LibertyMaryland

The Risk of Entangling Alliances

Thomas Jefferson upon his inauguration recommended peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.

The threats of the modern world do change and sometimes call for signs of solidarity such as the NATO alliance. Created after the Second World War, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s policy where an attack on one is considered an attack on all, made it clear that the free nations of the western world would defend any aggression vigorously and immediately. NATO was the answer for the very real threat posed by the Soviets. Anchored by America, a strong case can be made that NATO prevented World War III.

However, in this century, stubborn expansion of NATO could very well be the cause of World War IV. The nation of Georgia, a former state of the Soviet Union and birthplace of Joseph Stalin, is on a pathway to membership in NATO. Extending promises of mutual protection to countries so far away from any reasoned definition of the “North Atlantic” and greatly at risk of boarder disputes and internal conflict is unwise. If this month’s military action in the Caucuses instead took place two or three years in the future, America could very well find itself in a shooting war with Russia, something every President since Truman has wisely taken great pains to avoid.

I take seriously the advice of our third President. Alliances such as one with Georgia could entangle the United States in a war that we neither want nor are well prepared to fight. On a world stage that differs considerably from the middle of the twentieth century, we should reevaluate the numerous alliances that we are currently in, the deployment of our forces in over 130 nations, and the purpose of NATO. With a stressed economy and military 100% utilized, we cannot afford to look for new dragons to slay by further extending our commitments to far flung regions of the world.

- Richard Matthews

cross posted from RichardMatthews.org