Tuesday, October 25, 2011

On Foreign Policy, Ron Paul, and Missionaries

Before starting this post I want to let everyone know that my entire family will be getting together to celebrate my parents 50th wedding anniversary so from tomorrow through Sunday I will be taking a break from blogging.  Hopefully next week my blogging will return back to normal, including Eagle Freedom Links and a rule 5 post returning next Saturday and Sunday.

Our foreign policy is so muddled right now that its mission needs to be much better defined and more limited in nature.  While I do think that Ron Paul's foreign policy is isolationalist to a degree (not trade policy) he makes some very good points about the U.S. needing to be less comingled/intertwined in other country's affairs.  While I still believe that it was right for us to enter both Iraq and Afghanistan to stop both perceived and imminent threats, I also think that in the case of Libya, Egypt, Africa, and other Middle Eastern countries' uprisings that we should stay out of those countries' affairs and Ron Paul is correct in saying that we should stop policing the world unless a country would be subjected to a Rwanda-style massacre.  In the case of Afghanistan we were responding to an act of war - 9/11 - just like we did after Pearl Harbor was attacked during WWII.

I do think that it is good if the United States influences other nations but should that necessarily include our military involvement?  Missionaries take care of the needy all over the world.  Their mission is to evangelize, help educate, assist with medical care, and bring the message of Christ around the world.  Maybe missionaries would have more success at converting individuals in foreign lands into a more civilized lifestyle where people are tolerant of all religions, so that those of different faiths could coexist as equals in civil society rather than U.S. militarily try to change the countries and its people?  Maybe we should leave the changing of minds, hearts, and souls to missionaries instead of having the military try to influence these peoples?

Now, if there is an imminent threat to our nation's national security I do think it would be necessary for us to respond militarily.






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