The best foreign policy is one whereby ordinary people are free to do do ordinary things. Interaction with foreign countries includes visiting, buying and selling goods and services, and participating in other normal activities which can occur on a daily basis. For the most part the government cannot enhance it, nor should it try to. This is fundamentally why I favor a limited foreign policy.

When we were attacked on 9-11, the American people were rightly united behind the president's efforts to go after Osama Bin Laden. Since then our military has pummeled Afghanistan, blowing up every cave and suspected hideout.

Few seem to want to admit that Bin Laden is probably dead. No verifiable sighting has occurred since December 2001; moreover, he was rumored to be on kidney dialysis. If the bombs did not get him, his own frail health likely did. It is time to consider it mission accomplished and get out of the costly and ultimately futile attempt at nation-building in a country that has not been able to maintain a stable government. We should bring this to an expeditious conclusion and let the Afghans decide their own way.

As in Afghanistan, our mission in Iraq has been accomplished; thus, it is time to bring our troops home. The transition to local governance is never easy, so there is little value in postponing it. Ready or not, it is time for the Iraqi people to decide their own fate.

We should also take a long, hard look at our troops scattered all over the world more than half a century since the ends of WWII and the Korean Wars. By and large, the nations we are protecting are not poor nations lacking the resources to defend themselves. Japan is the world's fourth largest economy, and South Korea's economy is in excess of 30 times that of their northern neighbor, while Europe collectively (the EU specifically) now possesses an economy slightly larger than that of the US.

We do not need bases and troops all over the world to defend ourselves. Our greatest strength, our greatest means of defense, comes simply from our economy. So long as we make sound economic decisions, there will be no one to rival us militarily. If we do not, troops and bases all around the world will not save us.

We should heed George Washington's advice to beware of foreign entanglements.

To clarify my position, there are those who believe preemptive uses of force are required in defending our nation. I am not one of them. There are also those defeatists who blame America for minor transgressions rather than its enemies for major ones. I am not one of them, either. I believe there is a sane middle ground, where we will not be the initiators of force but, at the same time, we hold firm resolve to defend ourselves if it truly becomes necessary.

It needs to be pointed out that we have put ourselves in a precarious position with the prisoners held in Guantanamo. In many cases they are terrorists, who may well go free due to their uncertain status as a consequence of Congress's not having made a formal declaration of war as called for in the Constitution. This is, of course, further compounded by the bumbling of the current administration on this issue.

Economic sanctions are simply another form of preemptive force and tantamount to an act of war. They have never worked, nor will they now with Iran. As Frederic Bastiat allegedly said, If goods don't cross borders, soldiers will. Sanctions against Iran will never force them into submission. It will only further antagonize them and give them even less motivation to pursue a more mutually beneficial relationship.

In his farewell address President Eisenhower cautioned us to guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. Today in Iraq we hand out no-bid, billion-dollar contracts to contractors who then spend millions of dollars lobbying to keep the pipeline flowing. This pernicious, vicious cycle must stop.

By having a non-interventionist policy, by having peaceful, friendly relations with those who wish to trade with us, by refusing to interfere with other nations' internal affairs, by withdrawing from the despotically-controlled U.N., and by securing our wide-open borders, we will begin to fulfill our obligation, our duty, both to secure our nation and to manage it in a fiscally responsible manner for our children and our children's children, resulting in a better, safer, and more prosperous world in which to live.