The Progress of Liberty

This post is meant to accompany Mr. Stolyarov’s presentation, “A Critique of John McCain’s Ideas on Foreign Policy.”

On January 3, 2008, John McCain issued the following remarks regarding his willingness to keep U. S. forces in Iraq for 100 years, if necessary.

McCain followed up on these comments here, explaining that he did not care about how long United States forces occupied foreign countries, provided that American casualties were minimal.

I agree with Mr. McCain that the loss of human lives is the greatest tragedy possible, and that if that loss can be minimized or eliminated, an occupation will be much more tolerable. However, an occupation also has other costs besides human lives – costs that do not disappear even when casualties are minimized. Consider the National Debt Clock in New York City, which has recently been tweaked to allow for the display of debt amounts in excess of $10 trillion. This is unprecedented, and no one thought this would happen when the clock was first created in 1989!

(Photograph by Kathy Willens of Associated Press).

In a country whose national debt has grown too big to be counted by the clock, is it prudent to keep pouring ever more taxpayer money down the black hole of foreign occupations, especially since, as McCain correctly noted, the U. S. is already undertaking lengthy occupations in Japan, South Korea, Bosnia, and Kosovo, along with substantial military presences in tens of other countries? Do we want another 50-to-100-to-10,000-year occupation added to the list, to further increase the federal debt and virtually guarantee government insolvency at some time in the future?

Saving human lives is laudable, but much more that human lives needs to be saved in the course of a prudent foreign policy. Taxpayer money is a priority that John McCain needs to consider more closely when he speaks about how long occupations ought to be allowed to take.

See other parts of “A Critique of John McCain’s Ideas on Foreign Policy.”

G. Stolyarov II is a science fiction novelist, independent philosophical essayist, poet, amateur mathematician, composer, contributor to Enter Stage Right, Le Quebecois Libre, Rebirth of Reason, and the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Senior Writer for The Liberal Institute, former weekly columnist for GrasstopsUSA.com, and Editor-in-Chief of The Rational Argumentator, a magazine championing the principles of reason, rights, and progress. Mr. Stolyarov also publishes his articles on Helium.com and Associated Content to assist the spread of rational ideas. His newest science fiction novel is Eden against the Colossus. His latest non-fiction treatise is A Rational Cosmology. His most recent play is Implied Consent. You can also view his YouTube Videos. Mr. Stolyarov can be contacted at gennadystolyarovii@yahoo.com.

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