Description

What arguments have domestic critics of American wars and interventions put forward in the past, and what arguments do they currently employ? Thomas Jefferson, Henry Thoreau, John Calhoun, the Anti-Imperialist League, Herbert Hoover, Charles Lindbergh, Martin Luther King Jr., and Ron Paul (among many others) have criticized proposals to intervene in other countries, enter wars, acquire foreign territory and engage in a forward defense posture. Despite often cogent objections, they have also generally lost the argument. Why do they lose? This book provides answers to these questions through a survey of oppositional arguments over time, augmented by extended discussions of the views of several contemporary critics that serve as examples of modern arguments, including Ron Paul, Chalmers Johnson and Noam Chomsky.