A Word To America's Policy Makers From The Father Of Our Country

There's never been a better time for revisiting this wisdom.

ON SEPTEMBER 19, 1796, George Washington's farewell address was published as an open letter to the American public. Among much other wisdom, the man so universally respected by the Founders as to have been unanimously elected president of the convention that drafted our current United States Constitution made the following observations regarding prudent, productive, and liberty-protective foreign policy:

"...[N]othing is more essential, than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular Nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The Nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the Government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The Government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of Nations has been the victim.

"So likewise, a passionate attachment of one Nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite Nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite Nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the Nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained; and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens, (who devote themselves to the favorite nation,) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation."

WHAT DOES THIS SAY TO US (and especially to current denizens of Washington, DC)? Here's what:

Sh*t-can the bad attitude toward Russia and Iran, dammit, and fire anyone who harbors it!

Russia is a country whose people heroically threw off a deeply-embedded vicious totalitarian state not long ago (maybe this is why some folks hate it so much?). It is properly secular and tolerant of all faiths (while being more Christian than the USA has been for decades), has far lower taxes than those imposed by the United States and a much more lasseiz-faire regulatory demeanor, and has been doing everything possible to be a good neighbor to the rest of the world for many, many years. The United States should be doing everything possible to be its friend.

Iran, though a theocracy, is religiously and ethnically open (for example, Christianity is the fastest-growing religion in Iran right now; Sunnis Muslims live there alongside the Shi'ite majority; and Jews are a protected religious minority with expressly-reserved seats in Parliament). It has a long history of non-aggression, and has been relentlessly and viciously victimized by the United States over the last 65 years. We owe it our good behavior.

Sh*t-can the creepy mooning over Britain, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine, dammit, and fire anyone afflicted by it!

Britain for many years now has been a political and cultural embarrassment to Western civilization, and even before that had a long history of deception as a routine tool of "statecraft", lawless "might makes right" military aggressions, and basic unscrupulousness in regard to the rest of the world.

Israel and Saudi Arabia are apartheid-esque theocracies which have succeeded in establishing "Master-Blaster" relationships with the United States (with them in the "master" seat) by buying influence in Washington (often with money taken from Americans). Israel is aggressively, disruptively and unscrupulously expansionist; Saudi Arabia is the source of Wahabbist Islamic radicalism.

Both are responsible for endless Middle-East conflicts and abuses of poorly-defended victims; both have been eating meals taken from the tables of American citizens for decades; and both should be kept at arm's length rather than hugged so closely that we get their fleas.

Ukraine is a relatively new barnacle on the American ship of state, but is no more deserving of affectionate attachment than the rest while bringing into the picture a greater physical risk to our country and people than any of the others.

LET'S REMEMBER Washington's wisdom: NO OTHER COUNTRY'S INTERESTS ARE WORTH ONE DROP OF AMERICAN BLOOD, OR ONE DOLLAR OF AMERICAN TREASURE.

Their enemies are NOT our enemies, and their friends are NOT our friends, and this can't be evaded by any pretenses about "strategic" considerations.

America First, and that means not swaggering around the world creating pretexts for pissing away American treasure through hostile posturing-- or outright aggression-- against people who haven't invaded our shores.

Listen to Father George.