ARNOLD KLING
August 14, 2011
The Top Political Contributors
August 11, 2011
Gender and the New Commanding Heights
August 11, 2011
Jamie Galbraith Makes an Assumption
August 11, 2011
Macroeconometrics: The Science of Hubris
August 10, 2011
Real and Nominal Bond Yields
BRYAN CAPLAN
August 14, 2011
The Effect of Thumb Sucking on Income
August 12, 2011
The Voice of Cold, Hard Truth to All Would-Be Educators
August 12, 2011
Ability, Morality, and Prosperity: A Paper and a Report
August 11, 2011
The Theory of Time and Frittering
August 10, 2011
Male Variance and the Remnants of the Gender Gap
DAVID HENDERSON
August 9, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken", Part Two
August 8, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken"
August 5, 2011
James Bovard on the Peace Corps
August 4, 2011
Summers Way Off on FDR and 1941
August 3, 2011
The "Amazon" Tax
SHARE
Bryan:
In February 2003, what was your view on whether or not America should invade Iraq?
You ask about views on whether or not America should invade Iraq as a guideline for determining if we can trust the judgment of Americans as a whole. You did not ask if we could trust the information that was given to the American public. The decision was made given erroneous information. If Americans had been told the truth, I believe our views would have been different. Many people agreed that we needed to get rid of the threat Iraq posed to the world. Had the truth been broadcast, decisions would have been much different. In other words, it was not the judgment of Americans as a whole, but of ONE American that caused us to end up in Iraq.
No, I want to know what _Bryan's_ view was on the biggest issue of the decade. After all, he's the one who wrote the book about the decision-making superiority of economists over voters.
Bryan, please make your personal mission to raise the "not very much" and "none at all" numbers.
On the other hand, if the median voter doesn't trust himself, does that make him more trustworthy?
IMHO the better questions would be "Did you think that our army should have been brought home from Iraq at the end of the war part of the action, or at least after the capture of Sadaam, or did you think that the army should have stayed and attempt to build a democracy in Iraq as they did?"
I was marginally against going into Iraq in the first place but was very frustrated when the army stayed in Iraq after a decisive win. Now the army is helping to enforce the fuel price controls in Iraq and are doing the war on drugs thing in Afghanistan. I have to wonder where these crazy people in Government come from. Is it that highly intelligent people who graduate from Harvard and Yale never took drugs nor knew people who did? Frustrated!