This is another installment of the “How not to be a crazy extremist” discussion that I want libertarians to read. This time, I am doing a two part segment on the military. It is a big subject, so I wanted to break it up in the interest of keeping my posts under 437,895 words. There will be a part 2a and 2b for starters, I may add more if I find a section of this subject that is poorly covered.

So, let’s look at the deployment aspect of the military. The overseas portion. The libertarian ideal ranges from defensive action only, to defense of ourselves and our allies. The first involves no troops on foreign soil whatsoever, unless it is either voluntary or is a portion of a campaign from a direct invader to stop the invasion on our soil. No foreign installations or bases would be maintained, no wars fought elsewhere, and no helping of our neighbors or allies from aggression unless it were done on a voluntary basis with funds and personnel that was offered up by the American people, and/or paid for by those we are helping. The second, and less extreme libertarian position is to have military that responds only to attacks, but responds on behalf of our allies as well as ourselves. Coordinated efforts to stop aggressors, such as Iraq in the first Gulf War are also considered reasonable by many libertarians.

In our current climate, a military that is that withdrawn from the world scene may be difficult to shift to. Withdrawal from the current war areas we are involved in is a reasonable goal, although providing support that is paid for by the current Iraqi and Afghan governments and staffed with voluntary troops would be acceptable. Maintaining global bases and embassies is also a reasonable task. Essentially, the primary change that should be sought in the short run would be that we no longer enter into foreign affairs. No additional U.S. military action should be engaged in outside of our own borders or the direct defense of our allies. So-called “nation building” has not had reasonable success in recent history, and wars fought with too much political involvement have not ended well either. We need to stand down and move toward a defensive military position. That is, after all, what the military was designed for. We are not the world police, and we need to move toward getting rid of that reputation.

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