John Vaughn | The Libertarian Institute

Living Down Range

by John Vaughn | Oct 11, 2022 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Exactly one week ago at about 11:30am, as I sat at my desk working, two enormous explosions shook my house. My windows rattled, my coffee slightly sloshed in its mug, and my dogs started barking in alarm. I remarked to my wife across the hall: “Those were some big ones.” She wordlessly agreed. I do not live in Baghdad. I do not live in the Donbas. I live outside of Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Indeed, I live several miles outside of the artillery firing ranges at Fort Bragg, yet the shockwaves barely elicited an acknowledgment from either me or my wife. Four to five times a year, military...

Military Leadership Has Lost Its Rightwing Congregation

by John Vaughn | Sep 16, 2022 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Politics

Last week, an open letter from every living former secretary of Defense (with the notable exception of Dick Cheney) and every living chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (with the less notable exception of H. Hugh Shelton) was published on the popular military website War on the Rocks, outlining what they perceive to be the foundational tenets of civil-military relations. While attempting to remain largely above the fray, the former leaders cannot help but to place the blame for the dramatic, recent decline in civil-military relations on anyone but themselves and their own failures in the...

A Veteran Explains Why People Aren’t Joining the Military

by John Vaughn | Jul 20, 2022 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

A new report from NBC news has generated a lot of discussion about the relationship between the military and American society. Especially from right-leaning commentators, much of the blame is placed on the current administration and the apparent increase of “woke” cultural initiatives and vaccine mandates. Prominent right wing personality and veteran BowTiedRanger lists three reasons: Popular gun Youtuber Iraqveteran8888 points out that people (presumably he means the rightwing where most military recruits originate) have lost faith in our institutions, largely due to the implementation of...

Evacuation Eyewitness: What I Saw in Kabul

by John Vaughn | Sep 22, 2021 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

I watched a woman come through the North Gate of the Hamid Karzai International Airport holding a limp baby. It was tiny, pale, and naked against the hot, dry noon sun. I couldn’t tell for certain if it was alive or dead at that arms-length distance, but whether or not I would like to admit it, I think I know the truth. I know nothing about her, or her family; where they came from, where they ended up, or the fate of the child in her arms, but as I think back on my long two weeks in Kabul I think that vision is emblematic of the situation that was bared to the world in August. In some ways,...