Wednesday, September 21, 2011

On Entangling Alliances, Israel, the Constitution, and Treaties

I’ve never given it much thought but it turns out that the nation of Israel is not an official ally of the United States.  I suppose I just assumed that they were our ally and that we had signed a treaty with them at some point in the past.  Apparently, that was a bad assumption on my part.

What do I mean by “official ally”?  Simple: we have never formalized our alliance with Israel via some kind of treaty that was signed by the President and approved by the Senate as outlined in the United States Constitution.

Sadly, we do have an ally in Turkey, who is part of the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance.  Now, I am no expert of the NATO charter, but right now there seems to be a leader in Turkey who could initiate hostile actions against Israel.  While I do not think he will, since I believe that both diplomatic pressure from the pro-Israel State Department and threats of nuclear retaliation from Israel herself will deter him, this does perfectly describe the whole notion of entangling alliances.

If you ask me, I think we have too many military alliances in that we should have no military alliances with any foreign nation.  In fact, we should probably no economic alliances either and just permit companies to trade with foreign nations and companies as they see fit without our interference.  If foreign governments prevent it, let them do it.  It is their right as a sovereign nation, after all.

Since we have no official alliance with Israel, I am beginning to seriously question our relationship with Israel.  Given that they have enough firepower to wipe out all their enemies, should a serious war come about, I do not think it is wise for us to get involved in their conflicts anymore.  I believe we should instead become more neutral in their conflicts and merely uphold all parties involved to any agreements that are currently in effect.

On a side note, I do not believe that any treaties the United States government has signed should override any part of the United States Constitution.  While there is a section that states that the Constitution is the law of the land along with any treaties, I believe that it even trumps any treaty agreements.  But should go without saying among even most conservative warmongers.

In any case, I believe it high time we took a long, hard look at our foreign policies we have instituted and upheld over the past century and consider what we have gained.  From my perspective, we have only gained war heroes and world-wide hatred.