Isolationism And Open Borders By Jacob G. Hornberger!!
(2017-10-21 at 00:47:03 )

Isolationism and Open Borders by Jacob G. Hornberger

In an implicit rebuke of President Trump, former President Bush delivered a speech this week in which he warned against "isolationism sentiments."

Isolationist sentiments? Is he kidding? Do not make me laugh. Trump has made it very clear that he is firmly committed to continuing the forever wars that Bush launched in Afghanistan and Iraq more than 15 years ago and the Bush perpetual "war on terrorism," which he used to justify the adoption of such totalitarian powers as indefinite detention, torture, and assassination.

Trump has taken actions that have brought the United States dangerously close to war with North Korea and Iran. He also intends to continue Americas participation in the old Cold War dinosaur known as the NATO, which succeeded in bringing about a new Cold War with Russia. He favors the expansion of United States military prowess all over the world, most recently reflected by United States troops being killed in Africa. Surrounding himself with generals, Trump has effectively been absorbed into the old Cold War institution known as the national-security establishment.

If that is "isolationism," I wonder what Bush would consider to be interventionism.

In principle, Bushs concept of "isolationism" is no different from that of Trump or, for that matter, former President Obama, who coincidentally also launched an implicit broadside against Trump this week. They all embrace the concept of interventionism into the affairs of other nations and consider any reduction in the current level of interventionism to be "isolationism."

Here is the ideal of interventionists, including Trump, Bush, and Obama: a United States government that wields the power to intervene in the affairs and conflicts of foreign nations and establish military bases in countries all over the world.

Such a power necessarily requires a gigantic, permanent military establishment - or what President Eisenhower called a "military-industrial complex" - and a secretive agency like Central Intelligence Agency that wields the power to assassinate foreign leaders and initiate coups in foreign countries.

The means used to intervene abroad include invasions, occupations, assassination of foreign leaders, sanctions, embargoes, coups, kidnappings, indefinite detention without trial, and extra-judicial executions.

One of the problems with interventionism is that it naturally makes people in foreign countries angry. Generally, people do not like to be invaded and have their family members or countrymen killed, maimed, injured, bombed, shot, or tortured, especially by big, powerful foreign regimes. They also do not like it when they lose a large portion of their net worth or even the lives of their children as a consequence of sanctions or embargoes. They do not like living under the cloud of drone assassinations. And they do not like it when their democratically elected leaders are assassinated by the Central Intelligence Agency and replaced with United States-approved stooges.

All that anger ultimately manifests itself in retaliation, oftentimes in the form of terrorism. The terrorism is then used as the excuse for more interventionism, which then produces more terrorism, which then produces more interventionism.

Once the terrorists retaliate on American soil, United States officials then impose an ever-increasing array of totalitarian measures on the American people to keep safe from the terrorist retaliation that the interventionism produces.

That is where the National Security Agency comes into play - the secretive government agency that spies on Americans, monitors their telephone calls, emails, and Internet activity to keep them safe from the terrorists.

It is also where the government walls, travel controls, and visa restrictions on foreigners come into play. United States officials say such measures are necessary to keep Americans safe from the terrorists (who are retaliating against the interventionism) or other official enemies that are opposing or resisting the interventionism.

It is also where the travel and trade restrictions on Americans come into play - through the use of sanctions and embargoes. If Americans travel to forbidden lands or trade with foreigners they are not supposed to trade with, they are prosecuted, incarcerated, and fined by their own government.

It is also where infringements on privacy, including financial privacy, come into play.

This is the paradigm that Bush, Obama, and Trump favor - a paradigm that entails unleashing the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency to do whatever they want in foreign countries and destroying the freedom and privacy of the American people. This is the paradigm under which Americans have lived for decades.

Contrast that paradigm with the libertarian paradigm, which is the exact opposite. We want to rein in the federal government in foreign affairs and unleash the American private sector so that Americans are free to interact with the people of the world.

Thus, the libertarian paradigm necessarily entails bringing all the troops home, closing all the foreign military bases, and ending intervention into the affairs of other nations, including invasions and wars of aggression, occupations, assassinations, kidnappings, coups, sanctions, and embargoes.

Interventionists call that "isolationism." They say that the libertarian paradigm would isolate America from the rest of the world.

But the interventionists always fail to note the other half of the libertarian paradigm - free trade and open immigration or "open borders," which would enable the American people to freely interact with everyone in the world in mutually beneficial ways.

The libertarian paradigm of non-interventionism and open borders is the key to freedom, peace, prosperity, and harmony. If Americans want these things, that is the way to achieve them.

Printed here with permission from Mr. Jacob G. Hornberger of The Future of Freedom Foundation!! Their Great Website!!