Doug Bandow

The November election is looking to be another dreary choice between the lesser of two evils. Do you want the big spending interventionist or the big spending interventionist? One probably would spend a bit more money while the other one probably would start a few more wars.

America is a land of liberty and opportunity, and has admirably served as "a city upon a hill" in the words of Puritan John Winthrop, who led the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the New World. The U.S. continues to attract freedom-seekers from around the world.

Yet America's greatness has come...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family have turned his government into an essentially criminal enterprise. For more than a year Syrians have been attempting to overthrow the system.

By some estimates 7500 people have died. Defections from the military have led to creation of a small "Free Syrian...

Leave it to radio personality Rush Limbaugh to turn a serious policy issue into a personal attack. But the moral character of Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke doesn't matter (except, presumably, to her). What should worry the rest of us is her apparent belief that we all are obligated to...

The U.S. has been fighting the "war on terrorism" for more than a decade. Thousands of Americans have died, both in the 9/11 attacks and Washington's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Constitution also is under assault, as successive presidents have asserted extraordinary and unreviewable power in the name of...

Evangelical churches long have been called the Republican Party at prayer. The observation might be close to true in Iowa. And that should make American Christians nervous about their future in politics.

The relationship of religion and politics has been fraught with controversy since America's founding. In Europe a brutal...

North Korea's death extravaganza is over. "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il has been commemorated with all the official pomp and popular wailing due a monarch. His son, Kim Jong-un, has been proclaimed the new demi-god. The king is dead, long live the king.

Before Kim Jong Il's death, the Obama...

Even loyal Republicans are disheartened by their choices this year: the man who flips and flops whenever convenient, the official turned lobbyist who imagines he is Churchill (or maybe Caesar) reincarnated, and the governor with memory problems. But the man the GOP elite most fear is a genial 76-year-old congressman...

Despite the Obama administration's best efforts, U.S. troops are on their way home from Iraq. Only Iraqi opposition prevented American forces from garrisoning yet another nation forever.

It is time to leave. Finally. Completely. Permanently.

Many of Washington's wars have been unnecessary. Few have been as foolish as Iraq.

The...

Religious repression typically occurs in Islamic or authoritarian regimes. Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, Cuba, Pakistan and Burma come to mind. But it appears that European democracies are not immune from the virus. Unfortunately, Hungary has adopted legislation which undermines this most basic liberty.

Hungary has a well-earned reputation...

"After years of darkness, we've seen flickers of progress," said President Barack Obama of Burma, officially known as Myanmar. The government has been under sanction by the U.S., but last week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the pariah state in an attempt to spur the reform process.

Americans like to style their nation as the land of the free. Yet the government is engaged in a war on its own people. The misnamed Drug War.

As Prof. Douglas Husak of Rutgers pointed out: "The war, after all, cannot really be a war on drugs, since drugs cannot...

It took the greatest military alliance in history five months to push the Libyan rebels across the finish line. Nevertheless, Western politicians are claiming victory.

Yet the ultimate consequences of allied intervention remain uncertain. While few mourn the demise of "the Colonel," liberal democracy may not result in Libya.

Libya...

The U.S. is supposed to be leaving Iraq. But the Obama administration is desperately lobbying Baghdad to keep American troops in place, which would turn Iraq into yet another costly U.S. military dependent.

Advocates of promiscuous military intervention angrily reject the claim that America is an "empire." Granted, the U.S....

Sen. 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...

War is in the air. These days it doesn't seem natural if America isn't involved in at least two conflicts at once. For President Barack Obama it is three, though U.S. involvement in combat in Iraq has largely run its course. Still, these days one almost yearns for the Cold...

Another Memorial Day, another holiday filled with rhapsodies by politicians and citizens alike about the sacrifices of American military personnel. But if these summer patriots really cared about their neighbors in uniform, they would stop putting servicemen and women at risk for frivolous reasons.

America was born in war. The...

President Barack Obama has gone to war in Libya without requesting a declaration of war from Congress. But he said he would abide by the War Powers Resolution. However, his 60 day grace period for bombing ended on Friday.

No worries, the president decided that the war was so small,...

After making Osama bin Laden U.S. Enemy Number One President George W. Bush botched the job. Yet officials from his administration are claiming credit for getting bin Laden. Torture maven John Yoo wrote that the recent raid "vindicates the Bush administration, whose intelligence architecture marked the path to...

Washington and its NATO allies have bungled the Libya crisis. Unless they change course, they face endless entanglement in an interminable civil war in North Africa. The only worse option would be to double down and escalate.

Allied intervention in Libya makes no sense. No security issues of...