCain’s Don Quixote, Graham said last Sunday (on “Face the Nation”), “We should be taking the fight to Tripoli.” Read the whole thing. George Will on Libya is a po... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4684264 Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:48:57 +0100 4684264 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4684273&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FtiywFcd5qAI%2F By Christopher PrebleFor all the boldness of Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposal to reduce projected federal expenditures by $6 trillion, an initiative that I support, the Pentagon’s budget emerges essentially unscathed in Ryan’s plan. This is a mistake on both fiscal and strategic grounds. Significant cuts in military spending must be on the table as the nation struggles to close its fiscal gap without saddling individuals and businesses with burdensome taxes and future generations with debt. Such cuts will also force a reappraisal of our military’s roles and missions that is long overdue. The Pentagon’s base budget has nearly doubled during the past decade. Throw in the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus nuclear weapons spending in the Department of Energy, and a smattering ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4684273 Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:39:01 +0100 4684273 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4676758&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FAw33lCK0gZo%2F By Julian SanchezThe Electronic Frontier Foundation has unearthed an interesting case of an improper use of surveillance in an investigation where the FBI had obtained "roving wiretap" authority. In a bizarre turn, the Bureau ended up eavesdropping on young children rather than their adult suspects for five days. The case is generating some attention because that same "roving wiretap" authority is one of the three surveillance powers set to expire in late May. The thing is, on the basis of what I can glean from the heavily redacted document EFF obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, it's not a case involving misuse of the roving authority. But it is a good concrete example of why the roving authority needs to be modified. First, a bit of background: Roving wiretaps in criminal ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4676758 Mon, 04 Apr 2011 15:54:39 +0100 4676758 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4676759&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FPRR-dcLfDqA%2F By Malou InnocentGeneral David Petraeus, the head of American forces in Afghanistan, has emphasized the importance of winning the "hearts and minds" of Afghans by treating them and their culture with respect. Pentagon officials may want to reexamine that assumption, but not for the reason you might think. Evangelical pastor Terry Jones, author of the book Islam Is of the Devil and head of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, two weeks ago carried through on his promise to "stand up" to Islam and burn a Quran. In response, crowds demonstrated in cities across Afghanistan, with a mob in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif storming a United Nations compound, killing eight non-American aid workers and beheading two of them. The message from the protests is cle... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4676759 Mon, 04 Apr 2011 15:52:36 +0100 4676759 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4670089&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fsmgbhm97Dmc%2F By Benjamin H. FriedmanMany presidential foreign policy doctrines ago, George Kennan figured out what was wrong with them. In my latest post for The Skeptics, I rely on his insight to try to stop pundits from inventing an Obama Doctrine. The national effort to discern an Obama Doctrine from our attack on Libya is likely to be futile. If it succeeds, it will be harmful. No one can make foreign policy without some theory or strategy. But as Kennan’s lament about the Truman Doctrine points out, doctrines tend to be post-hoc rationales of actions that confuse policy later. If taken seriously, they typically encourage foolish wars. Kennan attributed the American desire for doctrines to our love of law and rules. I see it more as a product of divided power, which heightens the need for sales. ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4670089 Fri, 01 Apr 2011 21:33:19 +0100 4670089 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4670094&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F9bK1ZnQsJGQ%2F By Christopher PrebleI have an op-ed in Politico today that explores what I call President Obama's power problem, a common theme in my work (my book is now in a Kindle edition!). Simply stated, when a country has more military power than it needs to defend itself and its core interests, it will expand its definition of "the national interest." This will, in turn, lead it to intervene militarily in places and disputes that have no connection to the country's security. That certainly has been the pattern for the United States for at least the last two decades. The problem is nicely encapsulated in the famous exchange between Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell, which Powell recounted in his memoir. Madeleine Albright, our ambassador to the UN, asked me in frustration “What’s the po... