A person who refuses to work for the benefit of others, gratefully accepting their compensation as a reward for his humble service, who instead simply holds out his hand and expects others to give him what he wants as an "entitlement," is called a "welfare bum."
A person who refuses to work for the benefit of others, gratefully accepting their compensation as a reward for his humble service, who instead blockades their harbors, assassinates their leaders, and threatens to "bomb them back to the stone age" until they hand over their resources, is called a "four-star general."
In a typically Orwellian fashion, the U.S. Government changed the name of the Department of War to the "Department of Defense." This is because war was no longer defensive, protecting the American people from attacks or invasions, but a part of an imperialist policy of foreign aggression, and a welfare-state for the military (from generals to soldiers to bomb-makers). (The National Security Act of 1947 established the "National Military Establishment," which had the unfortunate abbreviation "NME" (the obvious pronunciation being "enemy"), and was renamed the "Department of Defense"
(abbreviated as DOD or DoD) on 10 August 1949.)
War is an ancient practice. It is no longer a viable option. Nations possess weapons which can annihilate hundreds of millions of human beings. The ancient philosophers never considered modern realities. We need to re-think war on a fundamental philosophical level.
Let's begin with a simple analogy. Suppose the police receive a tip that your next-door neighbor has a bomb. Would you approve the carpet-bombing of your entire neighborhood as a means of dealing with this madman? Would you want your entire neighborhood bombed "back to the stone age?" No, you would want the bomb-sniffing dogs to go into your neighbor's house to find the bomb and the bomb squad to carefully disarm it, with the smallest possible risk to the bomb-owner's neighbors.
Suppose the police department sealed off the entire neighborhood -- your house included -- and would not allow anyone in the neighborhood to buy food, medical supplies, or do business with anyone outside the police perimeter, until the bomber (who was a powerful multi-millionaire who was still able to get all the supplies he wanted) voluntarily turned over the bomb? This is called "sanctions," and along with carpet-bombing was U.S. policy towards the madman Saddam Hussein. Millions of innocent people -- including as many children as the total number of casualties of the U.S. atomic-bombing of Japan -- have died as a result of these policies. This is morally unacceptable.
The "Just War" theory also does not consider one of the most striking features of modern geo-politics: government-funded enemies. Our government -- claiming to guarantee our "security" -- has been active in selling bombs to madmen like Saddam Hussein. America's enemies are the best enemies money can buy. Without enemies, we might not need a National Military Establishment (NME).
When the War Department was formed in 1789, there was a legitimate fear that a powerful nation might invade the newborn United States of America. If America were truly a Christian and capitalist nation, no nation would have a desire to attack us. Americans would be feeding, clothing, and housing the world. Americans would be doing business with all other nations. America would be expanding the wealth of all other nations, as well as being a "City upon a Hill," helping other nations out of spiritual darkness, and overcoming disease and poverty. No government is strong enough to invade a truly Christian/capitalist nation and raise its foreign flag over our institutions.
The Libertarian Party is actively formulating policies that would privatize national defense in a way that maximizes security and liberty and minimizes blanket destruction.