tomgpalmer.com » Foreign Affairs

A frightening insanity emerging in Hungary

Tom Palmer — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 19:11:20 +0000

The country of Hungary is shifting in a very dangerous direction, as Der Spiegel reports: English German. If you would like to learn about Hungarian libertarianism, which offers a breath of hope for a country that is tilting dangerously toward fascism, visit the Hungarian Free Market Foundation.

Another Place, Another War

Tom Palmer — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 06:12:50 +0000

I revisited this short article that I encouraged my brother to write, and which was published in The Freeman in 1999: “Another Place, Another War”

February 2, 1969: I step off the back of a CH-34, a helicopter that looks like a flying apartment building complete with side-mounted machine guns. It is so muggy you can’t catch your breath.

I’m at Camp Eagle, just north of Hue, South Vietnam. It’s the year after the Tet offensive of 1968. Eagle had been a holding of the 1st Cav. until the Vietcong and North Vietnamese regular army overran it. Over 3,800 Americans were killed during the 12-week offensive.

Camp Eagle looks as though it’s been through a war. Nothing of value is left. The ground is strewn with trash; barbed wire is everywhere littered with blown paper, rags, and plastic sheeting. The place smells dirty, dusty, and rotten. Half-crouching, not knowing what to expect but knowing this is a place where no one likes you and everyone wants to hurt you, you make for some kind of cover. The remains of a set of hooches (wooden, screen-sided, tin-roofed sheds) will suffice. Little do we know they will be our home for the next year.

Once we get inside, the choppers take off, leaving us in a frightening silence. This is a real “what have I gotten myself into?” predicament. The realization is that whatever happens from here on out, all you will have you have now.

As we pull together to organize a cleanup and planning session, the bleakness of the situation hits. This is really it. We have nothing: no toilet paper, no pop, no sheets, no light, no power. What we do have is mud, wet, mildew, nightly sapper raids (Vietcong running through our hooches throwing bags of explosives). We eventually have “122 mm” rocket attacks, where the ‘Cong makes a bamboo fork large enough to hold a six-foot-long bottle rocket and tries to hit you with it. From a couple of miles away they are surprisingly accurate—though accuracy doesn’t matter. The fear they generate is the real intent.

Being in an assault helicopter unit with the 101st Airborne has its rewards. There is a certain military prestige to such an assignment. Reality is less glamorous. Our assignment is the Ashau Valley. We are to support the various firebases and LZs (landing zones) strung out up and down the valley. The Vietcong uses the valley as a highway to supply the south from the north and China. The firebases are small artillery outposts positioned with fire zones to control any traffic.

The living conditions at these firebases are the most primitive any of us have ever seen. Imagine a mountaintop blasted bare of any vegetation, a rough circle of mud ringed with concertina wire and sandbagged bunkers. In the center of this circle is a large sandbagged depression. Artillery of any variety will be found there: eight-inch track-mounted guns, old twin-barreled anti-aircraft guns. Whatever. Everything that goes on here is to protect those guns.

You live in a hole in the ground—mud walls, insects, snakes, and rats. When it is wet it is mud, when dry, red dust. You seldom get to eat hot food, and never get to take a shower. You sleep in a wet sleeping bag night after night, week after week. Everything you own is wet, muddy, and moldy: clothes, food, and equipment.

When you can, you toast your bread. That way you don’t notice the weevils. You try to think of it as whole wheat. Your water is always Kool-Aid so you don’t see how brown it is. If something doesn’t come out of a sealed can you don’t trust it.

And you live like this until somebody decides you need to move. Doesn’t matter—the terrain will be different but the situation the same.

Thirty years later, are we doing this again? For what? We lost 58,000 of my generation. For what? I lost friends; you lost sons, brothers, husbands.

We went where our government sent us. And we learned; learned not to trust, learned that politicians, out of ignorance and vainglory, can get us into situations they will not allow us to leave for fear of losing face. Who has to clean it up? Our kids, our military, who cannot question their orders.

I have three sons. The oldest is 26 and in the army. The next is 20, and the youngest is 16. My grandfather was in WWI, my dad in WWII; I was in Vietnam. Will my sons end up in the Balkans—even if “only” in a peacekeeping force? Americans will undoubtedly be in Kosovo for a long time.

The politicians wax eloquent about the humanitarian war against Serbia. Where’s the humanitarianism in sending Americans to the backwater of Europe while taking sides in a bloody conflict over land? Have they nothing better to do with their lives than become fodder for a president’s legacy or an obsolete alliance’s credibility?

