Dan McKnight | The Libertarian Institute

What Did the Vice Presidential Debate Teach Us?

by Dan McKnight | Oct 3, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Politics

Tuesday night was the final debate before the November election, and it was the first time a significant number of Americans were formally introduced to the vice-presidential nominees, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Like me, Vance was a U.S. Marine; there's still some comradery there. (OORAH!) In 2005, Vance deployed to Iraq for six months as a military journalist. He departed right before I began my eighteen-month combat tour in Afghanistan. My deployment was as a member of the Idaho Army National Guard. Walz served in the National Guard for twenty-four years,...

What Donald Trump Told the National Guard

by Dan McKnight | Sep 2, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Politics

One week ago Donald Trump spoke in Detroit, Michigan in front of the National Guard Association. He recognizes that the National Guard is the backbone of the U.S. Armed Forces, but is too often dismissed as a critical branch. “We always can count on you. I’ve counted on you a lot. The National Guard is America’s first and last line of defense. And you do not get the credit you deserve; but actually you do because down deep everybody knows it,” Trump said. As some of you regular readers may recall, my first stint in the U.S. military was in the 1990s, first as part of the U.S. Marine Corps...

Joe Biden Wants To Steal Your Children

by Dan McKnight | Jun 24, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

I made the decision to join the United States Armed Forces twice in my life. First, in the early 1990s after school when I enlisted and trained as a U.S. Marine. Then, following the 9/11 attacks, I signed up for the Idaho National Guard and was later deployed to Afghanistan. Those were my decisions, ones I made because I believed in service, and knew the military would be good for me. But what if it wasn’t your choice to join the military? What if it wasn’t your son’s choice? What if, suddenly, your daughter was forced to join the military? There are amendments to the annual National Defense...

Biden Lied, Now People Will Die

by Dan McKnight | Jan 16, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Sometimes when you’re celebrating a victory you get a big reminder of why that victory matters. As you should all know, last week the New Hampshire House of Representatives passed the Defend the Guard Act, which would keep their National Guard units out of overseas wars that haven't been declared by Congress. I couldn’t ask for a better start to the legislative season. And last Thursday, President Joe Biden unilaterally launched an attack on the Houthi government in Yemen. For longtime readers of the Libertarian Institute, you’ll be aware that the United States has been meddling in Yemen...

Selling Your Soul, And Your Country

by Dan McKnight | Oct 16, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

What is treason? The U.S. Constitution defines “Treason against the United States” as “only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” “Enemies” is a high bar, and ought to be—the penalty for treason is death, after all. But there is a level below explicit treason, a betrayal of public trust and revelation of disreputable character in the service of a foreign government. Examples of this go all the way back to the founding of our country. Edmund Randolph of Virginia was the first U.S. Attorney General, and George Washington’s second Secretary...

Let’s Start Minding Our Own Business

by Dan McKnight | Sep 20, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

I look at this country and I see too many veterans unable to reenter society because of their trauma from fighting these endless wars. I look at this country and I see political prisoners like Julian Assange locked up for practicing honest journalism. I look at this country and I see too many kids failing basic reading and math requirements. I look at this country and see the necessities of life getting more expensive, and people being punished for saving money. I look at this country and see problems that are painful, but solvable. That’s why I founded Bring Our Troops Home, to solve the...

‘Defend the Guard’ Phone Bank Was Huge Success

by Dan McKnight | Aug 25, 2023 | Blog, Foreign Policy

This Bring Our Troops Home newsletter is reprinted with permission. To receive them in your inbox, sign up at the top of the page. Friends, I could use this newsletter to give you an update about the Republican primary debate last night. Candidates talked and talked and talked. But I’d rather give you action. Yesterday my Director of Field Operations Diego Rivera hosted a phone bank for our Defend the Guard efforts in New Hampshire. Here’s the memo brief he just sent me. It’s incredible. More than 60 people donated their time to calling legislators and pressuring them to pass Defend the...

To Washington, Maui and Kiev Are Both Just Provinces in the Empire

by Dan McKnight | Aug 22, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Less than two weeks ago a devastating wildfire engulfed the Hawaiian island of Maui, particularly the historic city of Lahaina. Over one hundred people are confirmed dead, and more than a thousand are still missing. Blackened earth and soot scar what was once a beautiful and tropical paradise. Error has compounded error in disaster response, with people on the ground still unable to return and discover what remains of their homes. A lack of transparency, and the stonewalling of outside observers has led to appropriate suspicion about how high the blame goes. I’ll let former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi...

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Israel Winner of the 2003 Iraq Oil War

by Gary Vogler

Domestic Imperialism: Nine Reasons I Left Progressivism

by Keith Knight

Imagine the Catholic Church (or any person or group of people) doing what the government does every day: Everyone who doesn’t give the Catholic Church 25% of his annual income every year will be put in jail. If he resists the Jesuit officer, the officer has the right...

Diary of a Psychosis: How Public Health Disgraced Itself During COVID Mania

by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

FOREWORD BY JAY BHATTACHARYA, MD, PHD Diary of a Psychosis is different from all other books on Covid: it traces the development of the government response as it happened, bit by bit, and subjects it to relentless scrutiny: did any of it do any good? It thereby...