Mutual Defense Treaties

Sovereign nations have banned together to defend against intruders for thousands of years. Some nations have been successful in defeating intruders themselves. The Bible is full of battles won by the Israelites with God’s help. The Pagans also believed that their “gods” were actively involved in their triumphs and defeats. In 312 AD the Roman Emperor Constantine was reported to have had a vision of a red cross and the message “In hoc signo vinces”, ‘in this sign you will conquer’.

 

The Roman Empire grew, in part, because they would put an end to tribal squabbles between nations and called it “Pax Romana” the “Roman Peace”.  After the fall of the Roman Empire in 410, nation states reemerged.  Europe fought off the Mongols, the Huns, the Visigoths, the Muslims and the Vikings.

 

Treaties were needed when large armies threatened multiple empires. In most cases, conquering hoards would slaughter the soldiers and enslave the rest.  In some cases they would slaughter everybody.  I rare cases, they allowed their new subjects to assimilate. The incentive to not be conquered was huge.

 

Some treaties resulted in disaster.  World War I was caused by treaties that played out to everybody’s disadvantage. Germany should not have honored its treaty with Austro-Hungary. The US should not have entered the Vietnam War or the Iraq War.

 

The notion of rebuilding Europe after World War II should not have been enshrined in our list of obligations to other countries going forward. We need to describe the US position on national sovereignty. If we believe that countries are sovereign; then we would hold that their voters are accountable for whatever their government does and we would have no obligation to “bail them out”.

 

US government spending needs to shrink and our $20 trillion national debt and $100 trillion unfunded liabilities need to be reduced. Otherwise, we will go broke like the Roman Empire did in 410 AD.

 

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader