Chapter 7. While out of Congress

Between stints in Congress, I wrote a petition to the body. These excerpts focus on foreign policy issues and indicate how the turn away from traditional American policy led us to where we are today.

While Out of Congress
Excerpt from Petition to the 103rd Congress
THE PROBLEMS WE FACE - JANUARY 1993

Foreign policy needs a total reassessment. Foreign aid, one of the most unpopular programs among American taxpayers, continues to expand annually for special reasons known only to powerful politicians.

We must recognize that the U.S.’s ability to act as the policeman of the world will soon come to an end. We have neither the wisdom nor the money to continue. If we carefully review the history of Noriega, Kadafi, Hussein, Panama, Mexico, Lebanon, the Persian Gulf, Vietnam, Korea, Bosnia, Somalia, etc., we can only conclude that something is seriously wrong with this un-American, interventionist foreign policy. Authority to be the world’s policeman and social worker cannot be found in the Constitution. It has only become acceptable policy in the 20th Century.

Internationalism is now an accepted principle by most politicians in Washington, yet many Americans cling to the notion that national sovereignty is worth preserving. In our early history, it was thought that the states were merely “countries” that were loosely bound together. Today the United Nations delivers marching orders from our military in the Persian Gulf War and in Somalia at Bush’s request.

Won’t anyone in Washington question the wisdom and arrogance of shooting down Iraqi planes over Iraq as if Hussein were the only criminal in power in the world? If this policy makes sense, why aren’t we shooting down Cuban planes over Cuba? Is Bosnia next? President Bush said he would go to the Persian Gulf regardless of what Congress said.

We can expect continual international meddling overseas by the new administration. Though we hear inane arguments that Somalia is different from Ethiopia, and Kuwait is different from Bosnia or Herzegovina, the principle of unwise interference is endorsed by the majority of those in leadership positions in both parties. Our only “hope” of thwarting these efforts is U.S. bankruptcy.

Nevertheless, the great danger of a worldwide armed conflict continues. A new world power is bound to develop in the near future to fill the vacuum left by the disintegration of the Soviet Union. This new power very well could grow out of the old Soviet bloc nations or from a radical Islamic fundamentalism centered around the growing military strength of Iran. And China cannot be ignored as it evolves from its old Communist past toward a more fascist state.