I know that most people work hard, come home to the family, watch TV and generally struggle through the pressures and demands of modern life.

So, they get their news mostly from the TV. Let us assume that TV news is objective. The TV news would give you late breaking events, but, since it is always a “snapshot” in time, and rarely reports events in historical context, it is not very helpful toward giving you an understanding of the world.

I have the advantage of not owning a TV and being semi-retired, and a library hugger. So, for instance, I have read 13 books on Afghanistan, Iraq, and the surrounding area. From my reading, I claim that I have discovered what is wrong with American foreign policy: It has been unsuccessful internationally, and is destroying us domestically.

Foreign policy is taught in terms of “self-interest,” sometimes called Machiavellian, or “Realpolitik” but the basic tenet is that “The ends justify the means.”

This is not to say that countries don’t sometimes act altruistically, but that when self-interest conflicts with morality, self-interest always trumps morality.

Let us leave aside the question of whose “self-interest,” because the argument could be made that the self-interest of giant corporations is different from the self-interest of say, middle-class people.

Let me take an egregious example to illustrate my point (and there are scores of others): The United States Government conspired with the British to overthrow the democratically elected of Iran in the early fifties. There was no cover story about democracy, or defending our freedom, or Communism, or Fundamentalism, or some other reason they give you to explain why they are murdering people or sending your children to die. They just wanted the oil.

However, as you probably know, there was a consequence to this nefarious act, called by the author Chalmers Johnson in his book by the same name, “Blowback.” That is why Iran became our enemy. We started it, and that, you will never hear on the evening news. So, the point is that sometimes these Machiavellian schemes backfire, and we thus we get “blowback.”

However, one could make an argument that sometimes these naked “self-interest” moves have succeeded, but on balance, they are a wash. In fact, considering all of the wars that are continuing and the five trillion we a have spent on them, and the staggering debt that we have acquired (Hell, we owe China over a trillion dollars!), it would probably be easier to argue that naked self-interest is a large negative.

But, that is not my claim. My claim is that this policy of the “ends justify the means” has cost us the moral high ground, and that we have lost the strength, albeit intangible, that comes from belief in ideals that keep us bound together and strong.

Take a look at the symptoms: We are heading to bankruptcy from being sick, and the consequent health bills. If current trends continue, half the country will be obese (based on BMI) and a hundred million people will have diabetes by the year 2020. People that have a passion for life  and strong beliefs don’t eat themselves to death.

Another indicator that we are rotting from the inside out is that what used to be a crime is no longer punished, and poor people are filling the prisons for petty offenses (See “The Divide,” by Matt Taibbi, available at the library).

A good example of how things have changed  is the Savings and Loan scandal of the 1980s (Read  “Inside Job,” also available through our library). A thousand people in the industry went to jail. In the exponentially worse scandal of 2008, almost no one has gone to jail. It is against the law to torture people, and yet the authors and perpetrators of torture are walking free, and in fact, thriving. Now, torture is OK. This is not what I was taught to believe; not in school and not in religious services.

So, my claim is that amorality has failed and, further, that our salvation will be found in returning to the old dispensations, so that we can love our country and love ourselves. 

Nelson Strasser lives in Lakeport, Calif.