ANTI-WAR? A rejoinder to Antiwar.com, Lew Rockwell, Tom DiLorenzo, and the Mises Caucus of the Libertarian Party

Abstract

To be opposed to war, to all war, sounds eminently reasonable. War is a horrible undertaking, not only for the soldiers who lose their lives pursuing it, but, also, even more tragic, for the civilians who are no part of it, and perish from it anyway. To be in favor of war sounds, at the outset, like the view of a particularly nasty misanthrope. And, yet, on the basis of libertarianism, properly understood, it is improper to oppose all wars. Rather, we must distinguish between proper and improper wars. If country A gratuitously, with no justification whatsoever, launches a military attack on country B, it is indeed unwarranted. However, if B engages in a defensive war in response to A’s improper attack, B is engaging in a just war. The only people who oppose all wars, indeed, all violence, are pacifists, and libertarianism, the basis upon which the present essay is built, is not a synonym for pacifism.