Tanner Smith is a freshman communication and political science major at MU. He is an opinion columnist who writes about politics and other current events for The Maneater.
When you look at the last 200 years of American foreign policy, it is dictated by constant intervention. Whether that be the massive political influence in Latin America or the modern day military presence in Afghanistan, America has a long history of sticking its nose in places it doesn’t belong.
Starting in 1823, The Monroe Doctrine was implemented, allowing U.S. policy toward intervention to take shape. Lines like “we should consider any attempt on their [European parties] part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety,” can be found in the Monroe Doctrine, and help to establish the U.S. as the ultimate watchdog of other nations.
This approach has been repeated throughout history. There is a reason some publications like the Milwaukee Independent dub the current conflict as the “never-ending Afghan War.”
NPR notes intervention has been around for almost the entire time the U.S. has been a nation. However, post-WWII imperialism, which was originally meant to expand territory and expand the country’s role as a global “watchdog,” is especially important to focus on because it reflects our current situation.
A prominent example of this is the Vietnam War, which led to large protests the Milwaukee Independent described as being “in the streets of this country by an antiwar movement that came to include significant numbers of active-duty soldiers and veterans.”
Although there was much civil unrest, the U.S. continued to try and push its agenda abroad, leading to this feeling of never-ending war.
But, why did the U.S. feel the urge to get involved in these conflicts in the first place? While the idea of helping other countries is admirable, the practical application of the Monroe Doctrine (and other interventionist foreign policy for that matter) has been used as an excuse to promote self-serving reasons. In many cases, it all boils down to oil.
According to the Global Observatory, they “found that oil production and known oil reserves are central factors motivating third-party military interventions. More specifically, we demonstrated that the higher the quantities of oil produced and/or owned by a country at civil war, the higher the likelihood of third-party intervention.”
Whether that be Venezuela, Afghanistan or any number of other countries, the “war on terror” or war for oil has often been a guise to justify costly interventions.
In fact, when it comes specifically to our current intervention in Afghanistan, the war quickly veered off its intended mission. While the intervention was originally about getting justice for the victims of 9/11 by capturing Osama bin Laden, according to Vox, “a sort of new justification had to be invented” to justify “extending American military bases” at the cost of thousands of U.S. soldiers.
And for what? The situation today is no better than 20 years ago.
Even President Joe Biden has agreed that it is important to stop “fighting this war indefinitely” and leave it “up to Afghans to make the decision about the future of their country.”
It’s tempting to continue on, but it simply is not practical. While people like Minority Leader of the Senate Mitch McConnell will refer to this exit as “botched” or “one of the worst foreign policy decisions in American history,” this kind of rhetoric is inevitable. The president that took the U.S. out of Afghanistan was going to face criticism, but that criticism doesn’t mean that it is the wrong decision.
That is why it is vital to stop; not just in Afghanistan but around the globe. U.S. intervention and imperialism, according to the Watson Institute, has led to the death of “335,000 civilians” and has led to more than “38 million people” being displaced from their homes since 2001.
I’m in no way saying pulling back is going to be easy. I’m not even going to say that it won’t be without bloodshed. But the damage we do by continuing to get involved in affairs we have no business in is simply inexcusable.
It’s time to walk away.
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Edited by Sarah Rubinstein, srubinstein@themaneater.com
