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August 25, 2005
Philadelphia 1787 vs. Baghdad 2005
Contra Tom Palmer, Baghdad in 2005 is nothing like Philadephia in 1787. See this column by Fred Kaplan (courtesy of the LewRockwell.com blog) for the proof. Here's just one good paragraph:
America's Founding Fathers shared the crucible of having fought in the Revolutionary War for the common cause of independence from England. This bond helped overcome their many differences. Iraq's new leaders did not fight in their war of liberation from Saddam Hussein. It would be as if France had not merely assisted the American colonists but also fought all the battles on the ground, occupied our territory afterward, installed our first leaders, composed the Articles of Confederation, and organized the Constitutional Convention. The atmosphere in Philadelphia, as well as the resulting document and the resulting country, would have been very different.
Posted by Mike Tennant at August 25, 2005 09:02 AM
Comments
Mike,
Maybe it shows my naivete here, but I was shocked to discover lately that many outfits and individuals who claim that collective liberty and individual rights are their main concern are acting and talking like Neo-Cons.
The Cato Institute has been disappointing for some time with their Titanic-deckchair-shuffling style reformism, and the Ayn Rand Institute has been nuts for a while now. However it was that piece by Palmer at the Cato website wherein he "identifies" the founders with the crooks, fanatics, and ex-Ba'athists forming the Iraqi puppet government that took my breathe away.
-Ali
Posted by: Ali_Massoud ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.strike-the-root.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif){kind=small}
at August 26, 2005 01:15 AM
No, you are right to point out that the Cato and Rand Institutes have, to one degree or another, sold out to the State, probably hoping for a certain degree of respect and invitations to cocktail parties in return. Cato still does much good work, but there are certain less-than-stellar examples of libertarianism there, such as Palmer, who has been pro-war from the beginning. Perhaps if Cato had never gone to D.C., it could have maintained its radicalism better. As it stands now, it's become in some ways a slightly more libertarian version of the Heritage Foundation.
Posted by: Mike Tennant at August 26, 2005 08:41 AM
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