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4670094 Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:04:31 +0100 4670094 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4664149&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FQnkf1ySGIzY%2F By Justin LoganThere is good news and bad news about the report that the Obama administration authorized CIA teams to go into Libya to liaise with the Libyan opposition before instituting a no-fly zone over that country. (The phrase “sneakers on the ground” has emerged in response to the administration’s firm insistence that there are no US boots on the ground there.) Get the map out The good news is that the administration, despite prior appearances, does indeed have a strategy in Libya: siding with the rebels in their effort to depose Muammar Qaddafi. The bad news is that siding with the rebels in their effort to depose Muammar Qaddafi is not a good strategy. It is probably important to make clear at the outset that I do not mean to overstate the stakes here. I am not suggesting th... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4664149 Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:32:31 +0100 4664149 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4664152&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FgmJwZ_hLORU%2F By George Scoville The Obama Doctrine fails to address the limitations of Washington's attempts to shape foreign conflicts. The 2012 Republican presidential field has thus far failed to produce a small-government conservative. FREE E-BOOK: Government Failure: A Primer on Public Choice is available for reading and download (PDF) for a limited time on our website. Republicans and Democrats are quibbling over a measly $61 billion in spending cuts--that's a failure of leadership. Under the failing status quo, Big Sugar wins, and Joe Taxpayer loses. Ian Vásquez, director of Cato's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, joined C-SPAN's Washington Journal to talk about the failure of foreign aid: Thursday Links is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4664152 Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:36:18 +0100 4664152 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4664153&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fcwm2X5EnaI8%2F By Jim HarperYesterday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee had a hearing entitled: "Ten Years After 9/11: A Report From the 9/11 Commission Chairmen," part of what evidently will be a series commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks this September. At the end of his oral statement, former 9/11 Commission co-chairman Tom Keane made a half-hearted pitch for implementation of the REAL ID Act, the national ID law Congress passed attached to a military spending bill in early 2005. His written statement with fellow former co-chair Lee Hamilton dedicates three paragraphs (out of 23 pages) to the appeal for the national ID law. The paltriness of Keane's argument for a national ID parallels the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission report. It dedicated th... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4664153 Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:35:17 +0100 4664153 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4653303&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FxVmzFqAFTaU%2F By Tad DeHavenLast year the House Republican leadership created the GOP’s “YouCut” website, which offers several possible spending cuts for citizens to vote on. The cut with the most votes goes to the House floor for an up-or-down vote. It’s a decent idea, but unfortunately, most of the cuts the GOP have offered thus far only amount to chump change. This week the House Republican leadership finally put the Pentagon on the YouCut chopping block. However, the possible cuts suggested by the GOP are pathetic: 1. Reduce the Department of Defense’s printing and reproduction budget by 10 percent ($36 million in savings in fiscal 2012). 2. Reduce spending for Defense studies, analysis and evaluations by 10 percent ($24 million in savings in fiscal 2012). 3. Restrict payout of annual nati... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4653303 Tue, 29 Mar 2011 21:26:56 +0100 4653303 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4653313&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FfcHyBTaElD0%2F By Caleb O. BrownThe Weinberger-Powell Doctrine offers Congress and the President five key hurdles before military force should be employed. Chris Preble, in this new video, runs through the reasons why President Obama's Libya incursion fails the Weinberger-Powell test. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel, too. Five Rules for Going to War is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4653313 Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:38:11 +0100 4653313 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4653316&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FDqpqnUQUx-4%2F By Benjamin H. FriedmanIn his speech last night defending U.S. participation in Libya's civil war, President Obama repeated the justifications for bombing Libya that I attacked in a post written for the National Interest last Friday, "Three Phony Reasons to Bomb Libya." 