Libertarians who reject state warfare are utopian?

Friday 20 November 2009 - 02:56:43

Libertarians who reject state warfare are utopian?
Wendy McElroy

A libertarian analysis of war is ultimately based upon a view of the State and its relationship to the individual. Any analysis of war draws upon or rejects – explicitly or implicitly -- the centuries-long history of anti-war, anti-militarist theory and activism within the libertarian tradition.

A hawk who claims the State can properly command the resources of its own citizens to invade or attack the citizens of another State confronts a very high bar of proof. And it is important to understand that the burden of proof is upon the hawk and not upon critics; in other words, the burden falls upon the person who advocates a process that kills non-combatants and not upon those who fundamentally object to the death of innocent human beings.

For a libertarian hawk, the burden is higher because he or she speaks out within a specific ideological context. Even limited-government libertarians, who accept the State and admit the propriety of taxation for certain purposes, need to justify the massive expansion of State power and violation of its citizens' rights that is part of war; they must explain how the implementation of a specific war accords with their libertarian principles. They also need to defend concepts that are antithetical to libertarian theory, like the ‘collective guilt’ of an enemy nation being bombed or occupied. They must reject the lessons of libertarian history – e.g. that war is integral to the rise of the nation state, it militarizes domestic society, it kills free trade, and that past wars have been grabs for power. They also need to root the killing of innocent people in a politics that states “the initiation of force is never justified.” Further, if libertarian theory can be twisted to accept the killing of innocents, the libertarian hawk still needs to explain why the process should be done by government and not by the individual or individuals in joint agreement. Unless libertarian hawks overcome these and many other theoretical and practical barriers, they should simply call themselves hawks.

Instead, it is commonplace for them to dismiss critics by labeling them as utopian. (Sometimes the word “pacifist” is used even though most anti-war libertarians are solidly pro-gun rights and self-defense, including the right to resist the State.) The dismissal allows libertarian hawks to avoid the general burden of proof and the need to answer specific objections.

Accusing anti-war libertarians of utopianism is rather strange…for several reasons. A criticism – saying that something is wrong -- is not usually called “utopian”; the label is usually reserved for proposals. Moreover, the objections are based on centuries of theory, history and practical experience of war. In terms of theory…if a fundamental objection to killing innocents should be dismissed as utopian then shouldn’t libertarianism itself be dismissed? – after all, it is based on the non-aggression principle. In terms of history…do libertarian hawks dismiss as utopian the detailed anti-militarist critiques of philosophers like Herbert Spencer or the anti-statist insights of revisionist history? In strictly practical terms…how can libertarians justify the actual implementation of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Let them defend not merely the theory of a current war but also how it is implemented. And, if it is implemented in what Nozick would call "a morally impermissible" manner -- that is, through the mass violation of rights -- then libertarians should reject it on those grounds alone.

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