Posted on 09/24/2004 3:32:47 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
I tend to agree - why should my tax dollars go to foreign countries.
A billion dollars a year for the last 30 years.... What better purpose could that money have been put to over that time frame?
But it's ok - the government's old policy of "go ahead - spend it, we'll take more" applies.
is madonna the whore of babylon spoken of in the end times... all signs point to yes...'
egypt should have refused her entry, no pun intended, on her moral indignity rather that her visit to israel...
as for money abroad... give it to nations striving to bring american idealism of freedom... that is what americans would want, to be able to travel abroad like they were home, protected by laws and the lawful...
teeman
"...Isreal kicked their butt."
Come to think of it, you are right. LOL
Of all the reasons to ban Madonna, they had to pick her visit to Israel????
George Washington is spinning in his grave...
GEORGE WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS To the People of the United States.
FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:
-snip-
13 While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in Union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations; and, what is of inestimable value, they must derive from Union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict neighbouring countries not tied together by the same governments, which their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty. In this sense it is, that your Union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.
-snip-
40 It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.
41 Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.
42 Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing, with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the government to support them, conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view, that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that, by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion, which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.
43 In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course, which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may even flatter myself, that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.
-snip-
45 In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my Proclamation of the 22d of April 1793, is the index to my Plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by that of your Representatives in both Houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it.
46 After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it, with moderation, perseverance, and firmness.
-snip-
48 The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without any thing more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards other nations.
-snip-
51 Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a man, who views it in the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations; I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat, in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the ever favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.
George Washington
United States - September 17, 1796
http://earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/farewell/text.html
ping to #26!
We should end all foreign aid. One of my favorite parts of the Libertarian Party platform.
You don't think that isolationism was what led to both of our world wars?
No. Germany was hardly the villain in the First World War, really not much better or worse than Imperial Britain and France. Had the US not intervened, the war may have ended in stalemate, hence no Hitler, no spread of Bolshevism to Eastern Europe, and no dead Americans.
Had the US not intervened in World War Two, there might have been another stalemate (Hitler was stopped in the west at the Battle of Britain, and in the east at Stalingrad, so it's not like the US was all that stood in the path of German world conquest). Naziism and Communism would then have sapped each other, both collapsing over time, perhaps a lot sooner than 1991. And no dead Americans.
The wise more for America is to husband its strength and allow foreign tyrants to destroy each other.
No, isolation does not create foreign wars. It's US intervention that stirs the pot of others' wars, and makes things worse.
OK, that statement explains much. I don't have time to argue about that with you right now, but you should rethink your world history. It's no wonder you're taking an isolationist point of view.
Not that I am a supporter of Madonna, but when do we get to ban the $50 Billion plus dollars we give to that racist country?
Germany has been villified for its entry through Belgian, which was a violation of international law. Yet only a few years earlier, Belgian was notoriously savage in its repression of the Belgian Congo. Beligan was at least as savage toward Africans as Germans were toward Belgians, so in a sense, what goes around, comes around.
As for the sinking of the Lusitania, did you know that it was carrying contraband munitions for Britain (one of the reasons it sank so quickly), or that Germany had taken full page ads in the New York newspapers warning passengers that the ship was fair game? (A history teacher in Catholic school told me that tidbit; he was an Irishman who told us much about Britian's repression of the Irish).
And yes, let's not forget Britain's repression of the Easter Rebellion in 1916.
The Kaiser wasn't all good, but neither were his adversaries saints.
And as I said, had the US not entered WWI, there would have been no Hitler. More likely a stalemate once the imperial powers of Europe had wasted enough young lives in their pointless war.
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