Less Involvement Is More

Ted Carpenter, author of Smartpower, says that America needs to avoid military intervention.

Carpenter, Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies at the CATO Institute, advocates limiting America’s hegemony overseas and reducing military spending.

“The purpose of smart power is not just to examine certain problems and blunders but to diagnose what is wrong with America’s entire security strategy,” said Carpenter. “The problem is not just George W. Bush, although he has clearly made problems worse.”

Carpenter said that Bush and the media are just part of the problem. America is facing a long term national security issue, he argues. Carpenter advocates “a less risky more cost-effective approach.”

“[The U.S. has a] military budget of more than…500 billion dollars, and that does not take into account long term care for veterans,” said Carpenter. “That is as much as the rest of the world combined spends on military.”

Carpenter said that other countries spend about 30 to 60 billion dollars for military expenses, and China spends about 100 billion dollars.

“There is a huge gap of what the U.S. spends and other [countries] spend,” said Carpenter. “That’s the extra cost we pay for trying to manage the world.”

Carpenter said war should be a last resort.

“War is of first resort rather than last resort. The U.S. has used military on ten separate occasions since…the end of the Cold War in 1989,” said Carpenter. “When it comes to military force, we should use that only to defend the vital interests of Americans.”

Carpenter said that neither of the presidential candidates have the best foreign policy plans—especially John McCain, who has a “foreign policy for paranoids,” according to Carpenter.

“McCain could be more reckless than President Bush,” said Carpenter. “McCain has suggested that the U.S. consider bombing North Korea.”

Barack Obama advocates a “foreign policy based on defense of human dignity around the world,” according to Carpenter. He said that Obama’s policies could be just as detrimental to the U.S.

“Obama [would] try to cure the world’s ills and that is beyond [the] capability of a superpower,” said Carpenter. “The Constitution speaks of providing for the common defense; it does not speak of doing good deeds around the world.”

Furthermore, Carpenter claims that spending Americans’ tax dollars and sacrificing lives in the name of democracy is not worth the cost.

Steven Clemons, Director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation, claimed that America will spend more on the War in Iraq than Korea, the Cold War and the Vietnam War combined.

“The U.S. claims [the] right to dominate every section of every part of the globe,” said Clemons. “This intervention, meddlesome, tragedy has been part of the international scene throughout history. That has become the new American purpose.”

Carpenter said the key to success is less U.S. involvement in foreign countries.
“The U.S. has to do less, not more,” said Carpenter.

Melinda Zosh is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.