THE WASHINGTON UNION PAPERS: NO. 40

AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY: WHY STRENGTH WITHOUT STRATEGY FAILS

To the People of the United States,

A nation that wields power without purpose is a nation doomed to exhaustion. A nation that flexes its military might without a clear vision is a nation that will bleed itself dry. A nation that believes brute force alone can dictate world affairs is a nation that will find itself trapped in endless wars, drained of treasure, burdened with casualties, and resented by allies and adversaries alike. For too long, the United States has confused strength with wisdom, firepower with foresight, intervention with strategy. And for too long, we have paid the price—sprawling conflicts with no end, alliances strained to the breaking point, and a global reputation that shifts between reluctant hegemon and reckless empire. No more. The Washington Union Party demands a foreign policy rooted in clear objectives, disciplined strength, and a strategy that serves America’s interests—not the ambitions of the political class, not the greed of defense contractors, not the whims of those who mistake war for leadership.

The history of failed empires is a history of hubris. Rome fell not because it lacked power, but because it stretched itself too thin, attempting to police a world it could no longer control. The British Empire collapsed under the weight of its own arrogance, believing that military dominance alone could sustain an empire built on exploitation. The Soviet Union crumbled because it invested in military might without economic sense, believing that raw force could substitute for a functioning, sustainable state. America must not follow in their footsteps. We are not invincible. We are not immune to decline. And if we continue to wield our strength without strategy, if we continue to drift from conflict to conflict with no clear purpose, we will meet the same fate as those who thought their power would last forever.

For over a century, the United States has projected its strength across the globe. And yet, despite our unparalleled military dominance, despite our unmatched firepower, we find ourselves entangled in unwinnable wars, unstable regions, and uncertain futures. We spent two decades in Afghanistan, only to watch the government collapse in a matter of days. We poured trillions into Iraq, only to leave behind a nation plagued by sectarian violence and Iranian influence. We bombed Libya into chaos, helped destabilize Syria, and turned what should have been targeted missions into generational quagmires. This is not strength.

This is the failure of strategy. This is the reckless deployment of power without a defined victory, without a sustainable exit, without a policy that prioritizes America’s long-term security over short-term illusions of dominance.

Strength without vision is self-destruction. A nation that confuses firepower with foresight is a nation doomed to repeat the same costly mistakes. And yet, we have allowed ourselves to be led by political cowards and defense contractors disguised as statesmen, men who measure patriotism by the number of wars they can justify, who see intervention not as a means to an end but as an endless revenue stream. This is not foreign policy. This is institutionalized failure, a machine of war that grinds up American lives while enriching the powerful few who have no stake in the consequences.

Afghanistan was not lost in 2021—it was lost the moment we decided that occupation could replace strategy, that firepower could create stability, that brute force could build democracy. We did not lose Iraq in withdrawal—we lost it when we destabilized an entire region under false pretenses, when we dismantled institutions without a plan to replace them, when we allowed corporate interests to dictate reconstruction while leaving the Iraqi people to pick up the shattered remains of their country. Libya was not a success—it was a reckless gamble that left a nation in permanent turmoil, breeding ground for terrorism, a playground for warlords, and a textbook case of what happens when military intervention is driven by short-term thinking and political vanity.

The Washington Union Party will not tolerate this cycle of failure. We will not allow corporate warhawks and career politicians to lead America into another century of aimless conflict, of endless military misadventures, of blood spilled for nothing. We demand a foreign policy that is disciplined, focused, and solely dedicated to advancing America’s long-term security and economic strength.

We will end the blank check for endless war. Under a Washington Union Party administration, every single military intervention must be justified with clear, measurable objectives, a defined exit strategy, and a direct benefit to the American people. No more nation-building exercises masquerading as strategic operations. No more open-ended conflicts that consume resources, weaken our military readiness, and embolden our adversaries. If America goes to war, America wins that war. If America uses force, it does so with clear goals, overwhelming superiority, and a decisive exit.

We will prioritize economic and strategic dominance over reckless intervention. While past administrations have drained the Treasury on wars that yielded nothing, China has strategically outmaneuvered us, expanding its influence not through military conquest but through economic power. The Washington Union Party will match and surpass this strategy. We will wield trade, infrastructure investment, and diplomatic leverage as weapons as powerful as any aircraft carrier or nuclear submarine. If China builds roads and ports, we will build economic alliances that make them obsolete. If adversaries seek to undermine us, we will cripple them financially before we ever fire a shot.

