No Entangling Alliances

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Assuming that America can avoid a nuclear war with Russia, the American people would be well-served to ponder and reflect on some of the good founding principles of our country. One of those good founding principles was “no entangling alliances.”

It would be difficult to find a better example of an entangling alliance than NATO, which is really nothing more than a Cold War dinosaur. Having been called into existence as part of the U.S. national-security establishment’s Cold War racket, it should have gone out of existence at the ostensible end of the Cold War. 

Instead, not only was it kept in existence, it actually became the root cause of the current crisis in Ukraine. That’s because it continued moving eastward, absorbing former members of the Warsaw Pact and ultimately threatening to absorb Ukraine, knowing full well that Russia had made it very clear that it would never permit U.S. military bases, missiles, troops, tanks, and other weaponry to be established on its border, just as the Pentagon would never permit Russian military bases, missiles, tanks, troops, and weaponry to be established in Cuba or along the Mexico-U.S. border.

By now, every American should be aware of the dangers surrounding America’s involvement in NATO. If Russia attacks any of the Eastern European countries that are furnishing weapons to Ukraine, that means that the United States and Russia are now automatically at war with one another. That’s because the entangling alliance with NATO automatically commits the United States to go to war with any nation that attacks any other member of NATO.

Once the United States and Russia are in a state of war, the chances of the war going nuclear expand exponentially. That’s because it is in the interests of each nation to unleash its nuclear weapons first in the hope of disabling the other nation’s nuclear capability as much as possible.

As John Quincy Adams put it in his famous speech, “In Search of Monsters to Destroy,” Europe has always been besieged with wars. The United States, he said, is in a unique position given that the Atlantic Ocean stands between the U.S. and Europe. Therefore, he counseled, the United States should continue staying out of Europe’s incessant conflicts and instead devote ourselves to establishing a free, prosperous, peaceful and harmonious nation here at home. 

And yet, with NATO, it’s the exact opposite. In the event Russia or any other nation attacks Moldova, Poland, North Macedonia, or any other NATO member, the American people are now automatically at war. No national debate. No congressional declaration of war. No protests. Automatically at war, thanks to the Pentagon’s decision to entangle America in the old Cold War dinosaur NATO and, in the process, invite some 30 (yes, 30!) nations to join.

It’s time to get out. It’s time to make this Cold War dinosaur extinct. Our national well-being and perhaps even our very existence turn on returning to sound founding principles, especially “no entangling alliances.”

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Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. He was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and received his B.A. in economics from Virginia Military Institute and his law degree from the University of Texas. He was a trial attorney for twelve years in Texas. He also was an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas, where he taught law and economics. In 1987, Mr. Hornberger left the practice of law to become director of programs at the Foundation for Economic Education. He has advanced freedom and free markets on talk-radio stations all across the country as well as on Fox News’ Neil Cavuto and Greta van Susteren shows and he appeared as a regular commentator on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s show Freedom Watch. View these interviews at LewRockwell.com and from Full Context. Send him email.