OUR DUTY TO OTHER NATIONS

What Do We Owe Them?

The United States is one of the newest countries and yet, we appear to be held responsible for any disaster or war that occurs anywhere else in the world.  This responsibility extends to sending money, troops and equipment to fight other people’s battles, but more costly in many ways, there is an increasing expectation that we will rebuild countries and allow many of the country’s citizens to come here.  This last obligation showed up after the Viet Nam war, but continues with the Afghanistan conflict.

Let’s start there.  The stated assumption in the press is that the citizens of these countries assisted Americans in the war.  But wait a minute!  It was their war, not ours.  We used our blood and treasure to help them get to a stable, well-governed country.  We were doing them a favor.  Those who worked with us were NOT doing us a favor.  They were defending their own country.  To make it clearer, if you had come over during the Revolution from, say, France, France did not pay to rebuild our destroyed towns, nor did they offer asylum in their country.  It doesn’t make any sense.

With WWII, there was a theory that Germany and Japan would keep grabbing land if we didn’t try to stop them in Europe.  We were also attacked by Japan, and our action after Pearl Harbor was in our own national defense.  That was back when we were far less interventionist.  But since that time, politicians believe that we have a responsibility to free other (select) countries from socialism, communism or despotism.  The idea is that we have a superior system that everyone should “enjoy.”  I think we do, but as demonstrated by Kruschev’s reaction to a grocery store visit, the best way to convince other powers that laissez-faire capitalism is the best of all other attempted systems is to demonstrate it. 

A Few of Our Foreign Wars

Instead, we too often intervene, even when we aren’t actually invited or wanted.  The arrogance of thinking that we know best has been shown in a variety of wars where both sides were flawed, but we picked one we felt should win.  We, as a nation, aren’t particularly good at this. 

We’ve spent too much time and money on Haiti, including Clinton’s Operation Uphold Democracy.  We intervened in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Operation Deliberate Force).  Kosovo was another mess.  And of course, let’s not forget the cost of the Viet Nam war.

We have a terrible track record of both picking a side and then, picking someone to run the ravaged country.  Afghanistan, which has been through multiple wars, can’t be saved without a strong leader to hold back the Taliban and other destructive groups.  Many men volunteered to fight in WWII; they saw the imminent threat to our country.  Fewer and fewer volunteer now because they don’t see the value of risking their lives for other countries, only to see us lose.

We Can’t Afford It

With China stealing our military technology and putting more and more of their national resources into building a strong military, we are increasingly vulnerable. A lot of the “newest” designs we’ve tried have been utter failures, leaving us with fewer warships and planes.  People don’t want to fight foreign wars and so, don’t enlist.  On top of that, the required DEI training and other nods to progressive politics make the military a much less desirable option.  We used to know how to build a strong Army, and to support our troops.  We have forgotten those lessons.

We are also running out of money.  Thanks to Biden’s profligate spending, we are much further in debt than ever before, with the cost rising daily.  His open borders have somehow obligated taxpayers to support millions of non-English-speaking vagabonds who bring nothing of value to our country, refuse to learn our language, adopt our customs and work.  We can’t even afford to help Ukraine, which, as we aren’t sending people, is simply a cost item.  The threat of letting Putin win is serious.

I do support the US helping Israel, for the same reason. Emboldening the Arab nations will put a target on our backs.  As the goal of Muslims is to force everyone to convert or put them to death, wins by these nations are a threat to us all.  And let’s not forget, we still need to fear terrorism, even if you think Iran is not a threat.  Terrorism is walking onto our shores every day, as the increasing numbers of unvetted illegals prove.  Some lists have already identified known terrorists, which demonstrates that many are simply not reported or caught.

It's Me Time

Our US military is in sad shape and we are vulnerable to China, Iran and Russia attacking us with little viable means to defend OUR nation.  We need to pick our battles, and use our expertise wisely.  And we need to de-politicize our military, so that it will again be attractive to young people as a career option. 

This is more important than political stunts, like Biden promising that taxpayers will rebuild the Baltimore bridge (ignoring that you are supposed to first go after the company at fault for the money, not us).  If we cut the size of the federal government in half, like Milei promises, we would have the money to rebuild our defenses.  And then, we must promise not to enter any war for purely political reasons (converting them to capitalism, etc.) and we must no longer promise to rebuild countries.  We can’t even rebuild our own.

You may agree or disagree, but I welcome your comments.