American Interests

We need to modify out definition of “American Interests” to solve the problems we currently face in 2019.

Our most pressing interest in the US should be to reign in government spending and stop making obvious mistakes. We have a history of overspending for bad outcomes.

Now in 2019, we find ourselved needing to secure our Southern Border, repeal Obamacare, reform our bad immigration policies and restore our Constitution, but our dysfunctional Congress is obstructing.

The US has a track record of not anticipating and mitigating the unintended consequences of its actions and omissions. The results of not thinking things through are costly.

We hear the term “American Interests” as an excuse for whatever folly our government wants to engage in. We need to realize that all citizens in all countries are vulnerable to socialism and it always ends in failure.

In 1945, the US and the USSR won World War II in Europe. The USSR occupied Eastern Europe and seized it. US refusal to stop this seizure resulted in the Cold War that lasted from 1945 to 1989.

In 1945, the US agreed to give North Korea to Russia and South Korea was occupied by the US. In 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea. The Korean War ended in 1953 with a treaty that restored the 38^th parallel as the border.

The US funded weapons and military advisors to South Vietnam from 1955 to 1965 and entered their war with North Vietnam in 1965. This war lasted until 1975 and the North Vietnamese won. Vietnam was unified as a Communist country.

The US funded weapons to Saddam Huessein of Iraq to attack Iran from 1980 to 1988. The US drove the Iraqi army from Kuwait in 1990. The US invaded Iraq in 2003 to replace Huessein. He was executed in 2006.

The US funded weapons to Osama Bin Laden to repel the Russian invasion of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. In 2001, Bin Laden destroyed the Twin Towers in NY. In 2011, we caught and executed Bin Laden.

The US CIA hired Manuel Noriega as an operative in Panama in the 1950s. Noriega became President in 1983. US military invaded Panama in 1989 to arrest him for drug trafficking.

The US funded weapons for Syrian Rebels that ended up with ISIS  in 2017.

Prior to 1898, “American Interests” were limited to defense of the US land mass and keeping global shipping lanes open.

The Monroe Doctrine didn’t assume that the US would become a “Colonial Power” but it was used as a lame excuse to remove Cuba and Puerto Rico and the Philippines from Spanish rule and annex Hawaii in 1898.

These were land grabs where poverty and sovereignty movements were present.  I can only assume the excuse for these land grabs had to do with “protecting the shipping lanes”.

These land grabs didn’t work out so well.

Cuba - The US military joined the Cuban Rebels to extract Spain in 1898. Cuba became a Democratic Republic in 1902 and became a Communist Republic in 1959. Poverty 40%.

Puerto Rico – the US military invaded Puerto Rico as part of the Spanish American War of 1898.  Puerto Rico became a US Territory and remains so today.  Poverty 43.5%.

Philippines - The US military joined the Philippino Rebels to extract Spain in 1898. But ended up fighting the Rebels in a costly protracted war followed by decades of occupation by the US and Japan until 1946, when the Philippines became an independent country. Poverty is 21%.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader