The Congress shall have Power To ...raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years....

The Founding Fathers of the United States envisioned a government just large enough to defend the country’s borders and its citizens. They warned against war for resources, brought on by a politicized economy. They warned against treaties and agreements with foreign government, and the loss of control Americans would have over why war was fought. Finally, they warned against the industry of war.

The founders specifically warned us to state away from wars for economic resources. As Washington echoes in his Farewell Address, “The great rule of conduct for us…is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible.” 

The idea alliances with foreign power was another warning by the authors of the Constitution. George Washington, and later Jefferson, warned against a government allowing interests out of step with the “will of the people” to have influence over federal policies. These policies directly affect the individuals that live under that government. The “entangling alliances” mentioned by Jefferson in his inaugural pledge, and the act of “interweaving our destiny” by Washington in his farewell address, are these types of policies.

"….peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none” – Jefferson’s 1st Inaugural Speech

Almost immediately, the country’s economic and social path begins moving away from the true domestic wants and needs. A government with the power to spend money and go to war should do neither without the people’s prosperity in mind. Its alliances and foreign “interweaving” that bankrupts the economy of the home country. Clearly something outside the day-to-day wishes we spoke of earlier. Fighting wars for “European ambition” does not deliver fruit back home.

Adams states in his July 4^th Address that even if another nation is fighting for its independence from tyranny, the government of the United States cannot risk the liberty of its citizens for involvement in a foreign cause:

“She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence…..The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force…she might become the dictatress of the world…no longer the ruler of her own spirit…”

The results of the first two warnings from the founders help create the third. John Quincy Adams stated that America “does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy”. He knew as well as we do that this search leads to misfortune for many and profit for few. Today we call it the military-industrial-complex. This industry grows by a government looking to expand its reach. The industry and government work together to find willing partners in the game or conquer anyone who is uninterested in playing.

Today it is obvious to anyone paying attention that our foreign policy is imperial in nature. Special interests dictate the military’s next theater of conflict. All anyone needs to do is look up which multinational corporation has made a deal with a government in a resource rich area. Chances are American intervention isn’t very far behind. The three dangers the Founders warned about have combined to create what we have today. An imperialistic global policy supported by select members of all major industries. This military-industrial-economic-complex is an entity that operates without much (if any) oversight by the American people. 

The Founders' Foreign Policy: An Introduction | Tenth Amendment Center

The Founding Fathers would look on in horror at the bully the US has become with the growth of the military industrial complex, the establishment and power of the Pentagon, the intervention in foreign lands, the entanglement with NATO, the never-ending wars which only profit defense contractors and bankers and has bankrupted our nation.