1. The President argued that Qaddafi recently "lost the confidence of his people and the legitimacy to lead." I'll again quote George Will on that: Such meretricious boilerplate seems designed to anesthetize thought. When did Gaddafi lose his people’s confidence? When did he have legitimacy? American doctrine — check the Declaration of Independence — is that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. So there are always many illegitimate governments. When is it America’s duty to scrub awa... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4653316 Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:11:31 +0100 4653316 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4653317&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fet392xf2v9Y%2F By Malou InnocentTonight, to sell the illusion of America's "limited military action" in Libya's civil war, President Barack Obama insisted that America had a moral imperative to intervene militarily, implying he will do so wherever foreign leaders commit atrocities against their people. This latest mission in the name of "humanitarian imperialism" is extremely dangerous. In fact, if all goes well in Libya, it might be just as bad as if we fail. Consider, for instance, if I walked through a wall of fire and came out the other side unharmed. Although I came out safe and sound, my decision to walk through the wall of fire was still misinformed. My good outcome was simply one among a host of potentially terrible outcomes. After all, if I were to walk through that wall of fire again and... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4653317 Tue, 29 Mar 2011 01:01:33 +0100 4653317 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4642572&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F8JIumpKo5F8%2F By Christopher PrebleThere is ample recent evidence that the president has some difficulty with entrances and exits.  The linked video is a humorous example; the building conundrum in Libya is not. President Obama's decision to launch a series of military strikes against Libya raises a host of questions, many more than can be answered in his much-belated address to the American people tonight. At a minimum, the President must clarify the purpose and scope of the mission. He has declared that the sole object is to protect civilians from harm. Others in his administration, however, suggest that military operations will continue until Muammar Qaddafi leaves office. In fact, the two goals might be contradictory, as the need to protect civilians from violence could well extend long after Qadd... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4642572 Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:57:22 +0100 4642572 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4636413&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F1dImHb3owjo%2F By Gene HealyRecently, I've been blogging over at the Washington Examiner's lively "Beltway Confidential" site, mostly on the subject of congressional war powers and President Obama's Libyan adventure. Today's post, "Obama Makes 'Kinetic Military Action' on the English Language" has a little fun with the administration's wordgames and the legal rationales behind them. Other posts and a column on the subject are here, here, and here. Today also brings a pair of columns--in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, respectively--from conservative luminaries defending the notion that Obama has the constitutional power to bomb Libya without congressional authorization. Yoo, the legal architect of George W. Bush's Terror Presidency, chides Tea Party Republicans like Jason Chaffetz of Uta... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4636413 Sat, 26 Mar 2011 00:31:45 +0100 4636413 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4631467&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FDa5dQRKJp3A%2F By Christopher PrebleDoyle McManus at the Los Angeles Times highlights the zigging and zagging of some leading Republican presidential contenders when it comes to war with Libya. Particularly noteworthy is Newt Gingrich. "Two weeks ago," McManus writes:  the former House speaker and possible presidential candidate denounced Obama for not intervening forcefully against Kadafi. "This is a moment to get rid of [Kadafi]," he urged. "Do it. Get it over with." Then Obama intervened in Libya. Was Gingrich pleased? "It is impossible to make sense of the standard for intervention in Libya except opportunism and news media publicity," Gingrich said Sunday. "Iran and North Korea are vastly bigger threats…. There are a lot of bad dictators doing bad things." That sounded like a flip-flop, so I aske... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4631467 Thu, 24 Mar 2011 14:46:28 +0100 4631467 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4626794&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FZ5n_ytEPc6M%2F By Julian SanchezGlenn Greenwald observes that we're hearing a familiar false dilemma from advocates of intervention in Libya—the same one that was trotted out so frequently in the run-up to the war in Iraq: Either you support American military action, or you must be indifferent to the suffering of civilians under Qadaffi. Bracket for a moment the obvious empirical questions about the general efficacy of bombs as reliable means of alleviating suffering. What I find striking is the background assumption that whether the United States military has a role to play here is taken to be a simple function of how much we care about other people's suffering. One obvious answer is that caring or not caring simply doesn't come into it: That the function of the U.S. military is to protect the vital i... