American foreign policy has gone badly astray. Every day the actions of our government make it more dangerous to be an American.

The root of the problem is interventionism – the idea that the United States should be the world's policeman, keeping our troops in bases around the world, and interfering by use of force whenever it suits us.

When we sent troops to Serbia and Somalia in the 90's, that was interventionism. The Iraq War, which Rep. Markey voted for, is interventionism on steroids.

Instead of making us more secure, our interventions:

• Create enemies and breed anti-Americanism
• Involve us needlessly in other people's conflicts
• Drain our treasury and give a blank check to defense contractors
• Stretch our military resources thin
• Expose our troops to harm

I support a humble foreign policy, one which does not employ force when there is no threat to our security; one which does not tell other people how they should run their country. We must:

• Engage with the rest of the world through diplomacy and trade
• End entangling alliances
• End foreign aid and stop propping up dictators
• Stop keeping troops in bases abroad
• Stop invading countries, like Iraq, that have not attacked us first
• Focus our military strength on defending our own nation

Above all, we must get out of Iraq now!