Trade, not war, spreads freedom
Writing by abuhatem on Friday, 14 of March , 2008 at 2:56 am
Arthur Lee, a delegate to the American constitutional convention, and diplomat to France during the Revolutionary War declared the significance of property rights in a most eloquent way. Lee stated “The right of property is the guardian of every other right, and to deprive the people of this is in fact to deprive them to their liberty.” Property rights have been seen throughout history as the cornerstone of liberty, the impetus of the development of civilization, and the basis of justice. The respect for property rights has been the foundation of the conservative movement in the United States since the days of Senator Robert Taft to Barry Goldwater through Ronald Reagan.
Muslim civilization too understands the importance of property rights. Before Pan-Arab socialist movements cancerously spread throughout the Middle East; the Islamic tradition was one of affirmation of property rights. It is recorded by French historian Ferdinand Braudel that the first stock market in the world existed in 11th century Cairo, in modern Egypt. The Islamic tradition, like its Judeo-Christian cousins, accepts the God-given natural right to one’s property. It is also interesting to note that the secular version of natural law formulated in modern times by libertarians and conservatives such as Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, Frank Meyer, and Murray Rothbard which are rooted in Jocke Locke and the Thomism of Thomas Aquinas, may have their roots in Islamic thought as well. Aquinas who stated that respect for private property completes man’s need for order was influenced by Persian Islamic theologian Abul Hamid al-Ghazali as Shaikh M. Ghanzanfar notes and the Spanish Salamanca school noted by Rothbard, which preceded the Austrian school of economics. The Salamanca school had many attachments to Islamic sociologist Ibn Khaldun according to scholars such as professor Clifford Theis and Islamic economist Imad ad-Dean Ahmad. Ibn Khaldun noted the relationship between property, civilization, and justice stating in his magnum opus al-Muqaddima:
Men persist only with the help of the property. The only way to property is through cultivation. The only way to cultivation is through justice. Justice is a balance set up among mankind. Those who infringe upon property rights commit an injustice. Those who take away property commit an injustice. Those who deny people their rights commit an injustice. Those who in general take property by force commit an injustice, and injustice ruins civilization.
Only through property does economic cooperation materialize, the institution of property is necessary for Aristotle’s statement that man is social animal to manifest itself. It is an oft-repeated truism that private property through trade continually increases the standard of living of men through a cycle of innovation destroying inefficient structures, institutions, and industries or what Jospeph Schumpeter called creative destruction. Von Mises, Hayek, and others defended the institution of property continually in their writings, the very institution which the cancer of socialism attempted to destroy. These writers, which would later be revered by the American conservative movement, understood the importance that property rights held in relation to liberty and justice. It is ironic how much the modern conservative movement based in classical liberalism truly shares in common with the Islamic economic tradition.
It is thus very disheartening that the disastrous policy of warfare “ the ultimate manifestation of property destruction is promoted by the conservative of all American parties. Further ludicrous is the belief that that war with Iraq will spread democracy and free markets throughout the Middle East. The Washington Post reported that the U.S. envisioned a free market paradise in Iraq. Yet it is awfully contradictory to believe that respect for both the right to life, and private property rights which are deeply rooted in the Constitution and the words of the Founding Fathers of our republic can be taught through transgressing upon the property rights of other people. This would certainly not be an instance of leading by example.
The number of civilian deaths in the Iraq war is of phenomenal proportions with some estimating one million Iraqis have been killed since the start of the war. The refugee crisis is even worse, with up to seven million Iraqis having fled Iraq. Iraqi infrastructure continues to be in horrid condition and the Brookings Institution’s Iraq Index notes this month after month. Instead of planting the seeds of liberal democracy in Iraq – the Iraq war, if anything, has radicalized Iraq. The Muslim tradition of respect for natural rights and property rights is being forgotten, Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds now engage in a struggle for power and sectarian violence. Even the present surge strategy does nothing but reinforce the notion that unfettered brute force may bring about stability a view contrary to our founders’ view of limited government and respect for natural rights.
Furthermore, the myth that warfare helps the economy an example of Friedrich Bastiat’s broken window fallacy is embedded in the conservative and American consciousness. President Bush recently told NBC’ss Today that “I think actually the spending in the war might help with jobs. Yeah, because we are buying equipment, and people are working.” Paul Krugman, economist and New York Times columnist has made similar comments recently. The absurd assertion that the destruction of lives and property benefits the economy is the least of the irrationalities involved in our quagmire in Iraq.
The conservative movement used to be completely opposed to the modern neoconservative project and understood that respect for property rights against government’s forceful interventions through wars abroad was a natural corollary to the rejection of government’s forceful interventions domestically. The isolationist Old Right accepted the natural law and Judeo-Christian just war theory of St. Augustine and others which prohibited war except in proportional self-defense as a last resort. They were strict constitutionalists who followed the advice of Thomas Jefferson - “peace with all nations; entangling alliances with none.” Both the Muslim world and the West have their roots in the respect for natural rights, private property rights, and markets instead of war, terrorism, and violence and both worlds would benefit immensely through free trade. Trade, as the late Chicago School economist Milton Friedman wrote, brings cooperation and spreads liberty. “Few measures that we could take would do more to promote the cause of freedom at home and abroad than complete free trade” Friedman wrote, further confirming that respect of natural rights and property is the impetus of civilization, cooperation, and justice while its disrespect through both war, theft, or state intervention lead to injustice and strife.
The neoconservatives who have attempted to eradicate terrorism and bring about a culture of classical liberalism and respect for natural rights in Iraq through warfare have utterly failed because warfare is the antithesis of markets, classical liberalism and respect for natural rights. The truly conservative means of spreading the cause of liberty would be free trade. It is very odd how far the modern conservative movement has strayed from its predecessors.
Category: International Relations, Political philosophy
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