Writes Nicholas:

It’s somewhat ironic that I’m writing you a letter of gratitude for your work with lewrockwell.com and the Mises Institute, since I am in Iraq. I’m sure you would regard the war here as the pinnacle of statist aggression and a hallmark of the stupidity of the state. I would have to agree with you. Luckily, partially because of the writings of you and the people you highlight on both of the aforementioned sites, I’m not going to stay in the military. I’m not sure many people can appreciate the waste, deception, and graft that government invites until one actually experiences it first hand.

I had previously encountered Murray Rothbard in a political science reader in college and was soundly ridiculed by my classmates for agreeing with his assertions that the draft is slavery, welfare is just a wealth redistribution scheme, and that people should be left to choose most things for themselves, barring intruding on others’ property rights and safety. It is unfortunate that Rothbard and other Austrian economist don’t get the spotlight that John Maynard Keynes and Karl Marx get in the typical college class. It is so ironic that the some of the biggest failures in intellectual history get such a hearing! It was not until I stumbled upon your sites that I rediscovered Rothbard and found a host of other authors, such as the other great Austrian economists. My biggest problem is finding enough time to read all these great books and articles. I feel like I’ve found my “intellectual home.”

When you join the military, you think you’re defending ideals like liberty and justice. I’ve found that I agree with Gen. Smedley Butler’s views on war more than Woodrow Wilson’s. People like you are the real heroes defending liberty. Thinkers like Rothbard are able so succinctly to cut through the non-sense and propaganda and explain what liberty and, conversely, servitude entail.