American foreign policy should be about America

Somewhere along the way, we got distracted from looking out for America first, and delved into trying to fix or improve many of the world’s most tenuous problems, some thousands of years old. Many of these problems are intractable, and many of these problems drain our treasury of valuable monies that could be used elsewhere, as in reducing the borrowing necessary to pay the bills. America is not all-powerful and all rich.

During the Cold War of many decades, our Foreign Policy could be construed as being part of our National Interest campaign to protect our interests and allies. That’s fine, but real leaders look forward, not backward. The Cold War is long gone, and it looks like foreign policy changed to more do-gooder policies like uninvited nation building and intervening in the world’s most media promoted civil wars full of atrocities, at least atrocities by western standards. Seldom, if ever, did I hear discussion of American National Interests. Using American blood and money to constrain these more terrible situations is usually not in the American National Interests.

And in this discussion, the ideas of free trade and globalization must be debated in our Congress, to include a report card on our American negotiator’s agreements to date. This is foreign policy, also. Especially in its impact on millions of citizens, and their communities.

I did hear some astute use of the National Interest term by the Clinton administration, but it was easy to read between the lines that it was playing with words. There we ventured into video foreign policy, which for a President who lead by focus groups and polling numbers, makes sense for his style. Except the National Interest was not truly served. The Bush administration seems more idealistic in its promotion of democracy and religious freedom in general, but I never hear the term National Interests at all mentioned in the same breath. Now I hear do-gooders wanting Americans to intercede in Darfur even as they oppose the war in Iraq. And you decide, what is more important to we in America: the Hamas-Fatah conflict in Palestine or the wars in the South American narco-states?

It’s time to take care of ourselves, again, as the number one priority. The Cold War is long over, the world is still full of rotten places, and our Foreign Policy must look out for American National Interests first. This change in Foreign Policy will not blossom up like some wellspring of peace, love, and harmony. It will most likely emerge from the hard fought use of the vote to elect a President and a Congress that refocuses Foreign Policy on National Interests. These most terrible conflicts and killings around the world do rip our hearts out, but our children and way of life is still more important.