[Peace-discuss] They knew back then…

[Morton K. Brussel]

A worthy article at http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0612d.asp

Extracts:

James Madison, principal author of the Constitution, wrote:

The management of foreign relations appears to be the most  
susceptible of abuse, of all the trusts committed to a Government,  
because they can be concealed or disclosed, or disclosed in such  
parts & at such times as will best suit particular views; and because  
the body of the people are less capable of judging & are more under  
the influence of prejudices, on that branch of their affairs, than of  
any other. Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty  
at home is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or  
pretended, from abroad.

He also noted:

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be  
dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.

Finally, Bart Fraser* continues, at http://www.fff.org/freedom/ 
fd0612d.asp

"There can be no denying that the Framers’ efforts to protect the  
nation from involvement in unnecessary and unjust wars and from an  
enormous standing army have failed. The two mainstays of their plan —  
a small defensive military force and a constitutional separation of  
war powers — are dead letters. The country is routinely engaged in  
conflicts in every corner of the globe, none of which has anything to  
do with the military’s only legitimate purpose: to defend the country  
from invasion. The power to wage war has coalesced under the  
executive and the government maintains an increasingly imperialistic  
foreign policy. Free of the constitutional chains that the Framers  
imposed upon it, the federal government is now on a road of empire,  
intervention, militarism, aggression, occupation, and torture, not to  
mention increased taxes, inflation, and despotism at home."

*Bart Frazier is program director at The Future of Freedom  
Foundation. These extracts are from his article at

http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0612d.asp
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