In 300 words or less...
Contrary to popular opinion, willful ignorance, or intentional misrepresentation, libertarians do not believe in isolationism.
Libertarians believe in nonintervention.
The difference is simple, but important.
Map of U.S. military bases around the world as of 2007, including those in the former Republic of Texas (Image by Rama, Wikimedia Commons, Cc-by-sa-2.0-fr)
Isolationism is the cartoon ostrich sticking its head in the sandbox and refusing to see reality.
Noninterventionism is seeing reality very clearly and choosing to stay the hell out of it whenever it doesn't involve defending America from foreign attack.
As a nation, the supreme law of America is the Constitution. That document created a federal government and gave it certain enumerated powers, one being to "provide for the common Defence."
Not warmongering, not empire building, not land grabbing, not preemptive attack, not policing the world, not picking sides in other country's brawls, but defense.
The familiar quote by Thomas Jefferson, "Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations - entangling alliances with none," neatly sums up libertarian foreign policy.
As an individual, you may do whatever you like as long as you don't coerce, intimidate or defraud others in the doing of it.
Want to help free the Uighurs from China? Go do it. Want to aid the starving people of Africa? Have at it. Want to fund Hezbollah while your brother sends money to Israel? That's your and his business.
You can advocate your cause, help develop organizations and associations, go tote a gun on a battlefield or conduct fundraising events or consciousness raising experiences about your cause. It's your choice. But no one, neither individually nor collectively, has a right to force that choice on others.
If a collective entity called government doesn't exist for the sole purpose of guaranteeing every individual's rights, it shouldn't exist at all. Mucking around in the doings of other countries isn't foreign policy; it's just arrogant muscle flexing.
That's the libertarian take on foreign policy.
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Comments
IF, the largest word in the dictionary in meaning, despite its two letter spelling, is applicable here as proof of just how large the word "if" is.
IF we adhered to the foreign policy of libertarians, very clearly stated in the article, America would not be amerika today, we and our nation would not be broken financially and we would not be enslaved to the state as we are today.
Randolph Bourne was correct: WAR IS THE HEALTH OF THE STATE. That is why we have "wars" on everything: muslims, drugs, smoking, etc, etc, etc.
I always vote Libertarian. I truly believe it is the right thing for myself and the USA. I am so proud of the great job the founding fathers did in getting this country started. I think they would be shocked and saddened to see the state of this country today. Is freedom so horrible? Today it seems people love trying to run other peoples lives more than they care about their own welfare and the welfare of this great nation.
Thank you! We'd have far less state interventionism if we'd simply "mind our own business, and let others mind theirs."
Yeah, yer right, Gary.
But it's a pretty hard sell.
The Amerikan people tend to believe most of the nonsense their government feeds them regarding foreign policy.
It's quite easy for the gummit to scare the cr*p outta the sheeple, after all regarding foreign "threats."
And Amreikans always demand more big gummymint in a "crisis."
I just wonder how would this libertarian policy would have worked out in WWII with a few individuals maybe trying to save the Jews from being whiped out from the face of this planet with many more others aiding Hitler and the Axis powers.
You of course have the right to risk your own life to save others but you never have the right to force others to risk their lives to save others. The Jews being wiped off the face of the Earth by Hitler should be a gut-wrenching concept to every decent person. But face it, the American government never gave a damn about European Jews. Remember that it was the American government that nearly wiped Native Americans off the face of North America. What other country forcibly stepped in to save them? Nobody can be a world cop without killing off thousands of their own country's soldiers in the process of playing cop. If America had stayed out of WWII there may have been thousands of more dead Jews but then there would have been thousands of more live Americans. Harsh as that sounds, you have to look at all sides, not just one.
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