We’ve tried having no foreign policy at all and got Pearl Harbor... Isolationism didn’t work. We’ve tried aggressive internationalism and found ourselves in Vietnam... We’ve tried apologizing for our aggressive internationalism under Obama, and ended up with the Arab Spring... We’ve tried sanctions, yet Putin persists, Kim Jong Un endures, and the Ayatollah Khamenei abides... And we’ve tried electing a loudmouth commander in chief and having him go CAPS LOCK on Twitter. There’s no such thing as a foreign policy that “works” in the sense of making problems with foreign countries go away. It’s like an endless road trip with kids in the back seat of the car. Sooner or later we’ll have to turn around and say, “Don’t make me come back there,” knowing full well that the only result will be more fighting. It’s the use of military force in America’s foreign policy that’s the crux of the matter – the realpolitik equivalent of parents who spank. Use of military force is definitionally a collective enterprise. And it’s the part of foreign policy that’s much more dangerous than, for example, trade agreements. I’d rather pay lots for high tariff goods at Target than shoot people, not to mention them shooting back. One of the clearest thinkers about American use of military force is former National Security Advisor, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Gen. Powell was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs during the 1990-1991 Gulf War (which actually did work). He proposed eight questions that should all be answered “yes” before America uses military force. These questions became known as the “Powell Doctrine.” Let’s apply the Powell Doctrine to a current foreign policy issue. Not a grave, portentous geo-political foreign policy issue like the Middle East. That’s too complicated. We’d be here (like the Middle East has been there) for a couple thousand years. Let’s apply the Powell Doctrine to a less sweeping foreign policy issue closer to home – illegal immigration. It’s the use of military force in America’s foreign policy that’s the crux of the matter – the realpolitik equivalent of parents who spank. The U.S. has deployed more than 6,000 troops on the Mexican-American border to stop illegal immigration. Put that to the Powell Doctrine test: 1. Is a vital national security interest threatened? Well, rag-tag bands of Guatemalans, Salvadorans, and unemployed campesinos hardly make for a Red Dawn scenario. And, say what you will against illegal immigrants, their cuisine is a lot better than the commies’. 2. Do we have a clear attainable objective? No immigrants at all? I’d be digging taters in County Mayo, Ireland.
American Consequences
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