George Washington, in his Farewell Address in 1796, said that “Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none or a very remote relation.” He wondered: “Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?”

As a father, as a citizen, I ask, why indeed?

Korean Libertarian Hip Hop

Tom Palmer — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 04:38:43 +0000

Featuring Kim Chung Ho of the Korean Center for Free Enterprise:

Tom Palmer — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 03:33:25 +0000

For my talk at the University of Chicago, April 20, 2011, 7 pm

Syrian Bravery

Tom Palmer — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 00:16:59 +0000

Threats to Liberty in Egypt

Tom Palmer — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 13:33:50 +0000

Not only intolerant and radical “Islamism,” but also military/socialist dictatorship:

New York Times: Egyptians Say Military Discourages an Open Economy

Egypt, from the Perspective of One Person Who Was Personally Persecuted by Mubarak

Tom Palmer — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 04:54:34 +0000

Egypt Will Never Be the Same: What I saw on the streets of Alexandria, by Kareem Amer (Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2011)

(I was involved, with many others, in the four-year Free Kareem campaign. It is good that he is free. I want him to remain so.)

Egypt’s Front Pages, from The Economist

I So Hope for an Improvement

Tom Palmer — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 10:19:34 +0000

For four years a young man I know was in prison for insulting the president of Egypt. I so hope that that president is booted out forever. I also hope that this expression of pent up anger, frustration, and energy after years of tyranny is not hijacked by other tyrants, of whatever sort. This is a time for Egyptian liberty and dignity, for Arab liberalism, for an order of equal justice and equal rights, of peace and prosperity, if ever there were one.

Free Trade on the Occasion of President Hu’s Visit

Tom Palmer — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 08:46:45 +0000

My television interview (with call-ins and emails from China) on Voice of America on January 18, 2011.

Bridges of Peace….through Free Trade

Tom Palmer — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:37:03 +0000

Referendum in Kyrgyzstan

Tom Palmer — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 03:31:57 +0000

The referendum is about to begin in Kyrgyzstan, to choose a new constitution which, despite its flaws, will put greater limits on presidential power and, it is hoped, avoid authoritarianism and promote civil peace. Young people around the country, organized by the Central Asian Free Market Institute and similar civil society groups, are working to promote peace and suppress hatred, revenge, and violence. The shirts (see below) say on the front “I Want Peace in Kyrgyzstan” in Uzbek, Kyrgyz, and Russian, and on the back, “One Homeland! One People! One Future!,” also in Uzbek, Kyrgyz, and Russian.

The libertarians in Central Asia are planning to open an office in Osh, as well, to promote peace, liberty, and limited government in the area that has seen so much deliberately provoked violence by people who prefer force and power to persuasion and freedom. It’s not too late to make a modest donation to make that possible. (Ten dollars actually buys something there, and no donation is too small.) Click here for the information. We’ve already raised a few thousand dollars, enough to pay to open the office and equip it, just from Facebook and a few notes, mostly in small donations. Every penny helps!

Peace Activists at the Office of the Central Asian Free Market Institute

Some Faces of Friendship

Getting Ready to Distribute Peace Shirts to Kyrgyz Young People

Libertarians in Kyrgyzstan Spearhead Peace Campaign, Help Victims of Violence: You Can Help, Too

Tom Palmer — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 07:02:23 +0000

CAFMI Executive Director Mirsulzhan Namazaliev at 2009 Cato University

Kyrgyz libertarians are leading a series of coordinated voluntary efforts to provide emergency aid to the victims of the vicious attacks of the last few days in their country and to promote peace throughout the nation and the region. I’ve been in regular touch with our friends there, and on Tuesday evening I talked to Central Asian Free Market Institute (CAFMI) Director Mirsulzhan Namazaliev by Skype, as he was interrupted by a stream of volunteers working late into the night in the CAFMI offices. He made their resolution clear:

“We are helping those who are suffering, but we are doing more. For me personally this is not only a fight for life. It is a fight for freedom. We don’t want to be ruled by any authoritarian Central Asian or Russian regimes that would exploit this awful violence. The violence we are suffering is a provocation designed to generate chaos and to overturn the chance for a constitutional regime. We will not stand for it. We want peace, we want freedom, and we want a lawful government.”

