Nick Gillespie: After Decades of Failure, Let's Try a Libertarian Foreign Policy

As Dick Cheney, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and others who oversaw America's disastrous foreign policy in the 21st century attack anyone who suggests things haven't gone well, Nick Gillespie asks: "What would be a better foreign policy than what we've seen over the past 14 or so years?"

It's tempting to say, Anything, anything at all. Certainly, at least this much makes immediate sense: The United States should in fact withdraw militarily for good from Iraq and Afghanistan, especially if those countries' governments implore us to do so. And there are allies in both regions that we should continue to support not just morally, but materially and militarily.

All large-scale and long-term military engagements should actually be put to a specific congressional vote as dictated both by the Constitution and by common sense. The use of military force should be governed not by a set of infinitely expandable terms such as ensuring human rights and expanding democracy, but far narrower and less grandiose ideals of national defense.