Choosing war is the most important policy decision Washington makes on behalf of the American people. War profoundly affects the domestic economy, and the human carnage it creates is not limited to foreign soil. Yet, the last time American voters compelled a fundamental policy shift away from war was in 1968, when Nixon promised to end the Vietnam conflict and devise an honorable exit.
Once again, Americans must choose. Will Americans continue to support escalating proxy war in Ukraine, a byproduct of Washington’s pursuit of global hegemony? Or will Americans demand that Washington defend America’s borders, maintain a republic that upholds the rule of law, respect the cultures and traditions of nations different from us, and trade freely with all nations, even as it protects America’s economic prosperity, its commerce, and its citizens?
The American financial and economic system is at risk of failing catastrophically. And Ukraine is losing the fight with Russia. Unless Americans demand new directions in foreign policy now, as they did in 1968, they will surrender control over their lives and incomes to the Washington elite’s orgy of spending on a dangerous proxy war against Russia and the arbitrary exercise of state power against American citizens at home.
After World War II, the United States emerged with the world’s most dynamic and productive scientific-industrial base, a highly skilled labor force, and a culturally strong, cohesive society. By the time Dwight D. Eisenhower turned over the presidency to John F. Kennedy, there was no matter of strategic significance anywhere in the world over which the American superpower could not assert a decisive influence. American military power was everywhere.
Washington was enthralled with its ability to intervene at will in the affairs of nations and peoples that Americans had not previously encountered. Captivated by the illusion of limitless power, Presidents Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson wasted no time looking for opportunities to reshape the world in America’s image.
The Vietnam War sobered up the American electorate, but after America’s Cold War victory in 1991, presidents have blurred the distinctions between war and peace. In the resulting confusion, the reckless pursuit of global military hegemony and the moralizing internationalism that inspired intervention in Vietnam regained its old popularity.
Washington’s ruling class has ignored the top priority in all matters of national strategy: first and foremost, the enduring imperative to preserve American national power. As America’s leaders committed American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines to endless interventions in Southeast Asia, the Caribbean Basin, the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and sub-Saharan Africa, America’s share of global GDP fell from 40 percent in 1960 to roughly 24 percent in 2022.
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