Were Winston Churchill alive today, he would tell Bernie Sanders to stop being foolish.

The former British Prime Minister would have gagged and scoffed at Sanders' pathetic foreign policy speech at Westminster College on Thursday.

That Missouri college held a special place in Churchill's heart for hosting his 1946 address on the rising Soviet empire.

In 1946, the Second World War had just ended, tens of millions were dead, and Europe had been obliterated. Yet Churchill knew world events would now be shaped by either American or Soviet influence. Explaining that "an iron curtain has descended" over Europe, Churchill outlined a vision for countering Stalin's preeminent threat.

Britain's wartime leader understood that unless the West remained united and determined, war would soon follow. But as was always the case with Churchill, his message was one of optimism as well as honesty. If the West met its duty, he concluded, it would flourish on "the high-roads of the future."

Churchill was right. America won the Cold War and unprecedented prosperity by recognizing and responding to the Soviet challenge.

Of course, today, America faces new challenges abroad. And that's where Sanders comes in.

First, Sanders suggested that the Soviet Union was a false enemy and that exchange trips rather than military deterrence ended the Cold War. Then, channeling Castro, he warned that "This planet will not be secure or peaceful when so few have so much, and so many have so little — and when we advance day after day into an oligarchic form of society where a small number of extraordinarily powerful special interests exert enormous influence over the economic and political life of the world."

A good socialist, Bernie knows only politicians can be trusted with economic and political power.

Invigorated by his Occupy narrative, Sanders turned to a regurgitation of Russian propaganda. He told his audience about "a truth we must face. Far too often, American intervention and the use of American military power has produced unintended consequences which have caused incalculable harm."

This anti-military theme was a heavy part of Sen. Woodstock's speech, he truly believes that the U.S. military harms far more lives than it guards. Continuing in that vein, Sanders decried the efforts to confront Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. "As an organizing framework," he said, "the Global War on Terror has been a disaster for the American people and for American leadership."

Bernie's simple alternative? Use a new "Marshall Plan" to spend hundreds of billions of dollars turning killers into friends. Sanders does not realize that the Marshall Plan worked not because it bought off enemies, but because it rebuilt economies and thus proved the value of capitalism over socialism.

As I say, Churchill would not look kindly on Sanders words. Devoid of historical knowledge and gleefully appeasing of global threats, the droning Senator presented a plan for American defeat in the 21 st century. Let us pray our future leaders bear more in common with Churchill.