New Campaign: Become an Engager!

Tell Congress you want cultural engagement, not military isolationism. Retweet

In our most recent messages, we presented a thought-provoking article. In Why Non-Interventionism is NOT sufficient, Jim Babka argues that libertarians (and others) should…

De-emphasize or completely reject the terms non-intervention and non-interventionism, and should instead… 

Embrace regime change, through cultural engagement rather than military violence

Adopt the self-description engager in place of the label “non-interventionist,” especially since the militarists are so eager to place the false tag “isolationist” on us

Now, we have a new Congressional lobbying campaign designed to support this view. The hardwired letter to Congress for this campaign reads…

End all military saber rattling. Promote cultural engagement instead.

Remember, you no longer have to copy and paste our sample letters. You can go to our site, RIGHT NOW, and send the letter that’s there, mix-in your own words, or replace it entirely. [Note: Text-formatting and links, in the letter, are provided for your benefit. Congressional forms do not permit any HTML. On our site, we’ve correctly formatted the letter for you.]

Here’s the letter…

We must come to realize that military violence…

• Has a bad track record
• Is NOT a form of relationship
• Isolates us from the countries we attack
• Puts us at odds with whole populations when, often, it’s only the leaders we oppose
• Tends to create more enemies than it eliminates
• Should be the last resort, not the first, second, or even third option

Said differently…

Military aggression is inherently isolationist. It isolates us from other countries.

Most importantly, Congress and the President must understand that our culture, not our military, is our greatest weapon. For instance…

• The Iranian people love American culture. You could even say that they love us for our freedoms. Meanwhile…
• Some of Iran’s rulers hate us largely because their people find our culture appealing.

We should try to…

• Undermine the Iranian regime by widening this gulf between the Iranian people and their leaders
• Persuade Iran’s leaders to reform

Both goals can only be achieved through cultural engagement, not military violence. Military violence will have the opposite result. It will turn the Iranian people against us. The same can be said of Russia, North Korea, and every country against which our politicians have taken a hostile military stance.

There are multiple ways we can replace military isolationism with cultural engagement…

End all embargoes and sanctions. They’re ineffective. They impede cultural and diplomatic engagement. They hurt innocent citizens on both sides more than they impact political leaders.

End trade barriers. Do this unilaterally. Every step that increases cultural contact enhances our natural cultural advantage. We’ll also benefit from the increased trade even if other countries don’t lower their barriers too. Our culture and free-trade approach will prevail in the long run.

Ease travel restrictions. The free flow of people means the free flow of culture. Our culture will win where it has the advantage, and grow where we have things to learn. We must not cower and hide in fear from foreign influence. That’s a sign of weakness, decadence, and decline. We have little to fear and much to gain by fostering human movement.

Expand diplomatic persuasion. Place the focus on the word persuasion. Stop viewing diplomacy as a game of carrots and sticks. Don’t look for ways to punish so as to gain concessions. Look to inspire instead. Don’t be discouraged by initial rejection. Stay the course. Constantly ask for reforms that will expand cultural engagement. Sell the benefits of engagement.

End aggressive actions and rhetoric. It cannot be stressed often enough that military violence is isolationist. It must only be used in the direst cases, and even then with great caution and skepticism.

— END OF SAMPLE LETTER–

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Thanks for being an ACTIVE DC Downsizer,

Perry Willis
Downsize DC

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