Happy Christmas (War is Over)

So this is Christmas
And what have you done?

The song recorded written in 1971 by John Lennon speaks to us more than ever on this Christmas without peace on earth. As my family and I prepare for the highest of Christian holidays, I challenge you to resist this war by word and deed as part of your personal holiday celebration.

It is clear to Americans this holiday season that we have made a horrific mess of Iraq, and something — everything — has got to change. Four years ago we invaded a sovereign nation based on fear of another attack like 9/11. President Bush used his state of the nation speech in 2003 to convince us Iraq was pursuing chemical and nuclear weapons. Colin Powell claimed in his speech to the UN that evidence of WMDs had been found. With these mistruths, Bush made it seem patriotic for Americans to support a war against a nation that had not attacked us.

The most notorious of the administration lies were the claims that Iraq had doomsday nuclear and chemical weapons, and that our enemy Al Qaeda was being aided by Iraqi’s bloody president Saddam Hussein. These lies, conveniently referred to as “bad intelligence,” have been repudiated again and again by books, government reports, and the media.

Despite our voting to oust the Republicans last November, things in Iraq are going from bad to worse. Elections have brought neither peace nor stability. al-Sadr’s Mahdi army, a true terrorist organization supported by a large faction of the Iraqi government, has replaced Al Quada as the main concern in Iraq. Baghdad is in shambles. Formerly integrated neighborhoods are being ethnically cleansed. Peace-loving citizens are long gone, and the few middle class residents who remain must be protected by armed militias. Nearly 3000 Americans soldiers are dead, many more are maimed, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been bombed, shot, burned, and tortured to death on our watch. Bush cannot deny it any longer — this is a civil war.

So what will we do about it?

No matter how soon you think we should redeploy, I urge you to insist on an immediate and complete withdrawal for the clear and simple reason of political expediency. The physical and political reality is probably that our soldiers will not come home in large numbers for at least a year and a half. It could well take that long just to round up billions in gear and leave town with guns aimed to the rear.

In the meantime, here are three simple things you can do to help bring peace on earth this Christmas:

• Forward this message with a personal comment to your entire address book. Click on the envelope graphic below to do so.
  
• Join or start a peace vigil.
  
• Write a “get out of Iraq” letter to the editor of your local paper.

This Christmas, it’s not enough to sing carols and give gifts. If we really want peace, we must act.

It was true in 1971, and it’s true now: War is over if you want it.

The Marriage of Hayek and Rawls

As friends of mine know, I've been grasping for several years now at how to reconcile my leftist and libertarian tendencies, and in the last several months it's become clear I'm not alone. A great deal has been made of the defection of small "l" libertarians from the Republican to the Democratic camps, especially in the recent mid-term elections, and a whole sub-genre of blog discussions has emerged on this new trend.

Now more thoughtful people than myself have entered the discussion and are offering some suggestions that are both philosophical and pragmatic on how this fusion of classical liberalism and modern progressivism might work in practice. Check out Brink Lindsey's essay from the New Republic on "Liberaltarians." The essence of his argument is that a winning combination can be made of marrying leftist social goals with libertarian political means.

More thoughts on this over at Freedom Democrats.