Make money, not war, say libertarians

The Auburn Plainsman Online

By Chase Mitchell
Assistant Campus Editor

September 22, 2005

Saturday, the Auburn University Libertarians will join with the Libertarian Party of Alabama, as well as several non-partisan groups for a peace rally in downtown Birmingham.

The Libertarians want to make it known that Democrats are not the only political party taking a hard line against the war in Iraq, said Dick Clark, representative of Alabama’s Libertarian Party and former president of the Auburn Libertarians.

“Frankly, our take on this is, while we agree with the conclusions (liberals are) drawing, like that this war is illegitimate, we think their reasoning isn’t all that great as to why,” Clark said. “As Libertarians, we’re saying there’s serious economic reasons that we shouldn’t be in this war.”

His party’s stance veers away from Republicans, he said, who believe that war helps the economy, but it also stops short of the Democrats’ moral objection to war in general.

“We’re not pacifists,” Clark said. “We just believe that only defense is legitimate, and if you’re trying to sell something as defense when you’re actually going and invading a country, then that’s B.S.”

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