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The Constitution of the United States of America clearly delineated the powers between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. Regarding foreign intervention, Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution is clear regarding Congress' responsibility:
- To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
- To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
- To provide and maintain a Navy;
- To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
- To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasion;
- To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
George Washington was a military hero who, as President, preached non-interventionism, free trade, and the danger of a too powerful military. He did so because he rightly knew that foreign entanglements would be detrimental to the people. His Farewell Address to the American people couldn't have been clearer.
"Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular Nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated.
Sympathy for the favorite Nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification.
As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent Patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the Public Councils! Such an attachment of a small or weak, towards a great and powerful nation, dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.
The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing."
The Constitution is crystal clear. President Washington was crystal clear. Our country has not heeded the requirements of the Constitution or the wisdom of our greatest President. The United States has troops stationed in 130 countries throughout the world. The United States' direct military spending in excess of $700 billion per year constitutes 48% of all the military spending in the world. Essentially, the United States spends as much as the rest of the world combined. The U.S. spends another $300 million per year on costs related to prior wars and the interest on the debt incurred to conduct those wars.
The U.S. military has 1.5 million active personnel and another 1.5 million reserve personnel. The U.S. Navy has 280 ships and 3,700 aircraft. The U.S. Air Force has 5,573 aircraft, 446 ICBMs, and 32 satellites. The U.S. Army has 7,851 M1 Abrams tanks, 6,724 Bradley fighting vehicles, 15,000 armored personnel carriers, 80,000 HUMVEEs, 1,300 attack helicopters, 3,000 other helicopters, and a few other miscellaneous odds and ends. The U.S. Marine Corp has thousands of vehicles and aircraft to fulfill their mission. Does this force seem adequate to protect the United States from attack by Iran, Afghanistan or North Korea? The U.S. military is clearly a BIG hammer. When you are a BIG hammer, everything looks like a nail. Former supreme commander of the military and President of the U.S. George Washington, had this to say about overgrown military establishments:
"Overgrown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty."
Another former general, Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his own Presidential Farewell Address warned of the implications of the military industrial complex:
"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
The military industrial complex is stronger, more insidious, more powerful, and more dangerous than any time in our 220 year history. The defense industry lobbyists bribe Congress with contributions to their political campaigns and reward them with lucrative jobs when they leave government "service", in return for billions in weapons contracts. Our best and brightest technical minds are focused on producing technology to kill people more efficiently. In the meantime, our bridges collapse into rivers, our water pipes burst, and our energy infrastructure rusts away. Only Congressman Ron Paul, who has not been bought by the defense industry, has been brave enough to speak the truth:
"War is never economically beneficial except for those in position to profit from war expenditures."
Only the defense industry and their bought politicians profit from the $1 trillion that the U.S. borrows from the Chinese to fund our foreign intervention policies. Is it possible that those within the defense industry promote instability and war throughout the world? That couldn't be possible, because they have noble intentions, just like the citizen soldiers at Valley Forge. The fact is that the United States is the most powerful country in the history of the world. If Defense spending was cut by $500 billion, we would still be the most powerful country in the history of the world. Ron Paul put it quite succinctly in 2007:
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