The neo-cons in Canada are all a-twitter that their government is going to give Omar Khadr some $10 million in damages in payment for the suffering he underwent as a Guantanamo Bay prisoner. The then 15 year old boy was sent by his father from Canada to Afghanistan to fight against an invading U.S. army; while there, he threw a grenade which killed a U.S. soldier.

According to a petition I was asked to sign written by a Canadian taxpayer group: “… giving Khadr $10 million of taxpayer money is a slap in the face to the families of Canadian soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan by people who were fighting alongside Khadr. Not that the federal government has an extra $10 million kicking around, but if they did, they should give it to Canadian veterans wounded in Afghanistan or perhaps the family of US Army Sgt. Christopher Speer who was killed by the grenade that Khadr admitted he threw.”

I certainly agree that it would be improper for the Canadian government to be handing out other people’s money, most of whom would not support any such payment. But what were Canadians doing in Afghanistan in the first place? Did any Afghanis start up by coming over to Canada and attacking Canadians? Did the Canadian government have the “decency” to declare war against the sovereign nation of Afghanistan?  Of course not. How would Canadians like it if there were an Afghani army fighting in Canada with no provocation whatsoever from the latter? Would we not welcome, as heroic, a 15 year old Canadian boy who defended his country against such an invading army?

Time to buy old US gold coins

Give money to Canadian veterans wounded in Afghanistan? But this implies that there was some justification for the Canadian military to be fighting in that far off land. No one, not even the most fervent neo-conservative war-monger would claim that an Afghani army first invaded Canada, and that the latter was fighting a defensive war.

I know full well what the Canadian army was doing in Afghanistan. When the U.S. sneezes, Canada catches cold. The Great White North is simply a lap-dog for U.S. imperialism. Far better that this country stay out of U.S. wars, and mind its own business, militarily speaking. Then, it could once again attain its traditional role as an honest international broker.

Sadly, this initiative comes to us courtesy of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation which is one of the most free enterprise oriented institutions in the entire country. This goes to show that even otherwise libertarian organizations are not immune to the neo-conservative virus. It is all well and good for the CTF to call for lower taxes and less regulation. They are to be applauded for this courageous stand of theirs in a country that is far less receptive to the free enterprise system than the U.S. They should realize, however, that “War is the Health of the State.” All of the limited government philosophy in the world, in the purely domestic arena, will not move us one inch (ok, ok, millimeter; Canada is on the metric system) in the direction of the free society if carte blanche is granted to foreign adventurism. Murray Rothbard and Bob Higgs have always stressed that foreign policy is more important than domestic, if only because the latter, mainly, causes the former, and not the other way around. Then, too, military adventurism kills far more innocent people than minimum wages, rent control, marketing boards, and other such market interferences about which groups like the CTF can be relied upon.

The Best of Walter E. Block