A view on Libertarianism

I think a typical libertarian position would be similar to the one you outlined. However, it was argued and some people agreed that the war in Iraq was a defensive war. Of course, it was preemptive, but we were still "defending" ourselves against a perceived future attack. While many libertarians were likely skeptical of this line of reasoning, it is possible that some libertarian-leaning individuals accepted this argument.

Libertarianism is based on a notion of limited government. I have certain leanings in that direction. However, when push comes to shove, it is hard to limit government.

There are some historical instances in the U.S. where the libertarian approach would not have achieved the best result. Think back to labor conditions in the late 19th and early 20th century. Now it could be argued that we have gone too far in the other direction today, but most reasonable people would say that there was a need for government to curb those business practices. Similarly with civil rights.

I personally am not willing to accept that the libertarian approach to government is always best, but I do think we as a country should go back to it more often. We do not need the government trying to make gas prices lower during an election year, or investigating steroid use in major league baseball, or trying to criminalize online gambling.

In my opinion, the way that the U.S. and the rest of the world operates makes it impossible to go back to the extreme limited government (national defense, property rights protections only) that I associate with libertarianism. For better or worse, government plays a role in things like interstate commerce and disaster preparedness, for example. I still think it is a good idea to reign in government and focus it on tackling a limited set of responsibilities, even though my idea of a "reigned in" government would still be involved in a lot of things that pure libertarians would object to.