America must defend her vital national interests and be eternally grateful to those who put their very lives on the line – many of whom have given their lives – for their country.

You don’t have to visit Arlington National Cemetery to pay respects to such heroes.

You can, for example, visit a soldiers’ circle in a local cemetery any day, not just Memorial Day or Veterans’ Day.

It doesn’t follow, however, from this gratitude or this respect that every conceivable exercise of American military power – past or present – was or is unquestionably wise.

Under the Weinberger Doctrine, named for Caspar Weinberger, defense secretary during the Reagan administration, America should exercise military power only:

¯ To protect vital national interests.

¯ With sufficient force to win.

¯ With clearly defined goals.

¯ When reassessment can occur.

¯ When public opinion is behind the mission, and

¯ As a last resort.

Please notice the key word in the first point. The national interests must be vital, not just important.

No country, including the United States, has a vital national interest in what happens in every other country, much less on every piece of ground, around the world.

Nor, notwithstanding American exceptionalism, should the American form of government be the sole role model for all the world.

Nevertheless, since the victory in the war that for this country began eight decades ago – so long ago that those who remember it are past age 85 – some Americans from both major political parties have (1) frequently advocated employing American military power abroad and (2) believed America can successfully transplant substantial aspects of American-like government into countries lacking the traditions that informed the American founding.

As for (1): Do many horrible tragedies occur elsewhere? Yes, indeed, they do. Yet it doesn’t follow that it’s the role of the United States to shed its blood and plunder its treasure to solve horrible tragedy after horrible tragedy elsewhere. Much less does it follow that the United States should be the principal source of such blood and treasure.

To put it less delicately, not every mess is America’s to clean up. The United States spent much of the 20th century cleaning up others’ messes when, unlike, for example, in World Wars I and II, there was neither an attack, a threat of an attack, nor a declaration of war on the United States or an ally. History can assess which were justifiable under the Weinberger Doctrine. Yet altogether, the cost in lives and dollars was great.

One recent president was right to tell other countries that if the United States is going to come to bat, they must do so proportionally.

Given all of this, why over the decades have some of those in power in Washington – from both major political parties – conducted themselves as if it were the role of the United States to be the world’s police department?

The answer for some of them is their belief in (2): Such transplants.

As for (2): It shouldn’t be hard to appreciate that such transplants are at best difficult.

The American Constitution – with its roots in Western culture, and based as it is upon centuries of Western experience, sometimes painful experience – is a prescription the founders wrote particularly for America. Ingenious though it remains, the founders’ work had some serious flaws – primarily slavery, the consequences of which we continue to address.

While that doesn’t mean that America is fundamentally flawed, that America can’t help other countries, or that countries lacking Western heritage can’t have representative government, it does mean, among other things, that a little humility is in order.

Besides, does America really aspire in effect to be a colonial power, with all of its costs in blood and treasure?

Or does America instead aspire to defend her vital national interests while exercising a little humility?

All of this and more just might be something for those who go to work at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, on Capitol Hill, or nearby to think through carefully.

Randy Elf joins those who believe a little humility is in order.

ç 2022 BY RANDY ELF