"Alliances as Transmission Belts of War"

by Doug Bandow, Campaignforliberty.com.

It’s been a year since Georgia and Russia went to war. Both sides deserved more than a little blame. But the U.S. and most European governments lined up behind Tbilisi. They now have been embarrassed by the release of a report from the European Union blaming Georgia for firing the first shot. That is, the West backed the aggressor in an unnecessary war. The episode should serve as a caution before Washington again ties American security to alliances, which are as likely to serve as transmission belts of war as firebreaks to war.

The U.S. once avoided making permanent alliances. The American colonies accepted French support to win their independence, but the infant nation backed away from Paris when the latter was convulsed by revolutionary terror and Napoleonic dictatorship a few years later.

On leaving office George Washington advised his fellow citizens in his famous Farewell Address: "The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible"...

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