Posts Tagged With: foreign policy

The Founders’ Vision for America’s Prosperity

Posted on May 31, 2026 by Darrick Dean

“Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship with All Nations — Entangling Alliances with None.” – Thomas Jefferson

The founders of the United Sates were very astute in understanding the dangers of “entangling alliances” with other nations. As W. Cleon Skousen wrote in The 5000 Year Leap:

“This was the Founders’ doctrine of ‘separatism.’ This was far different from the modern term of ‘isolationism.’…[The Founders] desired to cultivate a wholesome relationship with all nations, but wished to remain aloof from sectional quarrels and international disputes.”

We’ve discussed the great costs the United Sates has paid for deviating from these principles. Many of the wars of the 20th and 21st Centuries were unnecessary or avoidable. Truly, “No war is inevitable until it has begun,” as Patrick J. Buchanan wrote. So indoctrinated we have become concerning the “necessity” of wars, we fear to question them and our actions in them. To this day, do not dare question the bombing of civilians in the World War II, because it was a “good” war. Nor question if there was a better way to end slavery than the loss of hundreds of thousands of Americans in the Civil War.

There are just wars, but there are no good wars.

The Founders also warned of foreign influence on our government. Skousen writes, “[George] Washington also warned that giving a more favored status to particular nations could open up the United States to strong foreign influences which could subvert the security or best interests of the United States.” Here is what George Washington warned:

“Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence…the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government…Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favorite [foreign nation], are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people to surrender their interests.”

Those who think or deny our “friends” cannot or will not attempt to influence our government need only open their eyes. This is not a new problem, but one that has existed throughout history, which is why our founders left us with many warnings.

Flash forward a bit to the years after World War I. This tragic and terrible disaster left America with over 100,000 dead, and 200,000 injured. We let our “allies” goad and scare us into the war. Congressman Charles A. Lindbergh (father of the famous pilot) implored our leaders to return to the Founders’ vision:

“We had elected a president [Woodrow Wilson] for a second term because he said he ‘kept us out of war’ in his first term. We proved by a large vote that we did not want to go to war, but no sooner was the president re-elected than the propaganda started to put us to war. Then we became hysterical, as people always have done in war, and we believed everything bad against our enemy and believed only good of our allies and ourselves. As a matter of fact all the leaders were bad, vicious. They lost their reason and the people followed…”

Mark Twain is credited with the saying, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.“

It sure does.

And as Skousen muses: “Looking back, one cannot help wondering how much happier, more peaceful, and more prosperous a policy of ‘separatism’ as the world’s great peacemaker instead of ‘internationalism’ as the world’s great policeman.”

When will we have enough of death and debt?

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On War and Peace this Memorial Day

Posted on May 25, 2026 by Darrick Dean

“Peace need not be impracticable, and war need not be inevitable.” – President John F. Kennedy

On Memorial Day, it is a perfect time to recognize how, in an age of endless wars, how far we have fallen from Kennedy’s vision.

How many wars since Kennedy’s of time have been truly “necessary” or “inevitable?”

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy didn’t win simply by a show of force. Diplomacy with Khrushchev was key to preventing nuclear war. Tulsi Gabbard writes:

“Today’s warmongers would have us believe that Kennedy was successful because he was the tough guy who went toe-to-toe, staring down Khrushchev…But the truth is that Kennedy was quietly conversing and negotiating with Khrushchev behind the scenes…Their success was rooted in real diplomacy, which requires give and take…Without diplomacy, there can be no peace. Without peace, we cannot be truly free or prosperous.”

While China has prospered and expanded its influence around the world without dropping bombs on anyone, the U.S. has spent trillions in wealth, bankrupting itself, devaluing the dollar to worthless levels, and destroying prosperity. The citizens are increasingly not fooled by the illusion of prosperity their politicians try to force upon them.

“Without any regard for the cost in human lives or taxpayer dollars, Democrat and Republican leaders have stood together, waging one regime-change war after another for decades…[and undermined] our national security and our efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons.”

We’ve discussed before how North Korea won’t give up its nuclear weapons because it didn’t want to be destroyed like Libya and Iraq. We’ve seen how regime change wars fail and unite people against us. And we’ve seen the profound humanitarian disasters these wars, diplomatic failures, and economic sanctions have caused. For example:

“…the foreign policy disaster in Iraq that cost the United States trillions of dollars and the lives of nearly 4500 Americans and another 32,000 wounded…it is estimated that more than one million Iraqi people died because of the war [by 2008]. Many more would die after.”

The failure of diplomacy and the willingness to sacrifice entire nations has destroyed many countries including Syria, Libya, and Ukraine.

