The current question it seems, is if we will go to war with Iran, which is so dumb as to wonder if there is any sanity in that capital of insanity, Washington D.C. The following are quotes from a book I wrote over 30 years ago, and have had re-printed four times, titled, “I Hold These Truths.” (Amazon has 8 of them for sale at $5.48 each). The quotes are from chapter 43, titled, “Neutrality.” Sorry, it isn’t about economics.
“Neutrality. That’s a dirty word to our military establishment and sector of society that thinks we should be the policeman of the world. They get rich off of those “police actions,” and taxpayers poorer, naturally. We would be far better off if we copied the Swiss who haven’t had a war in hundreds of years, are rich, peaceful, and have one of the highest standards of living in the world. Neutrality would have kept us out of Vietnam, Korea, and even Kuwait.” (This book was written before Iraq, and Afghanistan, but they were and are a disaster also.) “If we were neutral, we would have but a fraction of the armed forces we now have, all soldiers would be on our shores, we would provide no foreign aid, give no advice, mind out own business, not be a member of the U.N., and undoubtedly prosper more than our wildest dreams could ever conceive.
“What happened to the communism we fought and preached so vehemently against for so many decades? It fell, but only because of its own idiocy and bankruptcy, not something we did. Has any nation ever loved us for giving them foreign aid? When David and Melissa (my kids) were growing up, my constant answer to arguments was “MYOB,” which of course means ‘mind your own business.’ If it is good enough for a family, it is good enough for a nation. Wealth doesn’t give wisdom, and neither does might make right. Our armed forces are scattered around the world by the tens of thousands in hundreds of bases; all a big waste of money. The explanation offered, is that we are ‘protecting ourselves’ by maintaining military presence around the world, but in reality we are just making everyone angry. We are separated from our supposed ‘enemies’ by two large oceans. Even if we were threatened by rockets, ours would be based on our own soil and go up to meet the enemy’s and destroy them.
“If we were neutral, and not involving ourselves in other’s business, we wouldn’t come apart any more than communism in Europe fell as a result of any efforts on our part. Things will to on without, us if we keep the boys, guns, tanks, and planes right here in the U.S.A. Take us over? What is there to take if we were neutral? Our privately owned farms? Our cities? What is there to ‘take?’ If our central government were a tenth of its current size and we were a peaceful nation, well armed individually, (we certainly are!), with defenses set up on both coasts, what could possibly happen to us from an enemy? Neutral nations don’t seem to have enemies.
“We could do charitable things by sending supplies to other nations if they had a natural catastrophe such as an earthquake, fire, flood, or pestilence; but to forcibly try to alter their political systems? Not on your life! The CIA should be dismantled immediately. That nefarious organization has been responsible for much America caused mayhem around the world. Our State Department has been messing around in everyone’s business for far too long. Stay home, set a good example, and the world will follow. Try to force our will, and everyone will stub up just like they always have. Will we never learn? Why should a politician be afraid to run on a neutrality platform?”
Don Stott
don@coloradogold.com