1. The warfare state is, hands down, the greatest threat to liberty. In war, the government always claims the need for massive power, and it uses war as an excuse to expand its control over our lives in every way possible.
War, the politicians claim, "changes everything." They tap our phones, read our emails, monitor our bank accounts, and give us "free speech zones." They consider torture acceptable and imprison people indefinitely. They take our property, waste our resources, and threaten to spend our economy into oblivion.
Throughout history, even kings and queens have often failed to survive such disastrous governance.
And, just in case that's not enough, here's one more "bonus" reason to get out Iraq now:
The Constitution does not give the president the power to wage war without first getting a declaration of war from Congress. Although some try to claim that the 2002 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) fulfilled this requirement, it did not. All it did was transfer a Constitutional power - the power to declare war - from congress to the president. This transfer of power is a violation of the Constitution in and of itself.
Thus, the president violated the Constitution by waging war on Iraq without a declaration of war from congress. And, possibly even more important, everyone in congress who voted for the AUMF in 2002 violated the Constitution as well by illegally transferring their power to declare war to the president.
This is how the U.S. government has handled every war since World War II. By allowing the government to wage undeclared wars, politicians from both political parties have violated their Constitutional oaths repeatedly.
Whether you like it or not, the Constitution is not just a set of loose guidelines, it's the law. Now is the time to demand that our representatives in government abide by the law. We must stop allowing Presidents to drag us into wars, which they later claim we have to continue for years and years until the "job is done."
NATIONAL DEFENSE, NOT OFFENSE
If government should be playing any role at all in foreign affairs, it should be only to keep us out of wars. Their sole job is to ensure that this country will not be attacked so you and your family can live in peace.
I'd actually like to see some national defense for once in this country; all we have now is a national offense. Such things as staging coups, backing dictators with billions in foreign aid, basing our military in over 120 nations, and attacking other countries does nothing to keep this country safe. In fact, it does just the opposite, and almost guarantees more war in the future.
To make this country safer, we don't need to increase the power of the politicians, and we definitely don't need more national offense. We don't need more weapons, a larger military, or wars in more countries.
We need the exact opposite of this. We need to focus on defending the country rather than aggressing against the rest of the world.
The only reason to have a military force at all is to deter and discourage potential invaders; it's not to be used as a pre-emptive strike force. If the attackers come anyway, it's the military's job to repel them at our borders. Nothing more, nothing less. If they're unable to do that job, maybe we should consider something different.
WHAT NOW?
The path this country is on right now, the path of empire and militarism, will only guarantee us more violence, death, and loss of liberty.
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