By Chris Basten

  I once heard a wise man say, "People don't live by what they know. What they know makes no difference. No, people live by what they believe regardless of what they know to be true." There is certainly a grain of truth to this statement. Beliefs are powerful prerequisites when people put themselves into motion. I tend to think that people do act on what they know but if a belief is strongly held, the wise man I once listened to could be right; people often live by what they believe which can override what they know.

This isn't always negative. Beliefs often give humans fortitude and a great deal of comfort when life doesn't make much sense. Beliefs also make some of us resilient in the face of hardships or rejection. For example, social workers undoubtedly face constant stress and often go unappreciated. Knowing this can increase exhaustion with an already burnt-out workforce. However, if those social workers maintain a belief that their services are truly making a difference in their community, they are more likely to continue in their zest to help others. Believing that their assistance is valuable can supersede the knowledge that social work is wrought with problems and lack of resources.

And then there are those beliefs that destroy and infiltrate society to the point of being absurd and downright deadly. Though military occupation doesn't work and causes more death and destruction than if things are left alone, we believe that our military force can be used to serve a common good. Despite knowing about the heavy cost of civilian and military casualties, we believe that our might makes right in the long run. At least this is what world governments believe.

Civilians are forced to pay exorbitant taxes to support the use of "good" aggression in far away lands that most know little, if anything, about. We know nothing about the history, the culture, or the individuals who contribute to their economy and their community. We are brainwashed with how evil and despicable these lands are. We are inundated with the pathetic nature of these people to the point that we view them as subhuman whether we realize it or not. In the end, the way these countries and cultures are represented in the media procures the notion that our force is warranted. We are there for their liberation and their safety. The rationalization is that our aggression is much better than what was in place before we bombed and took over foreign territory. Such is the history of human empires.

Before I bore you with anymore history lessons, think about what we are really fighting about as a human race. We definitely fight for our liberty and rights but the one tangible we kill each other over the most is land. Perhaps we've fought for different reasons over the ages but what we believe about occupation of these lands is telling. No layperson really knows the reason why the United States government resides in so many countries around the globe. However, what we believe about the government's role in policing the world is a big reason why we spend more money on our military than all other countries of the world combined. Whether it's about bringing peace, bringing democracy, building an American dynasty, or lusting for Arabian oil, we all believe something about the United States' extensive occupations. Regardless of what little we know, our beliefs about American military occupation guide the policies that support it.

As a libertarian, I don't support any military occupation of foreign soil. These lands belong to the citizens who work to obtain them. A military is supposed to defend and protect its own nation from foreign invaders. It is not supposed to police the globe based on theories and good intentions. A military should be a last resort, not a fond political favorite that bosses the rest of humanity around to "keep things in order." But governments everywhere rape our dignity and our land from us because we believe our government can help us preserve our land with good intentions.

Case and point: Israel and Palestine are fighting over the belief that God ordained certain land to their particular religious group. Despite the lack of evidence to support the existence of a God, billions of people believe that force will preserve what Gods and governments feel is theirs to have and to hold. Gods and governments are the same ideas--they all depend on force to make you believe that your life and your property are in better hands if they aren't in yours. Certain groups feel that they are entitled to have "holy" land even though there really is nothing special about the property they are fighting over. Land is land. Despite our beliefs about property, nothing will change the fact that land is nothing more than inanimate dirt, grass, trees, rocks, and shrubs. No group is entitled to any of it. It comes with the territory of existing on this planet.

There's plenty of soil for every man, woman, and child on earth. We all know this. So why does every government and special interest group think that they can forcefully take away what belongs to individuals and their families or businesses? They believe that aggression, in some way, shape, or form, is the answer whether they recognize it or not. Because we don't like the way a handful of others carry about their own business on their own property, we feel the need to tattle to government. Government forces eagerly "look into the matter" and force changes. They demand permits, enforce taxes, and push out those that neighbors don't want around even though these eccentric individuals never hurt or destroyed anyone else's person or property. If this is what our neighborhoods look like (and a lot of them do), why are we so surprised when governments do it globally?

With all of the land covenants, strict regulations, city-planning departments, excessive taxes, and everything else the government can get its grubby hands on, those neighbors that others don't approve of suffer to keep what is rightfully theirs. This is what happens on a global scale when we intervene on foreign soil. With guns and tanks and mortars (oh my), we take away individual rights by occupying land that does not belong to groups or governments. We do all of this in the name of good or God. Whatever we believe, we know deep down that it is aggression forced on others. It is aggression that we would never want forced on us.

Consider this quotation about the Nazi regime from Leonard Peikoff, author of "The Ominous Parallels":

Property to them did not mean possession by right, but by government permission; capitalism to them did not mean lassez-faire, but government control of the economy, the traditional, imperial kind of control, control mediated by behind-the-scenes deals between politicians and property-holders. Accepting such premises, many businessmen were prepared to grant that a totalitarian could be a defender of capitalism.

The more I see individual rights taken away by government vultures who desire to control every aspect of our lives, from economy to property to pursuit of happiness, I don't tend to believe anything good about government exists. The government thinks that everything we own is better off under its control and in its possession. The government does not trust us to take care of our bodies or our properties so it overpowers us with propaganda that broadcasts how everything is falling apart without its intervention. We shriek and gasp when American soldiers are ambushed in Iraq but those Iraqis who fight still believe that their land is theirs to own and take care of as they see fit. Would you believe in the same premise if our government treated us the way they are treating the Iraqis? Consider that our government already is and always has been treating us this way. If we don't get rid of a government that we don't approve of, the government will happily get rid of those of us that it does not approve of.