In addition to Robert Higg’s excellent post directly below, Justin Raimondo’s complete and superb rebuttal of President Obama’s speech attempting to justify escalation in Afghanistan deserves our attention.

He ends his essay by quoting the president’s talk: "We are passing through a time of great trial. And the message that we send in the midst of these storms must be clear: that our cause is just, our resolve unwavering. We will go forward with the confidence that right makes might, and with the commitment to forge an America that is safer, a world that is more secure, and a future that represents not the deepest of fears but the highest of hopes."

Raimondo then answers with: “The resolve of fanatics and fools is perpetually ‘unwavering.’ Aggressors and bullies are always ‘going forward.’ And the mighty are always supremely assured of the rightness of their cause. They claim to want only ‘security,’ and their appeal is invariably to the ‘highest of hopes.’ And it always ends in oceans of blood.”