Restoring Freedom - Part two

Second in a series. For the first entry, go here.

Step two: Breaking the ties that bind.

What do NATO, SEATO, ANZUS, the UN and an array of other alphabet alliances have in common? Two things: they nominally obligate America to go to war on behalf of others, and they destroy the freedom of armed neutrality the Father of our Country wanted for us:

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 connexion as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop...
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world...
Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing. - George Washington

Two centuries later, the U.S. is the self-proclaimed keeper of international order, with scores of written assurances that commit us to the defense of everyone from the Netherlands to New Zealand. Most Americans don't seem to mind -- being top dog is an alluring temptation. But that's precisely what it is. Morphing from a commercially dominant society to a militarily dominant one fundamentally changed our interaction with the world. No other nation has carved up the world into spheres of command (the ubitquitous "CENTCOMs, PACOMs, EUCOMs," etc); and no other nation has a 'defense budget' northwards of $500 billion a year. Preparing for our own prudent defense would cost less. Preparing to defend a global empire threatens to bankrupt us, financially and morally.

Those who advocate armed neutrality are mockingly dismissed as 'isolationists.' We have never been an isolationist nation. Our merchants sailed the corners of the globe from the beginning of the Republic. Once trading posts were followed by military posts, though, we were drawn into neighborhood squabbles the world over. We stopped being an example to the world, and yielded to the temptation to remake it in our image.

Step two, then, is: Remember John Adam's caution - "America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own."