In stark contrast to the foreign policy of the United States, which is thoroughly grounded in the principles of full spectrum dominance and imperial overstretch, stands the foreign policy of four small European nations which are committed to political neutrality ? Austria, Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland. In addition to their opposition to war, these democratic, nonviolent, affluent, socially responsible, cooperative, egalitarian, ecofriendly countries share a high degree of environmental integrity and a strong sense of community.
The United States, on the other hand, has over 1.6 million troops on active military duty stationed at over 1,000 bases in 153 countries. The combined active military force of the four neutral nations amounts to only 85,000 troops. The U.S. has nearly 80,000 troops stationed in Europe alone, not to mention 36,000 in Japan and nearly 30,000 in South Korea. Currently the U.S. is engaged in illegal wars in four Muslim countries — Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Pakistan. It also provides unconditional military support for the Likud government of Israel in its war against the Palestinians. Last, but by no means least, it promotes a highly racist war on terrorism aimed squarely at Muslims.
Switzerland has not been involved in a foreign war since 1515, and although it is heavily armed, it has remained neutral since 1815. It has never been part of a larger empire. Sweden became neutral in 1814.
Swiss foreign policy is based on four premises: (1) Switzerland will never initiate a war. (2) It will never enter a war on the side of a warring party. (3) It will never side in any way with one warring party against another. (4) It will vigorously defend itself against outside attack.
According to the Swiss constitution, every Swiss male is obligated to do military service; women are also accepted into the military service on a voluntary basis but are not drafted. In case of an attack on the country several hundred thousand men and women can be mobilized within a few days.
Although Austria, Finland, and Sweden are not members of NATO, they are members of the United Nations and the European Union. Even though Geneva is the home to many agencies of the U.N., Switzerland did not join the U.N. until 2002. Although the Swiss do trade extensively with member nations of the E.U., the Swiss citizenry has consistently rejected membership in the E.U., even though the Berne government favors membership.
However, neutrality does not mean non-involvement. Although the U.S. has the largest economy in the world, each of the aforementioned nations is ranked in the top twenty countries in terms of per capita income and each contributes a higher percentage of its Gross National Income to foreign aid than does the U.S.
In addition to the dozen or so neutral countries of the world, there are over twenty countries without armed forces. They include Liechtenstein and Costa Rica, the latter of which abolished its army and became neutral in 1949. Most of the other such countries are small island nations scattered throughout the world.
Under the doctrine of full spectrum dominance, the Pentagon claims the right to engage in pre-emptive military strikes against any country in the world which it considers to be a threat to our national security. This policy is based on two aphorisms ? “might makes right” and “just be like us.”
The Pentagon can send its high-tech instruments of death ? B-2 bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and unmanned drone aircraft ? anywhere in the world it wants to spread death and destruction, all in the name of freedom, democracy, and humanitarian concern.
The objective of the Pentagon, says F. William Engdahl, is not only to take control of the entire planet but the universe as well including land, sea, air, space, outer space and cyberspace. At the root of all military encounters is the control of global supplies of oil, natural gas, minerals, other natural resources, and related pipelines and the prevention of these supplies from falling into the hands of the Chinese and the Russians. Anyone who pretends that “peak oil” is not a problem should take a long, hard look at American foreign policy. It’s all about oil!
To facilitate regime change in country after country the Pentagon gameplan calls for the use of propaganda and media control, the Internet and social networks, complicit NGOs, and so-called Color Revolutions such as Georgia’s Rose Revolution, Ukraine’s Orange Revolution, Tibet’s Crimson Revolution, and Myanmar’s Saffron Revolution. What has been happening during the Arab Spring in North Africa and the Middle East appears to be more of the same. Basically the idea is to make carefully controlled, sophisticated regime change plots appear as spontaneous democratic revolutions. The Iranian demonstrations in 2009 were a case in point.
As further evidence of America’s policy of full spectrum dominance, the White House supports surrounding Russia with an anti-missile defense system, expanding membership in NATO, and demonizing and isolating North Korea and Iran. Not a pretty picture.
As Congressional gridlock continues to play out over the issue of the 2012 budget, few Democratic or Republican lawmakers seem to have the stomach to challenge the military-industrial complex lobby over the trillion-dollar military defense/national security budget. For how much longer can we afford to play the role of the world’s policeman? Is there no limit as to how much we are prepared to spend on the highly contrived war on terror?
Even though World War II ended in 1945 and the Cold War ended in 1991 with the implosion of the Soviet Union, we continue to have tens of thousands of troops stationed in Europe, Japan, and South Korea. Why? Why too do we continue to stockpile nuclear weapons and every other conceivable form of weapon of mass destruction? Towards what end?
America needs a new paradigm ? an alternative to its obsessive compulsive attraction to unlimited military might. Maybe it’s high time we examine the nonviolent neutrality of small countries like Sweden and Switzerland? Why do we always feel compelled to exercise the military option?
We need a big military defense budget, so the story goes, because we are a big country with vast strategic resources, many big cities, dozens of military bass, hundreds of defense contractors, and thousands of high-tech weapons, all of which must be protected. The more we spend on military defense the more we need to spend in the future protecting what we already have. This type of perverse, self-fulfilling logic enabled the U.S. to justify spending $13 trillion dollars on the Cold War. Today the war on terror is used to drive up the defense budget in much the same way which the Cold War did for nearly a half century.
Perhaps the military budget is so big because the country itself is too big? Maybe we should consider the possibility of downsizing the USA as well as its military? Both the American people and the rest of the world might benefit from the experience. Towards that end we should:
End the illegal wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Pakistan immediately.
Remove all American troops from Europe, Japan, and South Korea and close all but 100 of the American military bases scattered throughout the world.
Shut down NATO.
Not only encourage Iran and North Korea to shelve their nuclear weapons programs but insist that China, England, France, India, Israel, and Pakistan do the same, not to mention ourselves.
Terminate the missile defense program.
Discontinue all economic and military aid to Israel.
Cease being the arms merchant of North Africa and the Middle East.
Close the Guantanamo prison now.
End the embargo against Cuba.
Repeal the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act.
Reduce military spending to $200 billion annually.
Replace the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State with people who embrace peace, not war. (Leon Panetta is not such a person.)
Above all, we should recall what economist Leopold Kohr said about military power in his book The Breakdown of Nations:
For whenever a nation becomes large enough to accumulate the critical mass of power, it will in the end accumulate it. And when it has acquired it, it will become an aggressor, its previous record and intentions to the contrary notwithstanding.
Thomas H. Naylor is Founder of the Second Vermont Republic and Professor Emeritus of Economics at Duke University. His books include: Downsizing the U.S.A., Affluenza, The Search for Meaning and The Abandoned Generation: Rethinking Higher Education
