END WARS & SUPPORT PEACE

My entire adult life, our nation has been at war somewhere in the world. I have friends and loved ones who have served, and come home with the visible and invisible scars of combat. I’ve seen them mourn their brothers and sisters who didn’t come home. I meet more and more anti-war veterans every day, and they know more than anyone about the cost of war. It’s time we focus our foreign policy on Peace. We should end our policy of sending drones around the world and instead foster international goodwill by defending free trade and free markets. Our nation has long had the moniker ‘leader of the free world.’ It is time we earn that distinction by insisting that Peace is the way forward. End the wars. End the drones. End the policy of constant intervention. It’s easy to drop a bomb, it’s much harder to serve as a beacon of Peace. We must take the more difficult but necessary path

• • Close all overseas bases and immediately return active-duty personnel to domestic bases. The cost savings of doing so will be used as a one-time contribution to discharge the interest on currently outstanding Federally guaranteed student loans.
  • End aid being directed to nation-states currently at war. This includes Israel and Ukraine. While we offer moral support to our friends currently engaged with the enemy, we should not be contributing to extending the fight.
  • With this said, I recognize that there are aggressors and victims in war.  I would allow private parties, including defense contractors, to voluntarily contribute funds and sell weapons to our friends without fear of violating any Federal laws.
  • If asked to act as a mediator, I would more than happily allow America to act as a mediator in negotiating a peace that ends the conflict without rewarding aggressing parties for bad behavior.
  • Utilize trade as a bargaining chip to foment peace with our neighbors.

END DISCRETIONARY MILITARY INTERVENTIONISM

No government authority shall exist to impose force on persons inside or outside the Nation without court order, declaration of war or urgent national defense. No authority shall exist for the government to declare war or to enter into any military alliance, mutual defense agreement or treaty obligating the use of force such as NATO and the UN, without Federal legislative approval, Federal executive approval and assent by two-thirds of the States. No such approval or assent shall be valid for longer than one year.

• • The government should only be engaged in conflicts with proper authorization and only to defend citizens of the United States and our allies when the legitimate interests of the American people are threatened.. 
  • Congress should regularly vote to reaffirm our long-standing commitments to our allies around the globe. This would result in frequent review and reassessments of these alliances, and their value to us.
  • It is important that our elected officials publicly support the alliances that the US is currently bound by, while at the same time retaining the autonomy to make decisions as a sovereign nation.  This would force politicians to publicly show their stances on the current state of US entanglements around the globe and would show our allies that we remain committed to them in times of crisis and peace.