After neglecting my Mark Steyn for a while

I finally got around to reading him today. I've got to admit that his take on the Joel Stein issue seems pretty persuasive to me. I also don't understand how you can support our troops and object to what they're doing at the same time. You'd have to want them to be sucky at it.

Okay, let me delve a little deeper. You wish them the best, but you want to get the Administration to bring them home. The CINC and the troops are two different things.

But, I gotta tell ya, kids: if the troops do their jobs in exemplary fashion, the natural human desire for freedom will be victorious, though not without hardship. Remeber what Tom Paine said, "Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered..." amd let's not forget how that thought continues, "yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated."

Yes, we must place more and more responsibility on the Iraqis to maintain their own freedom, and we must eventually (very soon, in fact) allow them full indepedence. I suspect that we'll leave a sizeable garrison there, as we did in Germany and Japan to fight the Cold War, and if we're lucky it'll work out as well.

It's not empire, but it's almost as much of a drag, economically, as empire. To pay for it, we don't need draconian taxation. What we really need is freer markets. Not an "Open Door" policy as we had from the 1880s through the 1920s-where we employed our troops to kick open doors in Japan, China and Latin America [yes, that was a pretty fascist way to operate-almost as shameful as slavery itself], but true openness. Openess that helps poor economies rise to our level. Openess that takes advantage of the comparative strengths of different regions and diverse peoples. Openess that doesn't fear "creative destruction" or the uncertainties of "spontaneous order."

That kind of openness won't protect your current job or give stability to your firm, but, if you're willing to retrain, it'll make sure that you continue to have a job or firm.

President Bush and the Neocons are using the Japan and Germany models for their template. Let's hope they learn all the lessons from the Wirtschaftswunder and Macarther's reforms.

Eh?

Update: I added that link, which I got from a November post by Chase Bradstreet over at Peace for our Time.

I have him listed as an anarcho-capitalist for some reason I can't explain. A relapse, no doubt.