I was in Kyrgyzstan just last month to work with CAFMI and with the new acting minister of economic development, my friend Emil Umetaliev, a founding member of CAFMI’s board of directors. (CAFMI was founded by two Cato graduates, former Cato intern Seyitbek Usmanov and Cato University graduate Mirsulzhan Namazaliev.) There was guarded optimism about the country’s future, after the corrupt and increasingly authoritarian regime of Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted in an uprising after he tried to suppress demonstrations with deadly force. But there was also fear of Bakiyev’s machinations, especially after the revelation of a recorded cell phone conversation between his son, Maksim, and his brother Janybek (who had given the orders to shoot protesters in April), in which they clearly plot violence to derail a new constitutional process and regain power, even proposing how many “fighters” to hire, arming them with iron bars and other implements, and how much to pay them to launch attacks. The recording was chilling. And with the money they looted from the country, they found the thugs to launch attacks on both Uzbek and Kyrgyz villages, in order to spark revenge attacks. Their plans bore fruit this month, as hundreds were murdered, homes and businesses were burned, and between 80,000 and 100,000 people were made refugees.

As Namazaliev put it to me, “We will not stand for it.”

CAFMI Volunteers Load Supplies to Deliver to Refugees

CAFMI’s staff and volunteers are almost all under 25. Few have backgrounds in defense or security. But they immediately put the talents they do have to work. CAFMI volunteers worked with others to solicit, gather, and deliver humanitarian assistance for the thousands of people – mainly mothers and children – who had been driven from their homes, and to create a message of communal peace – of Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Russians, Uighurs, Tajiks and others who were standing together for peace and against murder and hatred. They called together teams of computer experts, technological wizards, social networkers, and activists to build an umbrella coalition: “I Want Peace in Kyrgyzstan” –“Мен Қирғизистонда тинчлик бўлишини истайман!” in Uzbek, “Мен Кыргызстанга тынчтыкты каалайм!” in Kyrgyz, and “Я хочу мира в Кыргызстане!” in Russian.

I Want Peace in Kyrgyzstan -- in Three Languages

Some Peace Graffiti (this one in English)

The “I want Peace in Kyrgyzstan” campaign has five coordinated elements:

1. Use cell phones, databases, and the internet to organize volunteers effectively and to create and disseminate maps (using Google Maps and other techniques) to guide deliveries of aid to victims and to help people to avoid areas in turmoil, burning buildings, and road blocks and ambushes set up by thugs.

2. Create a modern campaign for peace in three languages (Kyrygz, Uzbek, and Russian) – with a brand, a logo, street graffiti, slogans, t-shirts, stickers, leaflets, hand-written letters from children, radio interviews and public announcements, text messages, and other means to calm tensions and promote peace. Representatives of the various ethnic groups appear together to pledge peace and to build the rule of law and freedom together.

3. Combat disinformation and misinformation that might fuel ethnic hatred and violence, and respond rapidly to malicious rumors and hate campaigns before they bear their evil fruit.

4. Contain the spread of reprisals and hatred throughout Central Asia, by providing reliable information to media, helping to combat ethnic smears and suppress revenge attacks against minorities in other countries, and quickly rebutting calls in nearby countries for military intervention into Kyrgyzstan, which carries the very real danger of regional war.

5. Create a “Peace Room” (not a “War Room”) in CAFMI’s Bishkek offices to be open 24 hours a day to coordinate the collection and dissemination of information. Volunteers in the Peace Room utilize cell phones, social networking sites, twitter, text messages, phone trees, and more and monitor mass media constantly. The CAFMI office is now fully staffed with volunteers and working around the clock.

The young volunteers and staff of CAFMI are donating their time, risking their lives, and contributing their scarce resources, in a country with a per-capita income of about $2,100. If you’d like to stand with a group of very brave, very determined, and very committed libertarians to stop the violence in their country, provide emergency aid to the victims, avoid regional war, and lead the region to peace and freedom, you can send a tax-deductible donation to the Central Asian Free Market Institute (CAFMI) through the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, which has provided support to CAFMI. Please write to Erin.Grant@AtlasNetwork.org and 100% of your donation will be dedicated to CAFMI’s work in Central Asia. Even small donations will help. It would be a decision you would not regret. (You can follow CAFMI’s work on their Facebook page and Namazaliev writes in Russian and in English on NewEurasia.net, Twitter, and other media. He covered the April uprising against Bakiyev’s authoritarian regime in The Independent and was quoted frequently by CNN and many other news organizations.)

