This would be a good time for some introspection. Questions that deserve pondering are: Why must the U.S. government be engaged in foreign meddling? What good does it do? Are there harmful consequences? Are they worth it?
Notice, first of all, an important phenomenon: No nation-state is invading and trying to conquer the United States. There is no flotilla composed of hundreds of thousands of military transport ships crossing the Atlantic or the Pacific oceans carrying millions of invading soldiers. There is also no massive air force consisting of bombers, fighter planes, and transport planes heading towards us from across the oceans.
In fact, no nation-state on earth has the remotest capability of invading and conquering the United States. For one thing, every nation state is in worse financial straits than the U.S. government. Even if one or more of them wanted to amass a military force to cross the ocean and invade and conquer the United States, they wouldn’t have the money, much less the armaments, supplies, weaponry, planes, tanks, and other tools of warfare, to do it.
Let’s not forget, after all, that Hitler’s army was unable to successfully cross the English Channel, which is much more narrow than the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and invade and conquer England.
Indeed, even if some nation state, including China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Syria, or Vietnam, were able to cross the ocean and send troops onto American beaches, how would they sustain their supply lines? As soon as those troops headed inland, if they even got that far, they would quickly run out of ammunition and other essentials.
Moreover, there is no reasonable possibility of a military invasion of the United States by Canada or any Latin American country. They have neither the money, the military capability, or even the interest in trying such an impossible feat.
Thus, we have two undeniable facts: One, the United States is not being invaded by a foreign army and, two, there is no reasonable possibility of a foreign invasion of the United States in the foreseeable future.
The dual purpose of foreign interventionism
Questions naturally arise: Why then are U.S. troops in foreign lands, far from American shores? What are they doing in Afghanistan, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Latin America, and elsewhere? What is their purpose? What are they killing people for? What are they dying for? What are they provoking wars for? What are they enforcing sanctions and embargoes for? Why is the U.S. government spending an untold amount of money to send them there and keep them there?
One thing is for certain: Contrary to popular myth, U.S. soldiers over there are not defending our rights and freedoms here at home. How do we know that? Because, again, no nation state over there is invading and trying to conquer the United States. If Syrian troops, for example, were invading the shores of Maine or Virginia, the argument could be made that U.S. troops are in Syria to counteract the invasion of the United States by engaging in offensive maneuvers over there. But Syria is not invading and trying to conquer the United States. That would be an impossible thing for Syria to do. The Syrian regime is simply trying to quell an internal revolt against its autocratic rule.
Thus, if the purpose of all that interventionism isn’t to defend our rights and freedoms here at home, what is its purpose?
Its purpose is two-fold: One, to install rulers in foreign lands all over the world who will agree to have their nations absorbed into the overall U.S. Empire; and, two, to produce an endless array of official enemies so that the U.S. national-security state — e.g., the Pentagon, the military-industrial complex, the CIA, and the NSA — will be able to justify its existence and its ever-growing tax largess and power within the U.S. governmental structure.
The consequences of foreign interventionism
What are the consequences of all this interventionism? The loss of liberty, privacy, and prosperity here at home.
By going over there and trying to effect regime change through force of arms or coups, the U.S. national-security state ends up generating an endless supply of angry people, many of whom seek retaliation for the killing, maiming, torture, oppression, execution, humiliation, or assassination of their friends, relatives, or countrymen at the hands of U.S. personnel or the U.S.-supported dictators who U.S. officials place or keep into power, especially with generous amounts of U.S. taxpayer-funded foreign aid.
That threat of retaliation for all this interventionism ordinarily comes in the form of terrorism. That’s what the 1993 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center was all about. And the terrorist attack on the USS Cole. And on the U.S. Embassies in East Africa. And the 9/11 attacks. And the Fort Hood attack. And more.
What happens then? The U.S. government suspends liberty at home for the purpose of keeping us “safe” from the threats it is producing abroad with its interventionism.
That’s what the USA PATRIOT Act was all about. And that super-secret FISA court. And the Department of Homeland Security. And the TSA and its metal detectors, body scanners, and infamous pat-down searches.
Indeed, that’s how we have come to now live under a government that actually has the legal powers to take any of us into military custody, incarcerate us in military dungeons or detention camps, deny us trial by jury, torture us, or assassinate us, all with the support of an extremely deferential Congress and federal judiciary.
It also how we have come to live under a government that wields the power to spy on us, monitor our email, record our telephone calls, and keep track of our Internet visits.
It’s all to keep us “safe” from the terrorism that their foreign meddling produces.
And then there is the massive amount of money to pay for all this interventionism, which, along with all the other federal spending and debt, including now the $2 trillion Coronavirus “stimulus” spending, is inexorably sending the American people into bankruptcy.
And all for what? So that the U.S. Empire can absorb more nations into its collective fold and to ensure that America has an endless supply of official enemies to justify the continued existence of the national-security state type of governmental structure that came into existence after World War II.
Is it worth it? That’s a question that needs to be discussed and debated all across America. There is no better time than now.
The post Why Foreign Interventionism, Especially Now? appeared first on The Future of Freedom Foundation.
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