re: I'm Guessing Rand and Ron Paul are with the Bergdahls

I've never seen lit by the libertarians that views all contracts with the federal govt as illegal or illegitimate. .

So there is that.

There is even a picture of Murray Rothbard on Wikipedia's "Libertarianism" article.

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What do you see as the major difference, Abu?

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That under the broad umbrella of libertarianism, you fall into one fairly uncommon derivative that disagrees with a significant chunk of libertarians regarding the legitimacy of the state.

Besides that, it doesn't matter concerning the original OP. The Pauls are willing participants within the framework of the state and thus give tacit approval to the legitimacy of said function. I'd surmise they give serious weight to breaches of willing and free government contracts.

I also think I'd know better than most, as Rand was my one-time senator (before I moved up here), and I did campaign work for him.

Well, I would hope that Ron Paul would see the issue the way I do. His being a part of the the government was a point of contention I had with him but if you listen to his farewell speech, it is pretty clear that he agrees with me that nothing can ever really get accomplished through the state.

Rand, on the other hand ... who knows what he thinks?

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I got a feeling Rand is going to side with whatever gets him the most votes and, looking at this site, all the Republicans think this Bergdahl guy is an EVIL TRAITOR ... so Rand will probably agree with them.

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Not necessarily a traitor (at least with what has been alleged), but certainly a deserter. People tend to not take kindly to reckless and ill thought-out schemes that get a dozen other soldiers killed.

Separate your take on the state - he willingly and freely made his decision and then did not have the strength to see it through.

Forget the rules of the military - he violated a sacred bond that is almost as old as mankind.

He may have thought he was some special snowflake; I really don't know. Do you have any idea how many other tens or hundreds of thousands of others in both places thought the wars were fruitless and counter-productive? How many of us felt nothing but compassion towards the Afghans or Iraqis and sorrow for them being caught in the middle? That it was all a big waste?

Yet hardly any others of the hundreds of thousands acted so selfishly. The other ones that did were either malcontents or murderers (like Steven Green), and he looks to be no different.

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What do you see as the major difference, Abu?

Wikipedia seems to think that anarcho-capitalists are libertarians.

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Dont hijack this thread

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Smith said he had no insight into the circumstances of Bergdahl’s disappearance, but he said he didn’t get the impression that anyone in the group was “manically depressed at all.”

“Any sort of questioning of generally ‘what are we doing here,’ it wasn’t a unique thing,” Smith said by phone. “I felt pretty sure that they, and he in particular, would be able to come through the experience.”

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Kinda goes against what Bergdaul is saying about the leadership there.