Isolationism vs. Non-Interventionism

Here is a video of John McCain claiming Ron Paul to be an Isolationist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0QpCs0XpRY

Here.. Senator John McCain claims that American Isolationism brought about the force of Hitler and Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 40s, and the same such policy would allow Islamofascists (which makes one wonder how tribal nations like Iraq and Afghanistan would become fascists). to grow in power and be able to unite under a single banner to defeat the powers of the free world.

However, we are not isolationist. Never in our two-hundred plus years of existance have we ever been isolationist. What is Isolationism one may ask then? It is the process of executing a foreign policy of no trading or extremely limited trading with nearby nations and no acts of war or aggression, and conducting essentially no diplomacy anywhere. This was evident with many Asian cultures and most noteworthy was the Japanese.

However, America did follow a non-Interventionist foreign policy. It is one of humble intentions and has been a minority opinion in empires of old and today. Here is a quote from Jefferson's inaugural address in 1801 that is the best explaination I can think of this foreign policy:

"Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations--entangling alliances with none, I deem [one of] the essential principles of our government, and consequently [one of] those which ought to shape its administration." --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural Address, 1801

In other words, if you don't trade and don't wage war, you are a isolationist, but if you trade and do not wage war, or entangle yourself with alliances, you are a non-Interventionist. This is what so many of our founders, and Presidents and politicians subscribed to for so many years.

Where did we go wrong? How did we change? After the Civil War, northern politician began to look for dragons to slay, so to speak, and the Progressive Era began.. it all started with President McKinney with the Spanish-American war, and then with Roosevelt in championing the idea of imperialism. However, it did not come to pass as a real policy until Woodrow Wilson jumped into a war that had no threat to American security and used a two-year old sunken ship as an excuse to jump into the fray.

Politician today call it isolationism and say that it props up tyrants and threatens our national security but think about this:

Americans involvement in WW1 lead to Germany losing the upperhand in the war and later the creation of the monster of the Treaty of Versailles that lead to the rise of Hitler.

Americans involvement in the European theatre in WW2, with no threat from Germany lead to the rise of the Soviet Union and it's tyrant Joseph Stalin.

Americans involvement in the Korean Civil War and fifty year stay has lead to starvation to the northern part of the Korean Pennisula.

Americans involvement in Vietnam lead to millions of dead, more wounded and a nation that deserved not war.

Americans involvement in the Afghan-USSR war lead to the creation of the Taliban and the Radicalism of muslim "Freedom Fighters" or as they are called today.. "Terrorists"

We are not the land of the free anymore when we practice these interventionist foreign policies and support tyrants, wage war and kill more civilians than we kill "terrorists". It goes on and on, our foreign policy does not work. This foreign policy is what empires use to kill freedom and liberty. You do not wage war to defend democracy, that's an invention of Woodrow Wilson and it is a dangerous invention at that.