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4626794 Wed, 23 Mar 2011 12:53:17 +0100 4626794 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4622226&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fz1mnaiVYdgk%2F By Christopher PrebleNow he tells us. Max Boot, among the loudest proponents of military action against Muammar Qaddafi, reports in today’s NY Times that he “can’t stop worrying about everything that could go wrong.” Recognizing that Libya is so bitterly divided that it might not be appropriate to call it a country, Boot is suddenly concerned that “a long, seething history of rivalries among 140 tribes and clans,” could erupt into full scale civil war. Even if Boot gets his wish, and Qaddafi is ousted, he frets that “the tribes could fight one another for the spoils of Libya’s oil industry; as in Iraq, some could form alliances with Al Qaeda.” Boot concedes that Libya “has had an active Islamist movement that has sent many fighters to Iraq,” and warns that “the coll... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4622226 Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:58:37 +0100 4622226 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4622230&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FR5HbuudMiFs%2F By Benjamin H. FriedmanEarly Sunday, allied warplanes, including U.S. air force fighters, destroyed a column of Libyan tanks and other vehicles set to attack the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. Monday the rebels drove forty miles down the coast to Ajdabiya, where they were pushed back by government forces employing rocket and tank fire. According to the New York Times, allied warplanes flew overhead but didn't attack. Why provide air support in one situation and not the other? It appears that the coalition's rules of engagement allow the former because it is seen as consistent with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973's authorization of force to protect civilians. The latter counts as close air support, which is not authorized. In essence, we are helping the rebels when they defend towns ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4622230 Tue, 22 Mar 2011 12:58:17 +0100 4622230 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4615080&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FOdE0M9UYEOc%2F By Christopher PrebleThis morning at the Skeptics, I blogged about a series of questions raised by the ongoing military operations against Libya. But I left room for one big question: Is the Weinberger/Powell Doctrine dead? Actually, it isn't a question. It's a statement: the doctrine that sought to prevent the United States from engaging in risky and counterproductive missions that had nothing to do with protecting U.S. vital interests (e.g. Lebanon 1983; Somalia, 1991; and Kosovo, 1999) is dead. Shovel dirt on it. To review, the doctrine was first coined by Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Defense, Caspar Weinberger, in a speech at the National Press Club in 1984. Weinberger was aided by a rising military officer, Colin Powell, who later adapted the concepts for his own purposes as National ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4615080 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 16:00:55 +0100 4615080 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4615082&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FUAArsnX1ZiU%2F By David BoazAt the Britannica Blog today, I ask, What ever happened to the antiwar movement? Maybe antiwar organizers assumed that they had elected the man who would stop the war. After all, Barack Obama rose to power on the basis of his early opposition to the Iraq war and his promise to end it. But after two years in the White House he has made both of George Bush’s wars his wars.... And now Libya. In various recent polls more than two-thirds of Americans have opposed military intervention in Libya. No doubt many of them voted for President Obama.... It’s hard to escape the conclusion that antiwar activity in the United States and around the world was driven as much by antipathy to George W. Bush as by actual opposition to war and intervention. Indeed, a University of Michigan stu... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4615082 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 13:14:13 +0100 4615082 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4610790&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FXf-djtc4ANU%2F By Benjamin H. FriedmanNo clear plan yet guides the foreign military intervention likely to start in Libya this weekend or shortly thereafter. There is instead a coalition forming in service of a hazy United Nations authorization of a tactic: a no-fly zone or air strikes on military targets. The goal is vague.   According to the French, the British, the U.S. secretary of state, and the wishes of many of people we are trying to help, the aim is to overthrow Qaddafi and establish something resembling a representative democracy. According to the U.N. Security Council resolution passed last night, the U.S. president, and the Arab League, we are fighting to protect Libyan civilians. If our goal is simply to minimize civilian suffering, it is not clear that we should take the rebel side, rather... