Sunday, June 29, 2008

Nonintervention is Patriotic

From Robert Scheer's new book:
"That guiding idea of nonintervention -- developed by the colonists in rebellion, espoused to great effect by the brilliant pamphleteer Thomas Paine, and crystallized as a national treasure in the final speech to the nation of George Washington -- is as fresh and viable a construct as any of the great ideas that have guided our governance. Washington's Farewell Address, actually a carefully considered letter to the American people crafted in close consultation with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, is one of our great treasures, but although read each year in the U.S. Senate to mark Washington's legacy, it contains a caution largely ignored by those same senators as they gleefully approve massive spending to enable international meddling of every sort. Their failed responsibility to limit the president's declaration of war has become a farce that as much as anything mocks Congress' obligations as laid out in the Constitution."
We had a chance to reshape the world after the Cold War, after 9/11.... but this isn't what I had in mind at all! What have we become with our insane foreign policies? We need to get back to basics and have our government act within the bounds of the Constitution. That alone would have prevented the Iraq debacle. We need more talk about these big themes, and that's why I liked Ron Paul. Barry would do well to adopt some of these broader ideas and reignite the real patriotism of the Founders, rather than this false patriotism we see today from the likes of Sean Hannity.