Harry Browne on Homeland Security 2000 Libertarian Nominee for President

Women in military; but separated in combat

BROWNE: I don’t think women should be banned from the military, but I think it is a mistake to mix them in combat situations because romance inevitable plays a part in it and it’s going to affect people emotionally. But that’s not really an important point. What we need to do is to get our troops out of Yemen and 100 countries around the world. We need to quit meddling in all other countries’ affairs. If we just worry about defending the United States, we’re not going to worry too much about the composition of our personnel.

Q: Would you have women in combat?

HAGELIN: Women should be able to serve their country with honor, of course, as they always have.

Government role should be to keep us out of war

Like the Founding Fathers, Libertarians know that war is the first resort of political scoundrels, but the last resort of a free people. Libertarians know that the government’s role isn’t to police the world-or even to win wars. Government’s role is to keep us out of wars-and to protect us from foreign enemies, not create them.

How would a Libertarian government assure our safety? Our foreign policy would be very simple: We are always ready to defend ourselves, but we threaten no one.

Gays in the army OK; irrelevant to military service

A: Well, I have to tell you, the only time in the 1996 campaign or in this campaign that I have been stumped for an answer was when I was speaking before a gay and lesbian group. The question of allowing gays in the military came up. And the reason I was stumped was that it had never occurred to me that anybody in the world would ever want to serve in the military. I spent three years in the Army, and I can’t imagine why anyone would want to be in the Army. But I believe that anybody that’s in the military should be treated on the basis of what he does and not on the basis of what he is. As long as he does not cause harm to other people, as long as he does not intrude on the proper function of the military, then it doesn’t matter whether he is gay or she is lesbian or he or she is heterosexual. So obviously there should not be any limitations based on sexual orientation.

We have strong offense & weak defense-switch it

Fund SDI, pay, & readiness; cut CIA & everything else

Greatly Increase
• National Missile Defense Program

Maintain Status
• Pay for active duty personnel
• Troop & equipment readiness

Slightly Decrease
• Modernization of weaponry & equipment
• Programs to improve military retention rates
• Research & development of new weapons

Greatly Decrease
• Military hardware

Eliminate
• Covert intelligence operations
• Defense plant conversion
• Military space shuttle missions

Deploy SDI; no need to fight spread of nukes

Browne supports the following principles concerning defense issues:
• End the cooperative threat reduction programs with Russia to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons to unfriendly nations
• Modify the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in order to deploy the National Missile Defense System

Keep out of wars, rather than police the world

Build missile defense by private reward system

If US is attacked, target the dictator, not people

Focus on defense against missiles and invasions

De-fund CIA; decrease R&D for new weapons.

Avoid arms trade; promote peace by free trade

Politician’s wars are heroic; real war is death & killing

Wars have historically established nothing

The pattern of wars establishing nothing has continued throughout American history:
• The Mexican War (which took 13,283 American lives) did add to the territory of the US. Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to buy it?
• The Civil War (498,332 lives) didn’t bring reconciliation as promised. Instead, it produced nearly a century of regional animosity.
• World War I (116,708 US lives) wasn’t “the war to end all wars” as promised.
• WWII (407,316 US lives) didn’t make the world safe for democracy; it made the world safe for the USSR to launch the Cold War.
• The Korean War (33,651 lives) left Korea as divided as before.
• After Vietnam (58,168 lives), the dominoes continued to fall.
• The Gulf War (296 US lives) produced no resolution-other than to return the Emir of Kuwait to the palace.

6-point plan to get government out of war programs

There is so much we can do to avoid war-to assure that America’s youth never go to war again, and that our lives and homes are secure against foreign attack:
1. End all loans & giveaways to foreign governments & international agencies. Stopping giveaways keeps our government from taking sides in foreign disputes.
2. Get out of all alliances, treaties, & international organizations. America doesn’t need to be a joiner to have good relations with the rest of the world.
3. End all arms sales by the government.
4. Open our markets to goods & services from all over the world. Nothing could do more to give foreign people a vested interest in keeping the peace with us.
5. When a foreign leader threatens the US, announce that carrying out any warlike act against us will lead to a multi-million-dollar reward for his assassination.
6. Establish a defense that protects against missiles launched from anywhere in the world-a system built by private companies competing for a reward.