On December 2nd, 1823, what became known as the Monroe Doctrine was declared by President James Monroe to Congress outlining a foreign policy initiative that forbade European interference in the American hemisphere but also asserted U.S. neutrality in regard to future European conflicts.
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Michael Z. Williamson (our Editor At Large) is a prolific science fiction writer and anthologist. His latest anthology, Freehold: Resistance, will be released tomorrow, December 3, 2019. It will be available both in paperback and Kindle formats. I’m confident that it will be greatly enjoyed by sci-fi fans as well as by anyone interested in resistance warfare. There is some coarse language, so this anthology is not for kids.
I plan to post a full review of this book once I’ve completed reading it, in a few days.
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Today, another product review from our Field Gear Editor, Pat Cascio. But first, here are the results of the writing contest judging for Round 85 of the SurvivalBlog Nonfiction Writing Contest.
The Monroe Doctrine: It’s really too bad we haven’t followed the doctrine. Even Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov confronted Mike Pompeo about the US trying to impose the doctrine where Venezuela is concerned but failing to follow what is actually the most important part of the Monroe Doctrine, American neutrality in Europe, the middle east, or any place else in the world.
We’re not supposed to be taking sides in European affairs, middle eastern affairs, Asian affairs. or the internal squabbles within Islam or any other religion. Our very unwise leaders have chosen to support Sunni Islam as opposed to Shia Islam. Yet it’s the Sunnis, lead by Saudi Arabia, our “ally?”, who have been the most aggressive against the United States.
Our foreign policy is supposed to be a jealously guarded, vigorously defended, powerfully enforced neutrality. We are also not supposed to be meddling in the internal affairs of any country in the western hemisphere, including Venezuela and now Bolivia (yes we staged the recent coup d’etat against Evo Morales).
One of these days, all this meddling is going to backfire and America is going to get bitten in the rear end, REAL HARD.
Charles K., I so agree with you. This United States has meddled in the economic and political affairs of our southern neighbors so many times in the last century. In so doing, we have eroded the farm and business economies of El Salvador, Guatamala, and Nicaragua among others. In the absence of a reliable way to support themselves, some people in these countries have formed gangs for mutual protection. Others, refusing the criminal life, have reluctantly chosen to leave their homes. No longer able to support or protect their families, they head north to where they have heard there is safety and prosperity.
In a bitter irony, they are part of the “illegal immigrant problem”. People don’t come to our country to steal from us or sponge off our welfare system. They, like most of us, would prefer to stay with extended family and community. They would prefer to work at what they are good at and raise a healthy family.
And, they, like many of our SB commenters counsel California and Connecticut residents have “voted with their feet”. Do we really think people from the tropics enjoy coming to a land that has serious winter? Sure, many settle in California and Texas. I bet you would, too. At the same time, look in the cold states, notice how many immigrants are working in meat processing plants (work I doubt any of us would choose) or roofing our houses, mine included.
Our Monroe Doctrine-violating policies have led to this. Spanish-speaking people among us. We cannot put the genie back in the bottle. What do we do now?
I leave you with this quote:
“The most fundamental purpose of government is defense, not empire.” – Joseph Sobran
Carry on
“There is some coarse language, so this anthology is not for kids.”
I would argue that it is probably not for adults then either. We seem to tolerate this age-based bifurcation on coarse language use but the Bible clearly instructs believer to be pure, holy, and to abstain from coarseness. Take a stand and reject compromise!