Libertarians revere the Founding Fathers and respect their wisdom to this day. Our first and third presidents gave stern instructions about the best way for America to deal with the rest of the world, and it is to our pain and sorrow that we have not followed their advice more fully.
When George Washington said goodbye to the Presidency in 1796, he said “It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.” Five years later, Thomas Jefferson was even more precise in his first inaugural address: “Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations–entangling alliances with none…”
The wisdom of the Founders is demonstrated by the Soviet Union’s Russia’s incursion in the Republic of Georgia over the weekend. Georgia almost became a member of NATO, an entangling alliance of the first order. If Georgia had become a member, the United States and the other European members would be obliged to defend the country militarily. Nineteen years after winning the Cold War, the US would be in a shooting war with Russia, the number two nuclear power on earth.
The Libertarian Party of (our) Georgia deplores Russia’s invasion of the Republic of Georgia. We notice that Prime Minister (and former KGB operative) Vladimir Putin, through his mouthpiece President Dmitri Medvedev, is using the same rationale for his invasion of Georgia as Adolph Hitler used for threatening the Sudetenland: there are a lot of Russians in that Georgia, they are endangered by the Georgian regime, and therefore Russia has a duty to invade a sovereign nation in order to protect their volk.
In 1938, Hitler demanded that the sovereign nation of Czechoslovakia cede its Sudeten section because of the large percentage of Germans living there. This was the occasion of Neville Chamberlain’s infamous “Peace in our time” meeting with Hitler that threw Czechoslovakia under the proverbial bus. History has shown that Hitler’s goal was European domination, and his demand for the Sudetenland was a test of England’s and France’s resolve in the run-up to World War II.
It is likely that Putin has nefarious goals in mind: perhaps the recreation of the Soviet Union; the control of oil and natural gas pipelines that run through Georgia and on which much of Europe is dependant; the capture of a new port on the Black Sea; or a greater ability to pressure Turkey, on Georgia’s southern border.
While the situation in the Republic of Georgia is grave, the Libertarian Party of (this) Georgia believes it is not an American problem. The United States is in no danger from Putin’s aggression. Europeans might have a dog in this fight, but that is for them to work out. Washington and Jefferson warned us not to get involved in such things. At a time when Americans are challenging the morality of our war in Iraq, there should be no possibility of American intervention in the Republic of Georgia.
The Libertarian Party of Georgia cannot resist pointing out the worthlessness of the United Nations at a time like this. The old parties’ Presidential candidates are thundering for UN intervention, seemingly ignorant of Russia’s position as a permanent member of the (in)Security Council and its certain veto of any resolution. There is absolutely nothing that the UN is capable of doing to restrain Russia or help the Republic of Georgia; to think otherwise is to live in a fantasyland. Parents know a truism of raising children: if you set rules but do not enforce them, you are teaching your kids to ignore you. As it is with children, so it is with nations; meaningless threats display impotence and irrelevance. We are seeing that for the umpteenth time from the United Nations.
The fighting between Russia and the Republic of Georgia is bad. All war is bad (although some wars are necessary). But not all war is America’s responsibility, either as perpetrator or defender. The Libertarian Party of this Georgia roots for the Georgian republic, but we urge America to avoid any military action. To quote the Godfather of the Libertarian Party, Thomas Jefferson, “Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations–entangling alliances with none…”
