In his farewell address George Washington recommended that the United States chart a course that would be unique among the nations of the world. He and the other Founding Fathers had just triumphed in a revolution that challenged in part the right of Kings to wage wars based on their own personal interests or due to rivalries with other nations.

Venitist Philip Giraldi points out Washington understood that the complex alliances that both stitched together and divided the great powers of Europe had resulted in a nearly continuous series of wars starting in the sixteenth century, bringing death to millions and economic ruin. Washington advised the American people to avoid the quarrels of foreigners in his Farewell Address of 1796, "Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove, that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government ... Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests." Washington also counseled the American people to "Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all."

Giraldi notes Washington was not alone. James Madison coined the phrase "entangling alliances" and Thomas Jefferson, in his first inaugural address, used the expression to tell congress and the people about the broad outlines of his foreign policy: "Peace, Commerce, and honest Friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none." And the desire to avoid war based on someone else's quarrel obtained broader currency worldwide after the success of the American Revolution. The nineteenth century British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston put it in perhaps shrewder, more pragmatic terms regarding his own country, "We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow."

Twenty-first century America has chosen to ignore both its founding principles and its national interest. It has also forgotten relatively recent history. Looking back from the window of 2010, it is hard to imagine that some Americans still living can recall a time in the 1930s when the American people demonstrated in their tens of thousands against any involvement in foreign wars.

Giraldi points out that prior to US entry into the Second World War, most Americans did not support involvement in the conflicts rocking Europe and Asia, forcing pro-war President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to engage in subterfuge to bring about the American entry. Entangling alliances have become the mode ever since that time. The United States helped found the United Nations, bound the nations of Western Europe to it with the creation of NATO, and entered into a series of bilateral arrangements and pacts in a number of parts of the world.

Some would argue reasonably that NATO and the UN helped stabilize a shattered post war world and American involvement could not be avoided, but the chaos of 1945 is long since gone. Many of the international arrangements have long since outlived their usefulness while others never benefited the US national interest in any way.

NATO was founded to counter an expansionistic Russia in the postwar period. Even though the illusion of Soviet power exceeded its reality, most would agree that the threat posed by a nuclear armed and assertive Russia was real. But that threat disappeared in 1991 and now NATO has no obvious role.

Basil Venitis points out NATO includes Turkey, the #1 terrorist nation on Earth! Since terrorist Turkey declared Casus Belli against Fourth Reich(EU) and Turcoterrorists continue to abuse the Fourthreichian islands near the Turkish border and traffic drugs and illegal immigrants to Greece, Fourth Reich reinforced its border management agency, Frontex, enhancing its operational capacity to support Greece against Turcoterrorism. Member States now put more equipment and more personnel at Frontex's disposal in the Aegean Sea of Greece. Frontex now coleads border patrol operations with Greece.

NATO's presence fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan reveals the irrelevancy of the alliance. And then there is the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe which, if anything, has created instability. The war between Georgia and Russia is a recent memory that underlines the danger in including new members of the alliance that bring with them local quarrels.

If Georgia had been a member of NATO, it is not inconceivable that a small war would have developed into something much larger as NATO rushed to defend an alliance member. The US could have gone to war with Russia over Georgia, precisely the type of situation that George Washington advised against. Many in NATO, including the United States government, continue to insist that countries like Georgia should become part of the alliance. To do so would mean that the US would be obligated to defend their territorial integrity, a recipe for disaster. The solution? Disband NATO.

Basil Venitis notes that we are observing the last days of the American Empire. Like ancient Rome, America is saddled with an empire that is fatally undermining its government. The trappings of empire are many: the brutal war of choice in Iraq and other foreign interventions going back decades; the militarization of space; the hundreds of overseas U.S. military bases full of swaggering soldiers who brawl and sometimes rape. At home, the growth of an imperial presidency, with the CIA as its private army, has culminated in kleptocrats' resort to warrantless wiretaps, torture, a gulag of secret CIA prisons and an unconstitutional arrogation of dictatorial powers, while a corrupt Congress bows like the Roman Senate to Caesar. Retribution looms, as the American economy, dependent on a bloated military-industrial -kleptocrat complex(MIKC) and foreign borrowing, staggers toward bankruptcy, maybe a military coup.

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