United Liberty

I am currently enrolled in a Foreign Policy class at my university. Ever since I was introduced to Ron Paul’s theory of non-interventionist foreign policy I have become very interested in the subject. Sadly, it was in a way hard to grasp his ideas because they have been such a minority viewpoint in the United States today. Nevertheless, after reading “A Foreign Policy of Freedom” I had a much greater understanding of his viewpoints and their justification.

Even though the class has already started, I have already been presented with a seemingly obvious notion: Americans do not care much about our foreign policy. They are generally apathetic and believe it does not affect them significantly. This apathy has been changed somewhat since 9/11, but it is still generally true that something like health care or another domestic issue will be given much more attention than foreign policy.

It is clear that those who want America’s foreign policy to be changed must link our foreign policy to our domestic policy. How does it affect us here, on our home turf? Why should we care what our nation does abroad as long as it keeps us safe? I believe there are a few very simple yet profound answers to this question that, at the very least, should spark debate and bring foreign policy higher on the issue attention cycle:

America’s foreign policy makes us less safe

This will be disputed left and right. During the 2008 presidential primaries, when Ron Paul said we were attacked because we have been over there for years and years, he was immediately attacked by Rudy Giuliani. In fact, there was not a single other candidate on that stage that agreed with him. They did not see American Imperialism as a problem, despite the clear backlash we have seen from our international meddling. Blowback is inevitable, and if we want to be safer we should change course and start acting like a country and not an empire.

American foreign policy is bankrupting America

Besides the high cost of fighting two wars, the United States also must pay for our over 700 permanent military bases in over 100 nations. We still have troops stationed in Germany – yes you read that right: Germany. No global empire has ever survived; the military expenditures become too expensive. Believing that we are any different, with our destructive monetary policies, huge budget deficits, foreign debt, and trillion dollar budgets is simply illogical. We should not be building bridges worldwide when bridges are falling down here. Domestic spending should be the first priority, not our billions upon billions spent on sustaining the military industrial complex and our global empire.

Through the stressing of these two points, Foreign Policy can be linked to our domestic livelihood. I believe this is the best way to put foreign policy at the forefront of our debates instead of the backburner that it currently sits at with a majority of American.