Timothy Naftali

We have the resources to buy what we need.

But I agree.

What I think is going on is that his buddies are going to benefit, which is why he

dealing with the Congo and why he's, I'm not sure what he's getting from Thailand and Cambodia, but that's why he's interested in the Congo.

That's why he's interested in Azerbaijan and he called it Albania, but it's Armenia.

It's because these places have resources and he and his buddies would like access to it.

It has nothing to do with the interests of the United States.

That's the origin of that.

Well, I mean, Monroe Doctrine, 1823, the Spanish empire is collapsing in the Americas.

there's a great fear that the French and the Russians, what was called then the Holy Alliance, would come in, sweep back into the Western hemisphere and reimpose monarchical systems in competition with our Republican system.

And so the US government wanted to say to the European monarchical powers, stay away.

We will be neutral in your conflicts, in your sphere, stay away from the Western hemisphere.

It was an anti-European doctrine.

What happens over time is as American power grows, the Monroe Doctrine becomes a more offensive doctrine.

Look, we could, and I don't know if your listeners would want to do this, but we could talk about the peculiar relationship between the Americans and the British.

The British actually offered to have a joint statement that was something like the Monroe Doctrine.

They actually offered it to the Monroe administration.

And John Quincy Adams, who wanted to be president in 1824, realized he was secretary of state at the time, realized that because his father was John Adams and associated with the Federalists, which were associated with a pro British party.

that it would be political suicide if he participated in a joint statement with London.

So he convinced Monroe, no, no, no, no joint statement with London.