Thomas Jefferson declared the American way of interacting with the world to
be “peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations – entangling
alliances with none.” However, over the course of at least the past seven
decades, the US government has turned this admonition on its head.
Peace? The US government has waged wars of choice almost constantly since the
end of World War II. It has distributed death and destruction around the world
for nearly 70 years straight in overt wars, covert wars, coup d’états,
assassinations, cold wars, drone wars, etc.
Commerce? Through sanctions and embargoes, the US government has carried out
economic warfare against entire countries due to political disagreements with
their leaders. This has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents
who were denied the opportunity to buy goods and services from the US and the
rest of the world. It has also prohibited the ability of Americans to travel
and trade freely.
Honest friendship? The US government has cynically manipulated nations into
serving its purposes for many decades. It has propped up foreign dictators when
government officials deem that they benefit their own objectives. It has overthrown
democratically elected leaders and installed puppets who will serve its agenda.
It has created so many entangling alliances that the entire world is laid with
tripwires that could pull the US into conflicts at any moment.
The complete abandonment of Jefferson’s foreign policy prescription has been
devastating to Americans who value life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Just in the time since WWII, over 100,000 American soldiers died in foreign
wars and hundreds of thousands more were wounded. Twenty-two veterans kill themselves
every day at more than double the civilian suicide rate (this number includes
almost one active duty soldier suicide per day). Nearly 3,000 innocent Americans
were murdered on 9/11/01, caught up in blowback from their government’s foreign
policy and the hatred it breeds.
War has steadily eroded American liberty and has nearly eliminated the Bill
of Rights. The deceptively named Patriot Act led to the most expansive surveillance
apparatus in world history. The NSA collects billions of phone calls, emails
and cell phone location records every month without a warrant or even probable
cause. The notion of being secure in one’s person and property from government
intrusion is virtually gone.
The massive cost of war requires Americans to pay an ever-increasing tab. The
Federal Reserve causes inflation to fund unaffordable wars, which secretly picks
the pockets of every American. Each person in the US is tethered to an ever-growing
$19.3 trillion in debt (much of it war related) and must pay for the hundreds
of billions of dollars in annual interest on war debt. The…