Saturday, April 12, 2014

Walter Block on Pearl Harbor and the Proper Libertarian Response

Nelson Loft sent this email to Dr. Walter Block:  

        Dear Dr. Block:      

        You're known widely for solving conundrums in libertarian theory. I have one regarding the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Suppose an opponent gives these arguments validity: the Japanese attack was indeed motivated by US imperial overreach; the attack did not just fall from the sky. But, one's opponent protests, given the attack on Pearl Harbor, didn't "we" have to wage war on Japan? How might a libertarian respond.
     

        Nelson
Prof. Block responded:
  Dear Nelson:      

        Thanks for your kind remarks about my previous attempts to solve libertarian conundrums.      

        We now both stipulate that "the Japanese attack (on Pearl Harbor) was indeed motivated by US imperial overreach."    

        I don't see why the United States HAD to wage war on Japan after their attack on Pearl Harbor. Suppose Roosevelt died one day later, and his vice president who was a libertarian then took over. My prediction is that this new president would have contacted the Japanese the next day, apologized for Roosevelt's actions that prompted this Japanese response, and offered peace with the Japanese. If they accepted this offer, it would have saved many, many innocent lives.      

        Suppose A smacks B in the face, and then B returns the favor. Does A HAVE to continue the fight by punching B yet again? Cannot A apologize to B for initiating this violence, tell B he is willing to make amends for it, and make peace with B? Why is this impossible? I don't think it is.      

        I am copying this to my friend Bob Wenzel, who might be able to use this on his blog. Shall he make you anonymous, or it is ok if he uses your name, should he choose to run this at all?      

        Best regards,      

        Walter  

        Walter E. Block, Ph.D.
        Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics
        Joseph A. Butt, S.J. College of Business          
        Loyola University New Orleans


10 comments:

  1. Se also: _New Dealers' War_.

    Let there be NO doubt that FDR knowingly and quite intentionally got the US into WW2.
    Period.

    CW

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  2. Apologize to the Japanese and then start learning to bow and speak Japanese because you are going to need it.

    What would Walter Block do if he saw someone sticking bayonets in babies? Look the other way because of his childish ideology?

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    1. Jerry would send thousands of young Americans to their deaths... at gunpoint, no less. Because Jerry is a real man - a brave, compassionate man. Because that's what brave, compassionate men do; they send others to fight in their stead and threaten to throw the poor souls in cages if they refuse to march in goose step to the orders of their overlords.

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    2. Re: Jerry Wolfgang,

      -- Apologize to the Japanese and then start learning to bow and speak Japanese because you are going to need it. --

      You mean after the Russians invade Japan? Or before?

      -- What would Walter Block do if he saw someone sticking bayonets in babies? --

      I would say nothing after your dream of an unarmed American population is fulfilled.

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  3. Walter Block is the cause of more conundrums in libertarian theory than he solves.

    Why do people still take him seriously? He's a good austrian economist, but he should stay out of libertarianism.

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    Replies
    1. Amen... Block's response, like every comment he has ever made on a topic related to foreign policy, is based only on his complete ignorance. Yes, it is a myth that America was simply minding its own business when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. But the economic sanctions the United States placed on Japan were in response to Japan's horrifying war crimes in China. Moreover, the attack took place because the sanctions were preventing Japan's imperial expansion to its south. It is one thing to say the United States should not have imposed sanctions. But Block can only make his argument that a hypothetical libertarian U.S. president should have apologized to the Japanese because he knows not a single thing about the circumstances surrounding the attack.

      Block, like Wenzel, Lew Rockwell, Daniel McAdams, and Dr. Paul himself seem to think America is the only state on the planet and its aggression is the cause of all wars. They're nothing more than apologists for authoritarian statists and not true advocates for peace.

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    2. “But the economic sanctions the United States placed on Japan were in response to Japan's horrifying war crimes in China.”

      Perhaps before demonstrating your ignorance on history by denigrating Dr. Block and others, you might stand to learn some actual history yourself:

      http://bionicmosquito.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-us-greenlights-militaristic-japan.html

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    3. For those who didn't take the time to read Bionic's excellent article, this quote pretty much sums it up:

      “Japan is the only nation in Asia that understands the principles and methods of Western civilization…. All the Asiatic nations are now faced with the urgent necessity of adjusting themselves to the present age. Japan should be their natural leader in that process.”
      Theodore Roosevelt, 1905 (P. 217)

      Lets not forget we teamed up with the Japs after defeating them to fight Commie China:

      http://www.lewrockwell.com/podcast/john-denson-my-two-famous-cousins-in-wwii/

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