Comments Elsewhere

War collectivism happens on both ends of the sword.

It’s certainly true that collectivism is often used to make excuses for commandeering people’s lives and property in the name of the war effort. But it’s also certainly true that collectivism is often used to make excuses for burning villages and dropping bombs on innocent people’s heads. Sometimes this is done explicitly as terrorism or collective punishment; sometimes it is done on the idea that the national military or diplomatic aims justify continuing the war by any means necessary, no matter the cost to innocent third parties.

Kennedy’s right that anti-war libertarians don’t put nearly enough stress on the first sort of collectivism. But why in the world shouldn’t one challenge the second sort of collectivism, too?