It is time we recognize the horrific results of heavy-handed, misguided, American-last foreign policy, both here and abroad. Take heed these words from Tulsi:

“[Politicians] tell the American people, and themselves, that their goal is so honorable and so great that the end justifies the means. If it means killing millions of people in order to ‘save’ them, then that’s what we have to do…If we must destroy the United States — or the world — in order to save it, so be it.

“We are not volunteering to be cannon fodder to fuel the profits of the military-industrial complex. We are not volunteering to be used by insecure politicians who feel the need to start wars and put us in harm’s way just to make themselves feel strong or look tough. We are not volunteering to be used as expendable pawns feeding the insatiable hunger for power and global domination of American politicians who don’t care about our Constitution, our country, or the American people.

“We need leaders who will give up the age-old colonialist mindset that has been used to justify kinetic, economic, and cultural warfare around the world, often under the guise of lofty rhetoric about humanitarianism and spreading democracy, which is really rooted in an arrogant view that we must remake the world in our image — whether people in other countries like it or not…We must respect the sovereignty of other nations just as we expect them to respect our own. Our foreign policy should not be based on isolationism; instead, recognizing that the best way to achieve peace is by building relationships with other countries — not by dropping bombs or enacting crippling sanctions…

“Our leaders must put the American people first…As citizens, as voters, we hold the answers in our hands. Who we choose to lead our country has direct consequences on the question of war and peace. With our voices, and our votes, we must hold corrupt, self-serving politicians accountable and let them know in no uncertain terms that we will not allow them to destroy us, our loved ones, and our home.”

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Time to Rethink Economic Warfare

Posted on May 2, 2026 by Darrick Dean

“Sanctions are the modern siege weapon, a way to starve nations into obedience without ever firing a bullet.” – Michael T. Lester

With recent news of blockades of Cuba and economic sanctions of Iran and Russia, I began to ask some questions:

Do economic sanctions work? Are they humane?

Asking the right questions often means asking the inconvenient questions.

Because sanctions don’t involve military operations, most people never question their effects or ethics. We’ve wielded these economic weapons for decades, but do they work?

Mostly, they do not.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union managed to maintain control over many countries for decades. The communist government of Cuba never fell. Nor did the leaders of Iran collapse. The people of these countries, however, did suffer to one degree or another. Often, quite badly.

Michael Lester writes, that in Cuba, for decades, they have endured “shortages of medicine, decaying infrastructure and limited access to technology.” In fact, documents show the goal from the beginning was to “deny money and supplies to Cuba…to bring about hunger, desperation, and the overthrow of the government.”

Bringing about hunger and desperation to get at a government? This doesn’t align with the moral values of America, yet this economic warfare is openly and often deployed without much concern. The effects are often devastating, and our leaders don’t care. Infamously, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was asked in a interview about the thousands of Iraqi children who died due to sanctions. Her reply, “We think the price is worth it.”

Shrugging off the deaths of innocents? This is profoundly troubling. This is also why these nations will hate us for generations. As I discussed recently, attacking people unites them together, regardless of who their rulers are. Sanctions hurt the citizens, not the ruling class.

What if we did the exact opposite and engaged in open economic trade with these countries? Consider Vietnam: A country we went to war with and lost thousands of soldiers in a failed attempt to stop a communist takeover. Since normalization of relations in 1995, Vietnam and the U.S. engage in hundreds of billions of dollars of trade. Thousands of American tourists visit yearly.

Is their government still communist? Yes. Do we have a peaceful and beneficial relationship with their people? Also, yes. Yet with Cuba, a nation a few miles off the Florida coast, which poses no danger to our country, it has been the target of decades of abuse.

It is time to rethink using the weapons of sanctions and embargos. They cause suffering and death, and harden people against the United States. We cannot tell others how to live or vote. We cannot destroy other nations simply because they won’t be part of our empire or let us do whatever we want in their countries.

Looking the other way as innocent people are made to suffer for reasons of empire and politics is profoundly wrong.

And profoundly un-American.

Categories: government, History | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Existential Threat

Posted on April 6, 2026 by Darrick Dean

While the U.S. is bogged down in another expensive distraction, the actual threat continues to quietly, yet not so secretly, build its empire.

The Chinese mentality of extreme patience, and long-term planning on the scale of decades or longer, will be our undoing. They’re an ancient culture that acts carefully with purpose. They have overlaid communistic totalitarianism onto ancient Chinese culture and philosophy. The U.S. is young, often acting out like a teenager trying to figure out adulthood. If we ever grow up, we could learn a lot from China.

While they have spend recent decades spreading out over the world, building alliances and obtaining resources thorough economic and financial agreements, we have spent trillions on war, bankrupting ourselves and putting ourselves at risk. Ironically, our reliance on Chinese goods has funded their plans and expansion.

The point of no return is almost here. We must change course.

The clock is ticking.

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