Swords into Plowshares

I love Ron Paul. Up to this point, I've loved everything I've read by him including Revolution: A Manifesto, End the Fed, Liberty Defined, and The School Revolution. Perhaps it is because I am too familiar with his work that I found this book to be rather uninspiring.

He really seems to repeat himself over and over. He steadfastly challenges modern popular opinion on war (which is itself brave and commendable) but I don't think he has really advanced the conversation. He attempts to deal with the common “isolationist” argument but doesn't address the equally common genocide objection. This is a tough question but one libertarians face whenever they discuss the issue with opponents. He discusses the famous Swiss neutrality but doesn't effectively take on the objection that their neutrality was only made possible by American intervention.

A lot of his arguments take the form of “the myth that war does not help the economy has been disproved”. I certainly agree but I didn't find any persuasive arguments as to how. That may have required a larger book but in the 230 pages, of this book several arguments were repeated again and again. I didn't disagree with anything he said but I didn't find anything that I felt could change someone's mind or even make them give pause. Perhaps the book was meant to be more of a rallying cry for the already initiated; a sermon for the choir to give encouragement. I will say it has encouraged me to think more about how non-intervention can be better promoted but was not especially enlightening or inspiring.

To the interested, I would recommend reading Chapters 1, 2, and 21. The rest was difficult to get through and mostly superfluous.