George Washington Had It Right

June 3rd, 2006 at 19:41 Björn Hallberg

Charley Reese argues that Americans could learn a lot from reading their own Constitution to “see what kind of government they are missing.”

Washington was a very wise man. He said that no country can be trusted beyond its own self-interests. He said that habitual friendship toward a foreign country is as dangerous as habitual enmity. The policy of America should be trade with all but entangling alliances with nobody. The quarrels and vendettas in other parts of the world were none of our business, he said. As far as trade goes, all countries should be treated equal, with no favors granted to any of them.

He warned against foreign influence, calling it a poison to republican government. While he was no doubt thinking of the French, his advice applies to Israel. No foreign country should be allowed to influence American policy because that country will always seek to influence policy to favor its interests, not ours. If we followed Washington’s advice, the only thing we would be sending to the Middle East would be oil tankers and tourists.

Oh, and do check out this radio summary of the life and works of Smedley Butler while you’re at it. Butler, among other things, was also a strong believer in a minimal US defence that would extend no further than the US border. Imagine that. The idea was as revolutionary in 1933 as it is today. Which of course in itself indicates how the powers that be have twisted the public mind. That kind of talk, like arguing for a moral consistency in the discourse of weapons systems and the use of force, is just not on the table. It’s off the map in fact. And like the idea that wars are (1) interrelated and thus abatable and (2) always started for the benefit of the plutocrats, these topics have to be kept off the agenda by any means necessary.

Entry 563 filed under: North America. This entry was posted 2 years, 7 months ago. RSS feed for comments on this post.