Check Out antiwar.com Jude Wanniski August 1, 2005

Memo To: Website Fans, Browsers, Clients
From: Jude Wanniski
Re: The best website of its kind

There are myriad antiwar websites that serve up news and commentary you can’t find in the major media, but after several years of keeping track of antiwar.com I have to conclude it is the best of the bunch. Its roots are libertarian, but unlike other pacifist websites its appeal is to people of every political stripe, primarily because it does not stray off into side issues that do not involve war. In the last few years, Justin Raimondo, who runs the website, has included me as a contributor when I have addressed foreign policy issues involving conflict or potential conflict.

It is one of our recommended websites precisely because it provides reliable reports that the major media shy from because of political sensitivities. Up to a point, you are well- informed by a careful reading of The New York Times, but beyond that point you are as likely to be misinformed as not. Antiwar.com has a sizeable staff or researchers and contributors, mostly on a volunteer basis, but they do have a budget that has to be met, which they meet with a quarterly pledge week aimed at the 100,000 viewers who come to the site daily. (I sent a tax-deductible contribution today to help out.) To learn more about the non-profit foundation that sponsors the site, go to Antiwar/Who We Are.

Randolph Bourne's concept that "War is the health of the State." With every war, America has made a "great leap" into statism, and as Bourne emphasizes: " . . . it is during war that one best understands the nature of that institution [the State]." At its core, that "nature" includes the ever-increasing threat to individual liberty and the centralization of political power. Raimando’s commentary today, ”Taking Down the Neocons", is a superb example of his work, anticipating the next steps in the Valeria Plame affair. I would run the text or excerpts of it here, but then you would miss the best part, the dozens of hyperlinks scattered through the text that providing supporting data or background from other sources.

I’m not as philosophically committed to pacifism as antiwar.com, and have supported most of America’s interventions, but when it comes to those of recent years inspired by my old neo-con allies, I’ve been as dovish as they come….and glad to have antiwar.com available. Check it out.