Staying close to home

Our affections can be spread too thinly, as Charlie Reese points out in a post-Memorial Day critique:

No American takes an oath to defend a foreign country or overthrow a foreign tyrant. We take an oath to defend our Constitution and our country. End of story. American patriotism has become so diluted that crowds don't even blink when a politician running for public office publicly proclaims "undying support" for a foreign country. On such occasions, the politician should be booed and reminded that he is an American in America running for an American office to represent and serve the American people. If he loves a foreign country more than his own, then he is free to emigrate. He should not be free to sacrifice the lives of young Americans on behalf of any foreign country.

No American has "died defending freedom" since the end of World War II. Americans have died in the Korean Civil War, the Vietnamese Civil War and in several imperialistic forays for presumably various corporate interests.

"Defending freedom" is a too-easily used cliche to justify foreign adventurism. The question needs to be asked: how does it defend the freedoms of the average American to constantly stick our nation's nose into every international squabble on the planet? The more we feed the welfare-warfare State, the more we shrink our freedoms at home. That is no way to honor our military dead.