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4610790 Fri, 18 Mar 2011 22:13:13 +0100 4610790 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4610791&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fe2HBzepC4VI%2F By Justin LoganThe UN Security Council has passed a resolution demanding a cease-fire and authorizing a no-fly zone over eastern Libya by a 10-0 vote with five abstentions, all coming from relatively large, important countries (Russia, China, Germany, Brazil and India). The Libyan government, unsurprisingly, has immediately announced a cease-fire in acquiescence to the UNSC resolution. Equally unsurprisingly, the Libyan opposition has stated that the Qaddafi forces did not, in fact, cease firing. We are now siding—to some degree—with the rebels. (Those skeptical on this point may wish to re-read their Richard Betts.) For all their chest-puffing and stern pronouncements, I doubt that David Cameron, Nicolas Sarkozy, Amr Moussa, or Anders-Fogh Rasmussen is going to figure out what our ult... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4610791 Fri, 18 Mar 2011 21:15:21 +0100 4610791 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4610796&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FIdpiqIBq5kE%2F By Juan Carlos HidalgoAs Ted Carpenter notes below, President Obama is departing on an important trip to Latin America. The countries that he will visit exemplify the macroeconomic stability and advancement of democratic institutions now found in much of the region. Brazil, by far the largest Latin American economy, has enjoyed almost a decade of sound growth and poverty reduction. Chile is the most developed country in the region thanks to decades of economic liberalization, a process that has also made it Latin America’s most mature democracy. And El Salvador is undergoing a delicate period in its transition to becoming a full-fledged democracy with its first left-of-center president since the end of the civil war in 1992. In an era when most Latin American nations are moving in the... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4610796 Fri, 18 Mar 2011 17:54:10 +0100 4610796 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4610797&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fiwx_-UAQHks%2F By Ted Galen CarpenterPresident Obama’s trip to Latin America is likely to focus on economic topics, but two security issues deserve scrutiny during his stops in Brazil and El Salvador.  Washington’s diplomatic relationship with Brazil has become somewhat frosty, especially over the past year.  U.S. leaders did not appreciate Brazil’s joint effort with Turkey to craft a compromise policy toward Iran’s nuclear program.  The Obama administration regarded that diplomatic initiative as unhelpful freelancing.  And when Brazil joined Turkey in voting against a UN Security Council resolution imposing stronger sanctions on Tehran, the administration’s resentment deepened.  Obama should not only try to soothe tensions, he should shift Washington’s policy, express appreciation for B... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4610797 Fri, 18 Mar 2011 16:16:49 +0100 4610797 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4605808&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FylrVxaxm9Po%2F By Benjamin H. FriedmanI wrote a long post for the National Interest yesterday arguing against US participation in a no-fly zone over Libya. Here are highlights: Given the spectrum of ways that the United States can help Libya’s rebels, it’s odd that debate here centers on a no-fly zone, a form of military intervention that shows support for rebels without much helping them. No-fly zones commit us to winning wars but demonstrate our limited will to win them. That is why they are bad public policy. No-fly zones are best suited to helping ground forces that can defend themselves against an opponent once we suppress its airpower. Northern Iraq in the 1990s is arguably a successful example. But they do little to overthrow entrenched leaders or help lightly-armed rebels defeat heavier forc... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4605808 Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:48:08 +0100 4605808 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4600520&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FFonP1CDF8Ng%2F By David BoazThursday evening, "Stossel" on FOX Business Network moves to a new time -- 10 p.m. ET. This week's show looks at waste in government, with Rep. Jeff Flake, Cato's Chris Preble on military spending, and John McWhorter on the drug war. Set your DVRs. Or, come to think of it, you can still watch TV live. Cato on Stossel — at a New Time is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4600520 Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:13:48 +0100 4600520 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4592365&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F9T1DFaATh0A%2F By Justin LoganDaniel Larison points to this statement by Sen. Richard Lugar which is really a breath of fresh air: Sen. Richard Lugar ...Given the costs of a no-fly zone, the risks that our involvement would escalate, the uncertain reception in the Arab street of any American intervention in an Arab country, the potential for civilian deaths, the unpredictability of the endgame, the strains on our military, and other factors, it is doubtful that U.S. interests would be served by imposing a no-fly zone over Libya.   