While Tehran is trying to drag the world back to an era of state-sanctioned piracy, trade tolls and throttled economic activity, Washington is trying to keep alive an American policy dating to the beginning of the republic – and a principle of international relations with roots in the 1600s.

The on-again-off-again U.S. strikes and the apparent curtailing of CENTCOM’s plans can be traced to these alarming statistics. Some blame the weapons shortfall on military assistance delivered to Ukraine. But playing the blame game by scapegoating Ukraine misses the mark—and won’t solve the problem.

For most Americans – especially those of us who aren’t experts in supply chains, offshoring or Smoot-Hawley – “tariff” is a mysterious, even foreign term. To dispel some of that, the following is a brief explanation of tariffs and their role in America’s past and present.

The leader of the free world—like the leader of any institution or organization, effort or cause—must believe in what he or she is leading. American presidents have shown their belief in, and support for, the free world by their actions but also, importantly, in their words.

NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is known primarily as a military alliance—and understandably so. Military deterrence is NATO’s core mission, ensuring the security and defending the territory of the alliance’s 32 member states and 980 million people. However, that’s not NATO’s only mission. Perhaps NATO’s most underappreciated contribution to its members and the rest of the free world is its role in spreading prosperity and promoting economic freedom.