Volunteers Collecting Donated Supplies in Bishkek Neighborhoods

CAFMI Volunteers After Days of Loading Donated Supplies at Manas Airport to Send to Victims of Violence in Osh and Jalalabad

Economics of International Trade in Under 3 Minutes

Tom Palmer — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:32:45 +0000

A Horror

Tom Palmer — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 04:17:07 +0000

The trade embargo against the people of Gaza is itself a crime, and the incompetence and avoidable deadly violence of the Israeli authorities in dealing with the aid flotilla are further arguments that it should be lifted.

Searching for weapons is one thing, but embargoing trade and aid altogether is another. How can the Israeli authorities expect peace from people who, in the end, feel that they have nothing to lose? Free the trade with Gaza and let the people there work, produce, and flourish. Let them trade with Israelis. Search for weapons, but do so with intelligence, not rank incompetence that results in the spilling of blood.

Once again, the Israeli authorities have shown that, when a trap is set, they are quite willing to step into it. A bad policy coupled with utter stupidity and incompetence will prove disastrous for everyone. Perhaps the Israeli authorities may learn something from what happened. I hope so.

There is a great deal of evidence that freeing trade creates or supports peace. The Israeli authorities should consult it.

Dan Griswold on “Peace on Earth? Try Free Trade among Men”

Jagdish Bhagwati on free trade and peace

Some updates:

These articles are well worth reading, to give a sense of what is included in the embargo, which goes far beyond the quite justified interdiction of weapons and war material:

CBS: “Israel’s Gaza Blockade Baffles Both Sides”
Wall Street Journal:Gaza Blockade Hampers Private-Sector Economy

Roots of the Greek Crisis

Tom Palmer — Sat, 15 May 2010 18:29:00 +0000

Explained by Experts Takis Michas and Patrick Welter

I’ve known both Takis and Patrick for years and it was great to have them both together in D.C. to talk about a subject on which both are experts, albeit from different directions.

Bush and Obama are soooooo Jealous

Tom Palmer — Sat, 15 May 2010 18:04:35 +0000

Kazakhstan Boosts President’s Powers

ALMATY, Kazakhstan—Kazakhstan’s parliament was poised Wednesday to declare President Nursultan Nazarbayev “leader of the nation” for life and grant him immunity from criminal prosecution and extensive powers after his departure from office.

And the Senate of Kazakhstan approved just a few days later! (Central Asia Online: “Senate approves Nazarbayev’s ‘leader of nation’ status“)

The bill awaits Nazarbayev’s signature.

Will he sign it? Or will he veto it? What do you think?

Bakiyev in Belarus

Tom Palmer — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 09:30:50 +0000

The background:
“Ousted Kyrgyz leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev ‘in Belarus’”
“Ousted Kyrgyz President Charged With Mass Murder”

And a brilliant parodic use of old material: Bakiyev with Lukashenko

A Little Commentary

Tom Palmer — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:08:27 +0000

CNN: “BRIC leaders: IMF, World Bank has ‘legitimacy deficits’”

The BRIC nations — a term coined by Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs in 2003 as the group of the fastest growing world economies — comprise 40 percent of the world’s population and about a quarter of its landmass. Together their GDP is roughly two-thirds that of the United States.

Events in Bishkek

Tom Palmer — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 04:48:39 +0000

It’s been rather nerve wracking to see events unfold in Kyrgyzstan and to be on the phone with friends talking while there’s gunfire in the background. I am planning on visiting later this month, as I’m on the board of the Central Asian Free Market Institute (CAFMI), whose executive director is quoted in this CNN story: “Ex-foreign minister says she’s Kyrgyzstan’s interim leader“

Solidarity

Tom Palmer — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:14:27 +0000

New York Times: “Putin Visits Venezuela to Discuss Oil and Arms”

Mr. Putin’s one-day visit built on a relationship rooted in billions of dollars of Russian arms sales to Venezuela over the past decade. Venezuela has also emerged as one of Russia’s most vocal supporters, recognizing two Russian-backed separatist enclaves of Georgia in 2009 and applauding Russian efforts to advance the ambitions of an embryonic group of gas-rich nations.

New York Times: “Criticism of Chávez Stifled by Arrests”

When Judge María Lourdes Afiuni issued a ruling in December that irked President Hugo Chávez, he did little to contain his outrage. The president, contending on national television that she would have been put before a firing squad in earlier times, sent his secret intelligence police to arrest her.