Here, Here...Kelly,
I cannot agree with you more. Thanks you for the well thought out, truly
Libertarian response to the article. I would only add that you left out one
very important variable in the equation. Many believe, not all of course,
that Iraq posses a clear and present threat to our sovereignty, unlike the
more recent examples you site of tyrants who have been overthrown from
within. I know this point is debatable and we will never know for sure if
Iraq was a threat. I might add this is also the rebuttal to people who ask
"why not go after, _____ [fill in the blank]?"
In response to your rule of "not getting into any more email debates" I've
attempted to keep my remark, benign. 
p.s. You said "a siege weakens internal resistance and gives the tyrant an
excuse for his failures"
I say, end the sanctions against Cuba!!
Live free or die, Michael S.
In a message dated 3/31/03 9:01:04 AM, KellySimpson@... writes:
<< Michael,
I'm breaking a rule I made for myself about not getting into any more
email debates, so I'll be brief.
Every antiwar activist I have ever met, both libertarian and leftist, is
opposed to both the war AND the sanctions/embargo. For years, leftist
publications like The Nation have been reporting the horrors caused by
the sanctions/embargo, and libertarian publications discuss the social
benefits of free trade.
In the article you forwarded, the author seems to assume that there are
only two ways to get rid of a tyrant: siege by an outside power or
invasion by an outside power. He needs to read more history, which has
many examples of subjects either overthrowing their rulers or reducing
the power of their rulers. Outsiders have sometimes helped them, but a
siege weakens internal resistance and gives the tyrant an excuse for his
failures, and an invasion stirs up nationalist resistance to the
invaders, especially when the inevitable civilian casualties mount.
Lafayette's help was welcome in the American Revolution, but a blockade
or an invasion by French forces to "liberate" the American colonists
from King George's forces would not have been welcome.
For more-recent history, consider the falls of Suharto in Indonesia,
Marcos in the Philippines, and the totalitarian governments in the
former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, as well as the gradual
improvement of the government in China.
Kelly >>
Michael R. Sawyer
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