Whenever I hear critics of a non-interventionist foreign policy speak, they always attack those who hold this view as “isolationists.” They claim that non-interventionists want to isolate themselves from the globe, that they want to create a bubble between them and the outside world, not engaging in any interaction with the foreign world. That characterization is false and very-very-dishonest.
A non-interventionist foreign policy is the belief in “peace, commerce, honest friendship will all nations,” and “entangling alliances with none,” to use the bold words of Thomas Jefferson. It is the belief that all nations have the right to engage of freedom of trade and freedom of exchange, that all nations should be friendly to one another, but that no nation should involve itself in the quarrels of other nations or in another nation’s political and social disputes. This was the foreign policy position of the U.S. for 100 years. It was rejected in 1898 when President William McKinley and Congress decided to go to war with the nation of Spain over Cuba. Since then, the U.S. has been following an interventionist path and has caused the U.S. to become the world’s busybody, not to mention the world’s policeman. This interventionist policy has also caused the U.S to get entangled in alliances with dictators and despots not only in places like the Middle East but elsewhere. It has caused populations in other nations to hate the U.S. because of these alliances.
At this time, the United States is engaged in a War on Terror. We are facing an enemy whose goal and ideology is to seek the destruction of the U.S., and its people and to create as much havoc in the world as possible. It seeks to impose its will on the world as well as eliminate those who are against it through murder and oppression. There is no disputing this. There is no denying this truth. When this war comes to an end, and it will, my hope is that we as Americans will engage in reflection about our foreign policy and return back to the wisdom of our Founding Fathers. The foreign policy of interventionism has caused this nation to be hated and has caused it to bleed lives as well as treasure on the ground of countries. This all has to stop and this all must end.