If the Obama Administration is contemplating this step, however, it should begin by seeking a declaration of war against Libya that would allow for a full Congressional debate on the issue. In addition, it should ask Arab League governments and other governments advocating f... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4592365 Tue, 15 Mar 2011 12:47:23 +0100 4592365 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4592367&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F5c7nvwjkHG8%2F By Justin LoganProf. Anne-Marie Slaughter Anne-Marie Slaughter, recently head of the State Department’s policy planning staff and now having retreated to her post as the dean of the liberal interventionists at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, laments that her former boss’s boss is “fiddling while Libya burns.” Slaughter thinks the United States should implement a no-fly zone over Libya, with the UN's blessing if we can, or with a coalition of the willing if we must. She takes up five arguments made by skeptics and claims they are all wanting. I want to take up a few of them below. First, in making the case that intervention is in America’s interest, she writes that “we have a chance to support a real new beginning in the Muslim world—a new beginning of accountable go... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4592367 Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:48:08 +0100 4592367 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4565882&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FE-5AgfWOb0M%2F By Christopher PrebleOn Monday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking in Kabul, stated that the United States “will be well-positioned to begin drawing down some U.S. and coalition forces this July.”  But as Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post reports, the planned reductions likely wouldn’t lead to a major change in the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. Indeed, even as Gates is stating that the United States will adhere to its date to begin withdrawing troops, negotiations are in the works that could establish a long-term security presence for the U.S. beyond 2014 and might include permanent military bases. Secretary Gates and General Petraeus both claim progress in Afghanistan.  But their concepts of progress are murky and exist within a strategy that has never had clearly defined obj... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4565882 Wed, 09 Mar 2011 21:18:18 +0100 4565882 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4560237&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fe7ht4-A8HVI%2F By Gene HealyMy Washington Examiner column this week is on the growing drumbeat for military action in Libya.  That allegedly serious people are proposing, as Defense Secretary Gates puts it, “the use of the US military in another country in the Middle East,” ought to be appalling.  If the last ten years haven’t convinced you that a little prudence and caution might serve us well in foreign policy, what would? Recently Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT), the Bobbsey Twins of knee-jerk interventionism, chastised Obama for dragging his feet on the path toward war.  They called for arming the rebels and implementing a no-fly zone, for starters. “I love the military,” Sen. McCain complained “but they always seem to find reasons why you can’t do something rath... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4560237 Tue, 08 Mar 2011 19:15:50 +0100 4560237 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4560241&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FPdOTf538DxI%2F By Christopher PrebleMy Cato colleagues have written on the current goings on in Libya (especially here and here), and I concur with their recommendations that the U.S. government should avoid intervening militarily in the conflict. For my part, I have hesitated to weigh in, convinced that I couldn't offer much to the discussion. But just when I thought I had seen enough regarding what the United States should do in Libya, I stumbled upon two posts over at the National Interest blog that deserve a closer look. Paul Pillar on Friday pointed out that the same people who were such strong proponents of war with Iraq -- Charles Krauthammer, in this case -- are back in the game, apparently unfazed by their disastrous predictions of the past. Pillar is particularly devastating in his critiq... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4560241 Mon, 07 Mar 2011 19:55:07 +0100 4560241 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4560243&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F0sBRHIxHDoU%2F By Malou InnocentRasmussen reports that 52% of Americans want U.S. troops home from Afghanistan within a year, up from 43% last fall. Of course, polls are ephemeral snapshots of public opinion that can fluctuate with the prevailing political winds; nonetheless, it does appear that more Americans are slowly coming to realize the "aimless absurdity" of our nation-building project in Central Asia.  