We will redefine alliance-building. America will no longer be the world’s overworked, unpaid security guard. We will no longer pour billions into protecting nations that refuse to meet us halfway. Allies will stand with us because they contribute to shared defense and shared success, not because they take advantage of our military umbrella while weakening our position. No more one-sided alliances, no more unaccountable military aid, no more pretending that America alone must carry the weight of global security.

We will rebuild American military dominance—not through reckless wars, but through superior strategy. The Washington Union Party will prioritize readiness, modernization, and the development of next-generation defense capabilities over the wasteful spending that has left our military overstretched and unprepared for the wars of the future. We will be feared not because of our brute force alone, but because no adversary will ever know where or how we will strike.

The Washington Union Party demands a doctrine of strategic superiority, not mindless intervention. We will not allow another generation of Americans to be sacrificed for wars that serve no national purpose. We will not allow another trillion dollars to be wasted on conflicts that leave us weaker, not stronger. We will break the war economy. We will end the addiction to intervention. We will rebuild America’s place in the world—not as an empire, but as an unshakable, unstoppable Republic.

Strength without strategy does not project power; it erodes it. It breeds resentment, alienates allies, and creates vacuums that our enemies are all too willing to fill. China does not waste its strength in endless wars—it builds infrastructure, it expands economic influence, it invests in the future. Russia, despite its aggression, does not make the mistake of thinking military might alone is enough—it wages economic and cyber warfare, choosing asymmetry over blunt force. Meanwhile, the United States lurches from crisis to crisis, pouring its resources into conflicts it does not finish, backing allies it does not trust, and abandoning commitments when the political winds shift. This is not a strategy—it is reactionary chaos.

The Washington Union Party rejects this failed approach. We believe in a foreign policy that serves the American people first. That means no more nation-building fantasies, no more wars fought to enrich the defense industry, no more blank checks to allies who undermine our interests while demanding our protection. We will stand by our allies when it serves our long-term security, not when it simply satisfies the demands of politicians who mistake intervention for statesmanship. We will defend America’s interests with strength, but with purpose. We will not wage wars we do not intend to win. We will not spill American blood without American gain. We will not confuse military occupation with strategic success.

And yet, we live in an era where America’s foreign policy is dictated not by strategy, but by idiocy in The White House. We are led by men like President Trump and the men who coward at his feet. Men who mistake bluster for vision, who believe that posturing on a global stage is equivalent to real leadership, who would rather grandstand in front of cameras than develop a coherent, disciplined doctrine of American power. This administration has turned foreign policy into performance art, a spectacle of incompetence, arrogance, and reckless abandon that serves neither our interests nor our security. The Washington Union Party will not allow this insanity to continue.

Look no further than the latest absurdities. Gaza—a humanitarian crisis decades in the making, a region teetering on the brink of permanent catastrophe—and this administration’s grand solution? A floating dock, a performative gesture that neither addresses the suffering of civilians nor establishes long-term stability. Instead of deploying real diplomacy, real strategy, real influence to bring an end to bloodshed, they throw together a glorified PR stunt and call it leadership. This is not foreign policy. This is a photo op disguised as problem-solving.

Or consider Canada, our closest ally, a nation that should be bound to us in unshakable mutual interest and shared prosperity. Instead, this administration picks fights over nonsense, weakens our diplomatic ties, and treats one of the most stable partnerships in the world like an afterthought. In a world where global powers are forging new economic alliances, alienating Canada is not just foolish—it is outright sabotage. Our enemies do not need to weaken us when our own leaders are doing it for them.

And then there is Panama, where this administration is openly toying with the idea of militarizing the Panama Canal, a reckless move that would send shockwaves through the global economy, provoke needless confrontation, and further erode America’s standing as a rational actor in international affairs. Do they understand what they are playing with? Do they comprehend the implications of militarizing one of the world’s most vital shipping lanes? Or is this just another empty chest-thumping stunt, designed to distract from the absence of real foreign policy leadership? America does not need performative aggression. It needs competent strategy.

And if the madness of Gaza, Canada, and Panama were not enough, we have the embarrassing spectacle of Greenland. Yes, Greenland—the landmass this administration, in a fit of delusional arrogance, floated the idea of purchasing, as if nations are pieces on a Monopoly board, as if diplomacy is nothing more than a real estate deal. What strategic doctrine, what rational vision, what serious leader proposes the purchase of an autonomous territory as a cornerstone of foreign policy? This is not strength. This is buffoonery.

