Take a trip to the east coast of the United States, or the west coast, or the Canadian-U.S. border, or the U.S.-Mexico border. You will notice one important thing: There is no foreign army invading the United States.

Recently, Iran fired missiles at a U.S. military base in Iraq, which, as it turns out, ended up injuring dozens of U.S. soldiers. The missiles were fired in retaliation for the Pentagon’s assassination of Iranian Major Gen. Qasem Soleimani, which, in turn, was done in retaliation for supposed attacks by Iranian forces on U.S. forces in Iraq.

One thing is certain about all this endless cycle of death and violence: It has absolutely nothing to do with protecting the freedom of the American people.

How can we be 100 percent of that fact? Because neither Iran nor any other nation state, including China, Russia, North Korea, Syria, Afghanistan, and Vietnam, are invading the United States and trying to enslave the American people.

What, then, is all that death and mayhem all about? It’s about the defense of foreign interventionism. For our entire lifetimes and even longer, the U.S. government has claimed the authority to intervene in the affairs of other nations. That’s why those soldiers were injured in Iraq. That’s why thousands of other U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq, the Middle East, and Afghanistan. That’s why that Iranian general was assassinated. That’s why countless Iraqis and Afghans have been killed, injured, maimed, and had their countries destroyed.

It’s all been for interventionism, not for freedom.

When U.S. officials accuse Russia of meddling in the political affairs of the United States, it is supremely ironic because when they point their accusatory finger at Russia, they are oblivious to the fact that there are three fingers pointing back at themselves. The indisputable fact is that the U.S. government is — and has long been — the world’s supreme meddler in the affairs of other countries.

Think of the aftermath of World War II. The U.S. government has killed, injured, or maimed millions of people through invasions, state-sponsored assassinations, torture, or beatings. Coming to mind are the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the war on Panama, the war on Grenada, the Contra war, the Persian Gulf War, and the wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

All of them involved death, mayhem, violence, suffering, and destruction in the defense of interventionism, not freedom.

Add to those events the U.S. coups that installed brutal dictatorships into power, which themselves killed, tortured, and injured countless people, along with U.S.alliances with dictatorial regimes, some of which have been flooded with U.S. taxpayer money. It has all been in the defense of interventionism.

Even World War II involved interventionism. It’s true that Japan attacked U.S. military installations at Pearl Harbor. But we mustn’t ignore the role of President Franklin Roosevelt in provoking that attack, especially with his oil embargo on Japan. If FDR hadn’t tried to prevent Japan from acquiring oil for its war machine in China, Japan would never have attacked Pearl Harbor. That’s because the Japanese attack was simply trying to prevent the U.S. Navy from interfering with Japan’s acquisition of oil in the Dutch East Indies. Japan never attempted to invade the United States, and, anyway, it lacked the military capability of doing so.

World War I, in which tens of thousands of American men were sacrificed for nothing, was a classic case of defending interventionism. It is undisputed that Germany never invaded the United States, never intended to do so, and never had the military capability to do so.

Consider the massive destruction of liberty here at home. The U.S Department of Homeland Security, a name that conjures up images of totalitarian regimes. Intrusive searches at airports at the hands of TSA agents. The USA PATRIOT Act, another Orwellian term. Massive secret surveillance schemes at the hands of the NSA. Secret illegal telecom deals with U.S. officials. Secret FISA courts. Military tribunals. A U.S. military prison, torture center, and judicial system located in a communist country, which are characterized by denial of due process of law, trial by jury, and the right to a speedy trial. Official admonitions to the Americans to be on the lookout for unusual people and to report them to the authorities.

All in the defense of interventionism, not freedom.

None of it had to happen. If American had continued on the road of its founding principle of non-interventionism, all of those people would not have been killed, maimed, or injured. All of that destruction and loss of liberty would not have occurred.

Yes, that’s all water under the bridge. But tomorrow isn’t. If we were to restore America’s founding principle of non-interventionism today, normal life would be restored tomorrow.