Earlier today (HT: HuffPo's Amanda Terkel), former Republican senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe": "I don't think we can afford Afghanistan much longer.” He continued: "The simple fact is that it's costing us. Good people are losing their lives there, and we're losing huge amount of resources there ... So I think we should have a timeframe for getting out of Afghan... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4560243 Mon, 07 Mar 2011 19:25:28 +0100 4560243 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4549734&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FrwnRPc7rOBI%2F By Christopher PrebleWednesday's Wall Street Journal featured an op ed by Mark Helprin making the case for a large navy (may be paywalled). Or, at least, that was what I took away from it. To be honest, it was a little hard to tell. I was going to let it drop, but by coincidence I was at the Naval Academy today, giving a guest lecture to two different classes, and the experience has inspired me to pick apart examine Helprin's article. I do so because I fundamentally agree with Helprin that we should have a strong navy. I say this because I believe that the Founders were correct to privilege the Navy over the Army (recall that the Constitution calls for maintaining a navy, but raising an Army only as required). I also have several parochial reasons for favoring the Navy over the other serv... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4549734 Fri, 04 Mar 2011 21:22:31 +0100 4549734 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4544944&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FgWQnovK_N-E%2F By Jim HarperUntil now, Florida has not been one of the states to buck the federal government's national ID mandate, established in the REAL ID Act of 2005. A pair of grand jury reports in 2002 had moved the state to tighten its driver licensing processes prior to any federal action, so it was already doing many of the things that the Department of Homeland Security is now seeking to require of states in the name of REAL ID. Full compliance with REAL ID remains a distant hope, so DHS has set out a list of 18 "milestones," progress toward which it is treating as REAL ID compliance. Full compliance with REAL ID includes putting driver information into a network for nationwide information sharing---including scanned copies of basic identity documents. It includes giving all licensees and ID h... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4544944 Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:53:26 +0100 4544944 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4540552&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FcIitwJHsV84%2F By Justin LoganThe prospect of the United States intervening in Libya is uncertain.  Yesterday, Secretary Gates and Adm. Mullen appeared to downplay the possibility of military action, while not clearly taking a position.  But lost in much of the reporting is President Obama’s Executive Order declaring a national emergency, and the accompanying letter to congress, issued last Friday. Obama claimed that the overall situation constituted “…an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”  Over at The Skeptics, I examine why it is a mistake for the president to lump together national security and humanitarian considerations: Obama should be ashamed of this language. Muammar Qadhafi is a despicable man without basic decency, but ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4540552 Wed, 02 Mar 2011 19:19:05 +0100 4540552 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4536046&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fn-jG7Yi8Qpk%2F By Jim HarperThe zeitgeist on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. may be for limited, constitutional government, but that doesn't mean that big-government conservatives aren't going to use the reprieve voters gave Republicans in the fall to once again advance big-government goals. On Monday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.) and Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano encouraging her to fully implement our national ID law, the REAL ID Act of 2005. The deadline for state implementation of the national ID law lapsed nearly three years ago. Half the states in the country have affirmatively ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4536046 Wed, 02 Mar 2011 13:01:58 +0100 4536046 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4536052&cid=t_154644_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FrAKm_FwW5es%2F By Malou InnocentIn 2008, the election of President Barack Obama was widely touted as a repudiation of President George W. Bush’s messianic vision that “Our common prosperity will be advanced by allowing all humanity—men and women—to reach their full potential.” In the years following America’s failed democratic experiment in Iraq, many Americans began to spurn the Bush era’s presumptuous conviction that “We have the power to make the world we seek.” Liberals in particular roundly rejected the supposed “unyielding belief” that America is called to lead the cause of “rule of law” and “the equal administration of justice” around the world. Such pious declarations are in keeping with Bush’s neo-Wilsonian foreign policy.  Does it surprise you then, that all of ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4536052 Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:36:22 +0100 4536052