Intervention Ensures Security
by Nate Jamison
The history of the United States is rife with accounts of wars and other military actions. National defense is a major
function of the government and billions of dollars are spent each year to maintain armed forces, ready at a moment's
notice to intervene
anywhere in the world. There has not been an armed attack on the United States since the Japanese invasion of Pearl
Harbor in 1941, yet the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps still employ thousands of people and
maintain a constant sta
te of readiness at an enormous expense to the federal government. They have been involved in several armed conflicts
throughout history, each one costing not only dollars but also human life, both military and civilian.
Due to its physical geography and the relative weakness of Canada and Mexico the United
States is
essentially an island nation that shares no borders with nations that presently are hostile or have the potential to
become so, there seems t
o be little reason for the United States to maintain such a large active military and to engage in military operations
throughout the globe. Yet, in order to maintain its present position as a global economic and political superpower and
to prevent the ou
tbreak of large-scale wars as belligerent nations seek to expand their territory, the United States must maintain a
well-trained, motivated military to exert force unilaterally wherever it is necessary.
For the first 100 years of its history, the United States was generally isolated from the affairs of the major
European
powers and their never-ending conflicts. The only military actions in which the United States engaged were those that
directly affected
its territorial integrity, such as the War of 1812. During this time, isolationism was a viable alternative since the
combined effect of limited weapons technology and the vast expanse of the oceans separating the United States from the
European and Asia
n powers made military action against the United States a highly impractical undertaking at best. It was also very
unlikely that a European country would even have the resources to turn its attention towards the Western Hemisphere given
the delicate balan
ce of power in Europe with England, France, Germany, Russia, and to a lesser extent, Spain and the Netherlands, constantly
engaging in various wars and skirmishes over territory.
At the end of the nineteenth century, the United States began to involve itself in world affairs. In 1898, the
United
States sided with Cuban rebels in their revolt against Spain, which led to the Spanish-American War, the result of which
left the United
States in possession of several territories throughout the world including Puerto Rico, The Philippines, and Guam. From
that point onward, the United States has been a major player in world political and military affairs.
When Imperial Germany began to exhibit aspirations of dominance over Europe, the United States initially stayed
neutral,
but after the assassination of Serbian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 led to the out break of World War I and the
resulting stalemat
e along the Western Front in France, the United States entered the war, sending an American Expeditionary Force to France
in 1917.
When Germany resumed its territorial aspirations again in the late 1930s, this time in concert with an emergent Japan
desperate for natural resources, the United States again became involved in the conflict, even before the Japanese
invasion of Pearl Harb
or. The United States formally entered World War II in 1941 after having aided the Allied cause both publicly and
covertly. In both World Wars, the United States was justified in entering what was essentially a foreign conflict in
order to thwart the Germ
an and Japanese advance before they could gain steam. Had Germany and Japan been victorious in Europe and Asia - a
likely
occurrence had America not entered the war - then they would have had both the resources and, given their dominance
of the
continent,
the freedom to attack the United States itself. Had the United States not entered the fray in Europe and the Western
Pacific, then the frontlines could quite possibly have been the East and West Coasts of the United States.
The postwar era, the United States and the Soviet Union were the two dominant superpowers. Again, in order to
prevent
Soviet expansion, the United States, as the dominant Western power, was justified in maintaining a significant military
presence in Europ
e and Eastern Asia, as well as a significant naval presence throughout the world, to contain the Soviet Union and prevent
it from expanding its influence and power.
Even with the demise of the Soviet Union, the United States should still maintain a sufficient military in
order to
prevent nations intent on territorial expansion, such as Iraq, or sponsoring terrorist activity, such as Libya, from
acquiring enough terri
tory and resources to threaten the security of the United States or its allies throughout the world.
The goal of United States foreign policy should then be to prevent belligerent nations from acquiring the
resources and
territory to become a major hostile power. The best way to accomplish this is through the unilateral application of
military and diplom
atic force towards a specific goal, e.g. the liberation of Kuwait. The current trend of multilateral, United
Nations-sponsored peacekeeping efforts is not the proper role for the United States military. The United States should
only involve itself in fore
ign affairs when it chooses to, namely to prevent the possibility that a hostile nation achieve the position of being
able to threaten the United States. Put simply, the reason that the United States should maintain a strong military is to
ensure that the
frontlines of any possible war will be far from the United States itself. MR