Learning from Washington's Farewell Address

Today David Brooks has a column in the NY Times that discussed American involvement in foreign affairs around the world. How did we get this far into entanglements with the politics of other nations. George Washington would have been appalled. But Washington never met Hitler, Stalin or Mao. It might be time to rethink our need to be involved in every country's internal affairs. So I pulled up the Address on Google. I found the original version here:

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp

Lovely writing. I then found this Cliff Notes version on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington's_Farewell_Address#Foreign_relations_and_free_trade

Below are some summarized ideas relative to the establishment of political parties and advice on foreign relations from Wikipedia:


1.     Political Parties

Washington argues that “political parties must be restrained in a popularly elected government because of their tendency to distract the government from their duties, create unfounded jealousies among groups and regions, raise false alarms amongst the people, promote riots and insurrection, and provide foreign nations and interests access to the government where they can impose their will upon the country.”

2.     Foreign Relations

Washington advocates a policy of good faith and justice towards all nations, and urges the American people to avoid long-term friendly relations or rivalries with any nation. He argues these attachments and animosity toward nations will only cloud the government's judgment in its foreign policy. Washington argues that longstanding poor relations will only lead to unnecessary wars due to a tendency to blow minor offenses out of proportion when committed by nations viewed as enemies of the United States. He continues this argument by claiming that alliances are likely to draw the United States into wars which have no justification and no benefit to the country beyond simply defending the favored nation. Washington continues his warning on alliances by claiming that they often lead to poor relations with nations who feel that they are not being treated as well as America's allies, and threaten to influence the American government into making decisions based upon the will of their allies instead of the will of the American people.

It may be time for us as Americans to reevaluate our need to be a busy body with the rest of the world. To start minding our own business, we may have to examine what the political parties are stirring up.