George Washington, in his farewell speech of September, 1796, said “Beware of foreign entanglements”.
His advice has gone unheeded for much of the past 70 years. America has, slowly but surely, become western civilization’s security blanket.
But is this a bad thing?
I would think that were you to ask the approximately 50 million citizens of South Korea this question, you might get more than a few ‘no’s. Indeed, you wouldn’t be hard-pressed, even in this day and age of America-hating, to find many spots around the globe where people are happy that America was there when they needed them.
Let’s start with the most obvious. Kosovo. Can there be very many America haters in what is left of its Muslim population there? Islamist jingoism notwithstanding, I get the feeling that those who survived know who helped them in their hour of need.
And it wasn’t the Europeans.
How about Somalia? Sure, what little I know of that conflict I got from “Blackhawk Down”, but the central premise remains the same: we went in to guarantee food deliveries to the civilian population. We failed in the end, but who could doubt our sincerity?
There’s no oil in Somalia.
Speaking of oil, I’d venture a guess that there are quite a few America-thankers in Kuwait. UN or no UN, the people of Kuwait know who drove Saddam back to Iraq. It was Amercan forces and its allies.
And in 1992-2003 the US enforced a no-fly zone in Iraq, protecting the Kurdish population from slaughter at the hands of the Iraq military.
And what about Taiwan? Can we doubt for a minute that, with the specter of communist China hanging over their heads, the Taiwanese aren’t just a wee-bit happy that the US Navy is nearby?
I bring up examples of good that America is doing to remind people of one thing: America can go home.
Yes, it actually can.
America can decide to pull back its forces and let the world fend for itself, with the barest minimum of a national epiphany. We have come to that point.
“Let them fight their own fights” is a sentiment I’m hearing more and more…”Who are we to care what goes on in Whatever-stan?” is another. And I’m not talking about leftist ‘pacifists’, either. I’m talking about down-home country folk. Farmers. Truck drivers.
In other words, conservatives.
Consider for a moment the affect that such a move (becoming isolationist) would cause.
First, forget about China.
With ten percent of its GOP coming from Walmart alone, we would cripple their economy if we stopped buying their products. Not that we could do it immediately (after all, we’d need years just to build up our manufacturing abilities again, and there would have to be the requisite belt-tightening to be undergone in order for us to remain viable economically.)
But the face of Europe would change instantly. Left to defend its own borders and solve its own conflicts, the now-docile continent would fast become an unforgiving militaristic phenomenon. (The French may sound kind of fruity to our ears, but they’re not nice guys. Ask Africa.)
And all this would come at a time when the Europeans are just a wee bit fed up with its Muslim population. It’s not a good mix. Ironic as it is, America (yup, us, the bad guys) may just be what’s keeping Europeans from mass-deporting Muslims.
Yes, we could just close the borders, make our immigration laws as stringent as everyone else’s (we have the most lax immigration laws in the world) circle our Navy around North America and put our troops in bases around the country (there is lots of space). Sure, Canada would have to be defended (dang-it) as well as Mexico, but everyone else could…how to say it politely? Go to that place where it’s really, really hot.
Far-fetched, you think? Out of the realm of possibility?
Well, consider that if this became a conservative cause, the left could hardly stop it. It’s what they’ve been screaming for these last six years.
Of course, YOU know they didn’t really mean it. We all know it.
But such is the danger of putting politics ahead of the good of the country.
Posted by eminentthreat 
Posted by eminentthreat 