By Tim Shoemaker
Doug Bandow, a frequent Campaign for Liberty contributor, has an excellent opinion piece in The Daily Caller today called “Ron Paul challenges GOP’s foreign policy agenda.” Bandow concisely argues that our current foreign policy (a mere continuation of the Bush Doctrine) will actually leave us less safe, less free, and less prosperous.
When Politico polled activists and analysts about why the GOP mainstream was hostile to Paul, James Carafano of the Heritage Foundation complained that “The deliberate self-weakening of America is an invitation to disaster.” Carafano argued that Paul failed to fulfill the constitutional obligation to “provide for the common defense” and that the latter’s vision would not keep America “safe, free, and prosperous.”
Yet Washington’s policy of promiscuous intervention is not providing for America’s “common defense.” Rather, the U.S. is protecting virtually every other nation…
Indeed, the “Defense Department” has become anything but. Most of America’s forces do nothing to secure the U.S. They instead are employed to remake failed societies, impose Washington’s meddlesome dictates, and subsidize populous and prosperous allies.
Bandow goes on to give specific examples for precisely why we are left less safe, free, and prosperous. One that was particularly frightening to consider the ramifications of was this:
It appears that top Bush administration officials debated launching air strikes against Russian forces during Moscow’s conflict with Georgia.
Such an action, Bandow points out, could have led to WWIII or worse yet, nuclear confrontation with Russia. “Such are the risks to Americans’ safety when their government plays globocop”, says Bandow.
It’s time for the GOP to get over their collective amnesia in regards to the 2000 election and realize that Bush was elected running on a humble foreign policy of non-interventionism.