U.S. involvement in foreign wars wrong

By Erik Hesla

War is hell. It threatens the livelihood of our families, friends and country. Lives are lost, and many survivors are left haunted by painful memories.

Humanity as a whole seems to lose a part of itself -- our conscience perhaps -- whenever we fight a war. This seems to explain why we would create nuclear weapons capable of wiping out entire cities or why some have assured themselves that killing civilians is a legitimate military tactic.

It scares me to think that we are capable of such reckless, destructive ferocity.

War clearly should be avoided at all costs.

Yet, I find it ironic that as a nation we constantly involve ourselves in the politics and wars of many other nations around the world. We have intervened in many countries including Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, Panama, Yugoslavia, Kosovo and now Iraq. Yet in all of these cases, there was neither a formal declaration of war by Congress nor a direct threat of homeland invasion. Rather, the United States has engaged in these wars to protect our "interests" and promote, at the point of a gun, our democratic ideals and ways of life.

And now, amidst our all-encompassing "War on Terrorism," there has been yet another similar U.S. intervention. But this one has been conducted silently.

On Christmas Eve, while many of us were spending time with our families, a U.S.--approved military operation was taking place halfway around the world. Thousands of Ethiopian troops, funded partially by the U.S. government, invaded neighboring Somalia in an attempt to overthrow the radical, fundamentalist Islamic government. But this move is hardly a black-and-white issue. The Ethiopian government we are supporting is alarmingly corrupt and has extensively restricted political freedom, even to the point of arresting thousands.

Then, on Jan. 9, after the Ethiopian campaign, the United States engaged in air strikes in Somalia in an effort to kill three suspected al Qaida members. Instead, we hit a village.

We have invaded a sovereign country without declaring a war; we have supported a repressive nation's invasion of its neighbor. And innocent lives have been lost. I have a hard time accepting these atrocious actions of our government.

Our nation's founders must be spinning in their graves, for we not only have engaged in an interventionist foreign policy, but also have ignored proper checks and balances.

Article I, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution states that Congress and Congress only shall have the power to declare war. This disperses the government's ability to engage in military action, with the hope that it will limit our involvement in foreign entanglements.

Unfortunately, due to the extraordinary growth in the executive power of the president, and the Supreme Court's complacency with unconstitutional military actions, formal war declarations are rarely issued.

In a letter to James Monroe in 1823, Thomas Jefferson sums up rather succinctly just why the United States ought not to involve itself in European politics, or anyone else's politics for that matter.

He writes: "I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europeâ?¦. Their mutual jealousies, their balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government, are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war. All their energies are expended in the destruction of the labor, property and lives of their people."

I fear that we will someday relive Europe's bloody past and succumb to the forces of violence. Our complicated alliances may one day lead to the destruction of our labor, our property and the lives of our citizens. I only hope we have the wisdom to learn from our errors.

Erik Hesla is a sophomore economics and philosophy double major.