For much more than a decade, Dr. Ron Paul has warned Americans about the danger inherent in a bipartisan foreign policy that intervenes in other peoples’ affairs, seeks to impose Western values on others, and writes blank-check commitments to fight for other countries in wars where no genuine U.S. national interest at risk. Dr. Paul often cites George Washington’s words in this regard, as our first president — and the greatest American — clearly, starkly and eloquently warned of the disasters awaiting the United States if its leaders engaged in an interventionist foreign policy and favored one nation over all the others.
Many Americans, I think, admire Dr. Paul for his position on foreign policy not only for its substance but also for the personal courage it takes for him to be consistent in the face of the constant slandering he encounters. Damned as an isolationist, an America-hater, a Pollyanna, and an anti-Semite, Dr. Paul perseveres, telling Americans that the road to their nation‘s destruction has been paved over the last 35 years by Republican and Democratic leaders — and their smarmy acolytes in the media, the lobbies, and the academy — who have unrelentingly intervened in other peoples’ business and thereby consistently involved America in wars in which it has no dog in the fight.
Today all Americans have a chance to look into the abyss President Washington and Dr. Paul have described and see the horror that lies just ahead in the coming war with Iran. Because of the U.S. government’s endless intervention in Israeli and Muslim affairs, America is positioned to be taken to war against Iran if Israel decides to attack the Islamic Republic. This week’s media stories that Israeli leaders will not warn President Obama and his lieutenants when they set the date for attacking Iran so as to give Obama “deniability” is fodder for fools. When Israel attacks Iran, 1.4 billion Muslims — Shia and Sunni alike — well be sure the United States gave Israel the green light, and the AIPAC-owned Congress will subsequently confirm that belief when it sanctions — as it did in the 2006 Israel-Hizballah war — the very public resupply of Israel with sophisticated U.S. ordnance intended to kill more Muslims.
So what will ignoring Dr. Paul and General Washington cost the United States? Well, four things come to mind.
First, the constitution is in part negated. The prime minister of Israel will decide when America goes to war with Iran, not, as the constitution requires, the U.S. Congress.
Second, it will transform Barack Obama from the commander-in-chief of the world’s greatest military power into a semi-catatonic automaton who — in his lust for reelection — obeys Israel’s prime minister and the campaign-funding leaders of the Jewish-American community and takes the United States to war against a nation which — save for our “alliance” with Israel — would be a marginal threat to us.
Third, as noted in this morning’s front-pages, Iran’s U.S.-based intelligence apparatus and that of its Hizballah ally will attack in the United States. These attacks will be carried out by Iran and Hizballah, but they will possible mainly because of the unconstitutional picking and choosing of which federal laws to enforce that has been done Obama and all other presidents in the last 30 years, an illegal practice that has left our borders open and — with millions of undocumented aliens in the country — our domestic security in a shambles.
Fourth, and needles to say, war with Iran will wreck the already foundering U.S. economy and usher in a lengthy war with the entire Muslim world.
With time short before Israel attacks Iran, what can be done to stop America’s slide to disaster? The answer, I fear, is not much, and what can be done, can only be done by Barack Obama. Still, American history has a precedent and it is Mr. Obama’s for the taking. That precedent was established by George Washington in 1793 when he declared America’s neutrality in the war between Britain and France, then officially America’s ally. (See, avalon.law.yale.edu/18thcentury/neutra93.asp).
In the eerie manner in which history often works, only minimal changes are needed in President Washington’s neutrality declaration to make it pertinent to today’s crisis. If he has any desire to defend U.S. independence, sovereignty, and prosperity, President Obama could issue the following statement:
A Proclamation of Neutrality 2012
Whereas is appears that a state of war exists between Israel, of the one part, and Iran on the other, and the duty and interest of the United States require, that they should with sincerity and good faith adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial toward the belligerent Powers.
I have therefore thought fit by these presents to declare the disposition of the United States to observe the conduct aforesaid towards those Powers respectfully; and to exhort and warn the citizens of the United States carefully to avoid all acts, and proceedings whatsoever, which may in any manner tend to contravene such disposition.
And I do hereby also make known, that whatsoever of the citizens of the United States shall render himself liable to punishment or forfeiture under the law of nations, by committing, aiding, or abetting hostilities against any of the said Powers, or by carrying to any of them those articles which are deemed contraband by the modern usage of nations, will not receive the protection of the United States, against such punishment or forfeiture; and further, that I have given instructions to those officers, to whom it belongs, to cause prosecutions to be instituted against all persons, who shall, within the cognizance of the courts of the United States, violate the law of nations, with respect to the Powers at war, or any of them.
In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand. Done at the city of Washington, D.C., the tenth day of March, two thousand and twelve, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-sixth.
Barack Obama March 10, 2012
So there is a way out — if Mr. Obama has a backbone, a desire to protect the United States, and any modicum of respect for the U.S. Constitution. The foregoing proclamation would defend U.S. interests without intervening in the affairs of either Israel or Iran; they can go to war and will find no U.S.-made obstacle in their way. In addition, such a proclamation by Obama would — at long last — unleash U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement agencies to legally smash not only Iran’s covert operations in America, but also Israel’s covert-action programs in the United States, programs that steal our military, economic, and technological secrets; suborn U.S. citizens to commit treason against their country; and benefit from the corrupt practices of a small, wealthy, and increasingly disloyal segment of the Jewish-American community that are administered through such agencies as AIPAC.
President Obama, then, has a chance to make history, and all he has to do is follow legitimate historical precedent and enforce the laws he swore to uphold. My guess is that there is not enough courage and patriotism in him to so act, and so he will go down in history not only as failed president, but as the president who listened neither to General Washington nor Dr. Paul and so confirmed the enslavement of 300 million Americans to the war-making lust of a foreign country, its leader, and and a small cabal of disloyal American citizens.