The Washington Union Party rejects this circus of incompetence. We do not believe in foreign policy dictated by tantrums and Twitter posts. We do not believe in militarizing global trade routes for show, in alienating allies for ego, in engaging in reckless gestures that embarrass our nation on the world stage. We believe in power wielded with precision, in alliances built on shared interests, in diplomacy that is as ruthless as it is strategic. We will not tolerate another administration that confuses chaos with strategy, belligerence with strength, incompetence with leadership.

America’s foreign policy should be a weapon of national strength, not a stage for political theater. We will ensure that every action serves America’s long-term interests, that every military engagement is decisive, that every alliance is built to last. No more reckless intervention. No more performative aggression. No more global embarrassment. The Washington Union Party demands leadership, demands strategy, demands an America that is feared by its enemies, respected by its allies, and never, ever made to look like a fool by the very people meant to lead it.

Let those who resist this doctrine of discipline be warned: the American people are tired of endless war. They are tired of politicians who call for intervention while their sons and daughters pay the price. They are tired of a foreign policy dictated by those who have never set foot on a battlefield but send others to die in their place. We will not be ruled by warmongers who mistake conflict for leadership. We will not be led by reactionaries who think diplomacy is weakness.

We will not be fooled by the false choice between reckless intervention and dangerous isolation. America’s path forward is not one of retreat, nor one of blind aggression, but one of calculated, disciplined strength.

The world is changing. Our rivals are adapting. If we do not change course, if we do not abandon the arrogance of brute force without vision, we will find ourselves trapped in a cycle of failure from which there is no escape. The Washington Union Party will ensure that our foreign policy serves the Republic—not the ambitions of empire, not the profits of the defense industry, not the egos of politicians, but the security and prosperity of the American people.

The time for reckless power is over. The time for strategic strength is now. This is the fight before us. And we will not lose.

But let us be clear: Donald Trump is not the cause of America’s foreign policy failure—he is its latest and most dangerous symptom. The man currently sitting in the White House is not a strategist, not a leader, not a statesman. He is a charlatan, a reality TV con artist playing dress-up as a commander-in-chief, a man who mistakes gut instinct for doctrine and belligerence for wisdom. But while he is the face of today’s incompetence, he is not the origin of the rot. He is simply what happens when decades of failed leadership, blind interventionism, and political cowardice converge into a single, grotesque manifestation of arrogance and ignorance.

This is what happens when a nation lets its foreign policy be dictated by corporate interests, military contractors, and egomaniacal politicians who view war as a public relations stunt. Trump is not an aberration—he is the logical conclusion of a system that has rewarded recklessness, that has allowed foreign policy to become a stage for empty bravado rather than calculated strategy. He did not create the cycle of failure; he is merely accelerating it at an unprecedented speed, turning America into a laughingstock abroad and a dangerously unstable force on the world stage.

The man who claimed he would end America’s endless wars has done nothing but prolong them through incompetence. He gutted alliances without building stronger alternatives. He turned diplomacy into a game of personal favors, where adversaries flatter him into submission while allies are berated and cast aside. He sabotaged global trust in the United States by pulling out of agreements with no alternative plan, by waging trade wars that weakened us economically, by cozying up to dictators while alienating democratic allies.

And yet, for all his failings, Trump is not the greater enemy—he is a symptom of a system that has long been broken. The reckless wars, the unchecked militarism, the habitual propping up of corrupt regimes, the addiction to intervention—this did not begin with Trump, and if we are not vigilant, it will not end with him. If we remove him but leave the system intact, if we reject the man but not the machine that produced him, we will have learned nothing.

It is not enough to simply vote him out. We must dismantle the decades-long rot that made him possible. We must rebuild American foreign policy from the ground up, with intelligence, restraint, and an unshakable commitment to putting America’s interests first—not the ambitions of the war economy, not the delusions of politicians who mistake force for strategy, not the outdated doctrines that have left us weaker, poorer, and entangled in conflicts that serve no national purpose.

This is the final warning to those who still believe America can afford another decade of failed leadership. We will not survive another cycle of reckless wars. We will not survive another generation of politicians who use foreign policy as a personal vanity project. The time for caution is gone. This is not a choice between left or right. It is a choice between survival and collapse, between power with purpose or power squandered in folly.

Trump is a disease of the moment. But the infection runs deeper. And if we do not cure it, if we do not destroy the system that allowed him to rise, we will lose this Republic—not to an enemy abroad, but to our own failures at home. This is our last chance. The reckoning is now. And we will not lose.