Increasingly the central foreign policy issue facing the United States in an era of deadly national debt is the need to shift to a tactic of non-intervention within other nations around the world.
With a current debt load at over 15 trillion and steadily rising, it is becoming all too clear that the nation cannot afford to continue on its present path of providing a military safety shield to dozens of foreign nations.
Critics argue that the debt is nothing about which to worry, that it could be wiped out in a second by simply refusing to repay it. This is, indeed, an option, though not a preferable one. But even if such a blatant refusal to repay debt were implemented, the nation still would not have addressed the single largest expenditure driving the real debt--unfunded liabilities represented by Social Security and Medicare.
When unfunded liabilities are added to the 15 trillion base debt load, the U.S. faces a real debt of over 117 trillion dollars. Even if the 15 trillion in base debt were removed in an instant, the country would still be liable for the 102 trillion it owes its citizens in Social Security and Medicare payments, which it currently pays on borrowed funds.
The U.S. debt load is now over 100% of its gross domestic product (GDP). And if the real debt figure is used, the nation's liability is now at roughly 750% of the GDP.
This means that American debt is 7.5 times the market value of all final goods and services produced in the United States.
No nation on earth has ever survived even a fraction of such a debt load, much less one that equals 7.5 times the value of everything we produce.
Erasing the 15 trillion will not even make a dent in the real national debt, which will still stand at 102 trillion--nearly 7 times the value of all American goods and services combined.
And this brings us back to the original point about the debt. The U.S. can no longer afford to do business as usual, which means that programs that were previously viewed as sacred cows must be placed on the chopping block. One of those sacred cows is the current foreign policy of interventionism, foreign aid, and a military presence in practically every area on earth.
By closing half of the 900 U.S. military bases around the world, dropping foreign aid to zero, and switching to a strategy of non-interventionism, the nation could begin to make serious inroads into reducing the debt--all without a reduction in nuclear weapons systems, equipment, or non-civilian personnel.
Again, critics say that such as course is 'isolationism,' which historically always leads to war. But isolationism is devoid of all meaningful contact with other nations, especially our enemies. The goal is not isolation. If the U.S. returns to the view of the Framers that trade negotiations with anyone on earth who wishes to do business with us is a good thing, then the 'isolationism' claimed by critics is immediately negated.
And if the U.S. is willing to sit down at the negotiation table with our enemies, just as we have done with the old Soviet Union, Communist China, and others, then we will continue to influence decisions made by other nations in an atmosphere of non-violence. And we will also do ourselves a favor by showing utmost respect for the sovereignty of foreign nations, such as Israel's ultimate right to defend itself from those around it who wish to wipe it from the face of the earth.
Such a stance will also prevent from happening the current debacle instigated by Obama Administration meddling in Islamic nations in the Middle East, which has served to do nothing more than create instability by replacing dictators with bad leaders who are part of Islamist extremism. A much more prudent course is a proactive diplomatic strategy that wishes to preserve stability in the region without military intervention but that also seeks to address U.S. concerns about human rights.
Thus, non-interventionism is not the same as isolationism. Participatory non-interventionist strategies require infinitely more diplomacy and proactive involvement than an isolationist society.
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