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Labels: Geld, Gold, Inflation, Ökonomie

{Link} geschrieben von Dirk @ 6:29 PM 0 Kommentare

Labels: Blogger, Bücher, Eigentum

{Link} geschrieben von Dirk @ 11:56 AM 3 Kommentare

1. "Ideology makes a poor substitute for strategy."
Our mission in Iraq, after the deposition of Saddam, was fueled by our enthusiasm for American ideals. "Policymakers both Democratic and Republican," observes Bacevich, "uncorked old vials of Wilsonian illusion."

2. "Wars leave loose ends."
Wonderful, concise language. "The United States has exchanged the limited burdens of containment for the far more onerous burdens of occupation."

3. "Allies have choices-and will exercise them."
"Nations whose support we once assumed to be a given now question the acceptability of the Pax Americana and may yet muster the collective will to proffer an alternative." Thus, the fragmented coalition against Saddam threatens NATO solidarity.

4. "'Shock and awe' gets you only so far."
This is very plain, and the author concludes, "The United States military is no closer today to devising a technological solution to the riddle of unconventional war than it was when Vietnam ended in defeat."

5. "The margin of U.S. military supremacy is thinner than advertised."
The shortage of our straitened military resources is every day visible. We have called up reserves for the first time in decades. We needed to move forces from South Korea to Iraq. And in Iraq, with 140,000 U.S. troops, we can't yet guarantee safe passage from the Baghdad airport to Baghdad.

6. "The myth of American casualty aversion is just that."
This point is not self-establishing, but the author is saying that our failure to press the war conclusively, for fear of increased casualties, denies the purposiveness of the American will.

7. "So too [is it a myth] that there is an American genius for spreading democracy."
We aren't particularly good at it, says Bacevich, so we should devise fresh ideas. Meanwhile, consider the possibility that "bringing democracy to the Arab world is akin to making bricks without straw."

8. And a more obvious point, "It's hard to win when you don't know whom you're fighting."
Who's the boss over there in Iraq? And how do we digest the fact that there are more insurgents today than a year ago?

Labels: Neo-Konservativismus, USA

{Link} geschrieben von Dirk @ 11:48 AM 2 Kommentare

Als "Randian" in der Philosophie und "Reismanian" in der ökonomischen Theorie, bin ich kein besonders enthusiastischer Fan von Murray N. Rothbard und seinen Ideen. Aber der Mann konnte verdammt gut schreiben und zeigte gutes Verständnis der fundamentalen Lehrsätze. Sein Aufsatz The Death Wish of Anarcho-Communists ist ein besonders gutes Probestück Rothbard’s Virtuosität und analytischer Schärfe. Auf dessen Inhalt möchte ich hier nicht weiter eingehen, bloß auf ein bemerkenswertes Zitat von Ortega y Gasset hinweisen, welches ich gleich hier unter die Leser verbreiten möchte:

In the disturbances caused by scarcity of food, the mob goes in search of bread, and the means it employs is generally to wreck the bakeries. This may serve as a symbol of the attitude adopted, on a greater and more complicated scale, by the masses of today towards the civilization by which they are supported … Civilization is not "just here," it is not self-supporting.

It is artificial … if you want to make use of the advantages of civilization, but are not prepared to concern yourself with the upholding of civilization — you are done. In a trice you find yourself left without civilization. Just a slip, and when you look, everything has vanished into air. The primitive forest appears in its native state, just as if curtains covering pure Nature had been drawn back. The jungle is always primitive and vice versa, everything primitive is mere jungle. (José Ortega y Gasset, The Revolt of the Masses, New York: W.W. Norton, 1932, p. 97.)

Einfach großartig! Der ganze Aufsatz ist wärmstens zu empfehlen.

Labels: Anarcho-Kommunismus, Ortega y Gasset, Rothbard

{Link} geschrieben von Wladimir Kraus @ 11:56 AM 0 Kommentare