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This past
week various news events once again made it abundantly clear that our foreign
policy is an abject failure.
Unfortunately, in spite of this the administration is determined to
stay on this destructive course, despite any past promises to change it. For Afghanistan especially, if ever
there was an opportunity to admit shortcomings and change strategies along
with leaders, this past week was it.
There
really is nothing for us to win in Afghanistan. Our mission has morphed from
apprehending those who attacked us, to apprehending those who threaten or
dislike us for invading their country, to remaking an entire political system
and even a culture. I remain
highly skeptical that, as foreign occupiers, we can ever impose western-style
democracy on another country. Our
troops have debilitating restrictions on defending themselves against
enemies, which are so often indistinguishable from civilians. They also face dire setbacks in
winning hearts and minds when innocents are mistakenly harmed, which happens
all the time. We can never make
friends this way; the tactic never works.
This is an
expensive, bloody, endless exercise in futility. Not everyone is willing to admit this
just yet. But every second they
spend in denial has real costs in lives and livelihoods.
Many of us
can agree on one thing, however.
Our military spending in general has grown way out of control. This is largely because fiscal
accountability in military budgeting is seen, by many, as weak on
defense. This is absolutely wrong
and a dangerous way to think. It
is certainly possible for the military to waste money, or to spend money
counterproductively, and indeed it has.
But out of political correctness, the military has been getting blank
checks from the administrations and Congress for far too long.
It is
important to defend our soil, but let us defend our own soil instead of
defending Europe’s soil.
Our willingness to defend Europe enables their lavish social spending
at our expense, while they criticize our model of capitalism. It is time they allocated the money
for their own defense. The same
goes for Korea, Japan and other countries like Egypt and Israel.
It is also
important that while our troops are in combat, our soldiers have what they
need to do the best they can, even if we disagree with why they are
there. It is an embarrassment
that some soldiers and families have had to buy body armor at their own
expense when billions are awarded to politically well-connected defense
contractors for weapon systems that don’t work, are over-budget, past
deadline. This is the kind of
waste that needs to end. I firmly
believe that there is enough waste in the military budget that we can both
save money overall and at the same time be safer.
Of course,
the obvious way to save money and be safer is to stop meddling in the affairs
of foreign countries and just bring our troops home. This will happen eventually if our
empire, like every other fallen empire, insists on spending itself into
collapse. If we want to avoid
this, we must look into ways to bring our costs under control. Military budgets must be on the
chopping block along with everything else.
Ron Paul
www.house.gov/paul
Congressman Ron Paul of Texas enjoys a national
reputation as the premier advocate for liberty in politics today. Dr. Paul is
the leading spokesman in Washington for limited constitutional government,
low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies based on
commodity-backed currency. For more information click on the Project Freedom website.
Published with the authorization of Dr. Paul.
Copyright Dr. Ron Paul
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