Congressional Issues 2012 INTERNATIONAL
ECONOMIC POLICY War
and Imperialism
The 113th Congress should:
replace militaristic, coercive imperialism with the non-violent
spiritual imperialism envisioned by America's Founding Fathers;
use the power of the purse (appropriations) to limit foreign
military intervention;
issue a formal apology to all nations which have been victims of
U.S. military aggression which was employed to obtain or buttress
corporate advantage ("U.S. interests")
America began as a Christian Republic. That America no longer exists.
The United States is now a secular (atheistic) empire. As a Christian
Republic, America was the most admired nation on earth. America is now
hated by many foreign nations. This is not because America is the land
of the free and the home of the brave. This is not because America is
perhaps the most charitable nation on earth. It is not the American
people who are hated, it is the federal government. America's government
is hated because it has abandoned the principles of America's Founding
Fathers:
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 [Washington’s
emphasis] connection as possible." — Washington,
Farewell Address (1796)
I deem [one of] the essential principles of our
government, and consequently [one] which ought to shape its
administration,…peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all
nations, entangling alliances with none. — Jefferson, First
Inaugural Address (1801)
The federal government has not extended commerce, but forcibly
blocked it, blocking even necessary
medical and humanitarian supplies to some nations. Yet it has
simultaneously increased entangling political connections through
government-to-government aid and quartering of our troops overseas.
Bruce Fein, an unusually principled but respected legal expert, an
official under Ronald Reagan, and a player in movement conservatism,
has penned American
Empire Before the Fall,
an all-out takedown of U.S. foreign policy, drawing on history,
economic reasoning, ethical considerations, law, and knowledge of
world affairs to strike at the very core of the ideology of American
imperialism.
In the eyes of many across the globe, America stands for Imperialism.
Most distressing, it is not just Middle East terrorists who denounce
the United States as "imperialist," it is the leaders and
strategists of both the Republicans and the
Democrats who believe America ought to be an empire, and
ought to bring all nations under the control of a global empire:
One is to be a "city
on a hill." This beacon
shines the light of "Liberty Under God"
into the darkest corners of the globe. Its soldiers are ideas,
its "weapons
are not carnal." James Madison, "the father of the
Constitution" made this point to the Virginia legislature in one of
his life's most important addresses. He said legislators should oppose
any bill which is
adverse to the diffusion of the light of Christianity. The first
wish of those who enjoy this precious gift, ought
to be that it may be imparted to the whole race of mankind.
Compare the number of those who have as yet received it with the
number still remaining under the dominion of false
Religions; and how small is the former! Does the policy of the
Bill tend to lessen the disproportion? No; it at once discourages
those who are strangers to the light of (revelation) from coming into
the Region of it; and countenances, by example the nations
who continue in darkness, in shutting out those who might convey
it to them. Instead of levelling as far as possible, every obstacle to
the victorious progress of truth, the Bill with an ignoble and
unchristian timidity would circumscribe it, with a wall of defence,
against the encroachments of error.
This is a non-violent, spiritual imperialism based on voluntary
exchange.
America has been hijacked by a secularist regime which favors an old
style imperialism, that of militarism. We must return to the Christian
vision of Madison and the Founding Fathers.
Many libertarians also like to paint the early
national period in pacific colors, quoting Washington, Jefferson, and
Madison against standing armies, alliances, and war. In contrast to
today, we’re told, the American people and their "leaders"
hated empire and imperialism. But this is misleading. From the start
America’s rulers, with public support, were bent on creating at
least a continental
empire, including Canada, Mexico, and neighboring islands. Some
had the entire Western Hemisphere in their sights. Americans were not
anti-empire; they were anti-British Empire—or, more
accurately, anti-Old-World Empire. They did not want to be colonists
anymore. America’s future rulers saw their revolution as a showdown
between an exhausted old imperial order and the rising imperial order
in the New World. [Of course, it was called an Empire of, or for,
Liberty.] Continental expansion—conquest—required an army powerful
enough to "remove" the Indians from lands the white
population coveted. "Removal"of course meant brutal
confinement—so the Indian populations could be controlled—or
extermination. This government program constituted a series of wars on
foreign nations in the name of national security.
Continental expansion also was accomplished by
acknowledged unconstitutional acts, such as the national government’s
acquisition of the huge Louisiana territory from Napoleon, which
placed the inhabitants under the jurisdiction of the U.S. government
without their consent. The War of 1812 was motivated in part by a wish
to take Canada from the British. [See my "The War of 1812 Was the
Health of the State," part
1 and part
2.] A few years later, American administrations began to built up
the army and navy in order to bully Spain into ceding another huge
area. The U.S. government thus gained jurisdiction over a vast
territory reaching to the Pacific Ocean, from which the navy could
project American influence and power to Asia. [In light of this
empire-building, the Civil War can be seen as empire preservation.]
I am not saying that if early Americans could
have been seen today's America, they would have been pleased. Some
clearly would not have been. I am saying that what they favored—national
and commercial greatness—prepared the way for what America has
become, whether or they would have favored it. If you will the end,
you will the means. You cannot build a continental empire and a
worldwide political and military presence without planting the seeds
of powerful government at home, a national-security state, and all
that they require, including income taxation, regulation, central
banking, and a welfare state to ameliorate the worst hardships of the
system’s victims, if only to tamp down radical resistance.
,
an all-out takedown of U.S. foreign policy, drawing on history,
economic reasoning, ethical considerations, law, and knowledge of
world affairs to strike at the very core of the ideology of American
imperialism.