Archive for foreign policy
The tension on the Korean peninsula escalated late last year when South Korea began live-firing drills off its coastline. That was after North and South Korea shelled each other for the first time since the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War. U.S. forces in the area went on high alert even as the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington joined South Korean naval forces in exercises in the Yellow Sea. That carrier had just concluded drills with Japan involving 400 aircraft, 60 warships, and more than 40,000 U.S. and Japanese troops. South Korea was an official observer during the drills.
Korea shows all that is wrong with U.S. foreign policy.
After World War II, the United States and its allies — against the wishes of most Koreans — divided the country at the 38th parallel. After North Korea invaded the South in 1950, Harry Truman intervened with U.S. combat troops in a “police action.” The result was the senseless death of more than 36,000 American soldiers for Truman’s foolish policies, for the United Nations, for the failed diplomacy of World War II, and for the division of Korea in the same place it was divided before the war started. Since that time, a day has not gone by when the United States has not had thousands of troops stationed in South Korea, some no doubt the grandchildren of the soldiers who fought in the Korean War. There are at least 25,000 U.S. soldiers currently in Korea. There are also more than 35,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan.
There was no U.S. declaration of war against North Korea. On five different occasions, the United States has declared war on a total of eleven other countries: Great Britain in 1812 (the War of 1812), Mexico in 1848 (the Mexican War), Spain in 1898 (the Spanish-American War), Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1917 (World War I), Japan, Germany, and Italy in 1941 (World War II), and Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania in 1942 (World War II).
Only a few Republicans in Congress dared to object to Truman’s clearly unconstitutional intervention in Korea. Most notable was Sen. Robert Taft, who maintained, “The president is usurping his powers as commander in chief. There is no legal authority for what he has done. If the president can intervene in Korea without congressional approval, he can go to war in Malaya or Indonesia or Iran or South America.” The Korean intervention set a terrible precedent, for no declaration of war has ever been issued since, even though the United States has been involved in many military conflicts since then, some of them being major wars, such as Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Tags: Asia, foreign policy, history, interventionism, Korea, war
Is Ron Paul an Isolationist?
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The word isolationist is a pejorative term used to ridicule advocates of U.S. nonintervention in foreign affairs, intimidate their supporters, and stifle debate over U.S. foreign policy.
Throughout the twentieth century, opponents of U.S. intervention in foreign wars were smeared as isolationists.
Conservative and Republican opponents of Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul, although they may argue and fight among themselves, are all agreed on one thing: Ron Paul is an isolationist and espouses a dangerous foreign policy of isolationism.
Actor and conservative activist Chuck Norris insists that “Texas Representative Ron Paul’s bent toward being an isolationist who wants to bring home every one of our 572,000 troops abroad makes the anti-terror, pro-military hairs on the back of my neck stand.”
Tags: foreign policy, interventionism, Ron Paul, war, war on terror
How to Reduce Military Suicides
Posted by: |Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, I have been quite vocal in my opposition to most of what is done by the U.S. military in the name of defending our freedoms and other nonsense. Because of this I have been accused over the years of not appreciating and not supporting the troops (I plead guilty) and indifference to and wishing harm to the troops (I plead not guilty).
However, on this latter point it needs to be said that it is only natural to expect that foreigners on the receiving end of U.S. military invasions, occupations, bombings, and killings would retaliate against U.S. troops. Just think of what Americans would do if these things were done to them.
So, on the one hand, as Herbert Spencer wrote over a hundred years ago in his essay on patriotism: "When men hire themselves out to shoot other men to order, asking nothing about the justice of their cause, I don’t care if they are shot themselves." But on the other hand, as an American, I don’t want to see any American soldiers harmed, and especially those that were duped into fighting some unnecessary and senseless foreign war.
The solution to the dilemma is to not send American soldiers overseas to fight foreign wars, which are inherently unjust. This keeps foreigners from having to shoot invading American soldiers and American soldiers from having to shoot resisting foreigners.
Tags: Afghanistan, foreign policy, iraq, militarism, politics, war, war on terror
Ron Paul’s Christian Foreign Policy
Posted by: |I doubt this would have happened had Ron Paul’s warnings been heeded.
Tags: elections, foreign policy, politics, Ron Paul, war, war on terror
Christians, Israel, and a Humble Libertarian
Posted by: |If you are not reading The Humble Libertarian blog, then you’re missing out. Wes Messamore is a friend of mine and his work is excellent. He recently wrote a superb post on the United States’ relationship with Israel, with a particular bent toward convincing Christians who support massive wealth transfer into Israel to reconsider their position. In the post, he lists three provocative thoughts:
1. The Church, not Israel, is God’s Chosen People. Promises made to "Israel" in the Bible are for Christians, those who acknowledge Israel’s rightful King, descended from the House of David, Jesus Christ.
2. Even if Biblical promises made to Israel are not the exclusive birthright of Christians, but of the Israeli people, they should not be conflated with the modern, secular state called Israel.
3. It is not for temporal authorities to systematically carry out God’s promises. He’s capable of keeping them Himself, and Biblically, He often used corrupt and evil nations to carry out His plan.
Of course, in the full post he elaborates in much more detail. Go to the Humble Libertarian blog to read more.
Tags: Christianity, foreign policy, Israel, zionism
Norman Horn is the creator and primary writer for LCC. Learn a little bit about him in the 