The more evolved segment of the Republican Party, led by us few, small-“l” libertarians, has the GOP heading in the right direction on wars. Tired of endless wars with no objective or quantifiable outcome, in countries that hate us, we see foreign entanglements in a more jaundiced light.
In the past, libertarians have had about as much influence in the GOP as the Log Cabin Republicans, without nearly as good Halloween parties. That’s changing.
While we libertarians support our ally, Israel, in these unending fights with radical Muslim nations that provoke them, we should not get more involved in religious wars. The Democrat Party, which has become the party of warmongering, seems willing to get us into yet another religious war. I am not sure when this changed. The original Democrat Party, which held some appeal to me, protested the Vietnam War.
Maybe Democrats are urging evangelical Americans into this latest religious war as part of their self-preserving political agenda. Democrats know that, if evangelicals are correct and the Rapture comes (wherein all the righteous are summoned to Heaven), Democrats will then control a supermajority in the House and Senate.
There is growing sentiment among us right-of-center folks that we are too broke and have too bad a track record in wars the last 50 years to be led into another one. As U.S. aircraft carriers steam toward the Middle East, we need to take a good look at that track record.
Post-9/11, we went to two wars and gave up innumerable freedoms to the TSA, NSA and Homeland Security. We lost tens of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars. The result? We replaced Saddam Hussein with ISIS. And we replaced the Taliban with a much stronger Taliban; the difference is that they have $83 billion of our lethal weapons that Biden left them when he scurried out of Afghanistan.
In fairness to Biden, although he did vote for the wars as a senator and worked to expand them as Obama’s “yes man,” Afghanistan and Iraq were Bush/Cheney follies. After 15 years and trillions of dollars searching Afghanistan for bin Laden, we did find him. In his house in Pakistan.
While in the Middle East and since he got back to Washington, Biden has sent a mixed message. Appeasing the growing Muslim protests on our college campuses and in cities near Detroit, Biden is trying to play both sides. When the call to worship issues each day from the mosque near the White House, Biden answers it as the Call to Nap.
The left of his party urged Biden to support Palestine; he just gave them $100 million. Biden allowed the international embargo on Iran’s missile program to lapse on Oct. 18. He seems to be appeasing radical Islam while supposedly “supporting” Israel. This is according to his disjointed speech while visiting the Middle East. Biden could win a Nobel Peace Prize calming down this war simply by muddling through a speech that neither side understands.
I fear the best voices of reason on the right are silenced when it comes to war. Warmongers like Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham want to start a war at the drop of a hat. There is nothing scarier than a 70-year-old, lifetime Washington insider with no kids who has never been to war, wanting to put our kids’ lives on the line so Raytheon and Lockheed Martin can make their quarterly earnings.
And I fear that the folks who have the best take on this, Tucker Carlson, Vivek Ramaswamy, Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Bobby Kennedy and GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, are being drowned out by both the left and the right. My gut tells me that most of the country agrees with them about going slowly, or not at all, into more wars of choice.
The lobbyist and big money corporate interests of the “military industrial complex,” as President Eisenhower warned us of, must change Democrats and Republicans when they are elected and get to D.C.
My favorite Republican candidate, Ramaswamy, opposes major support for Ukraine and takes a dim view of us getting involved in Middle Eastern wars. It is so cute when you are new to the political game: you can think logically. If elected, by the time Washington lobbyists and neocons are done with him, he will know something important: you can only promise to stop supporting wars in your campaign rhetoric and as a podcast host.
I do know this. They are not selling any 2024 calendars in the Gaza Strip.
A libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author, Ron does commentary on radio and TV. He can be contacted at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.