"The inhabitants of any civil entity want to be governed and secured by laws of their choosing, protected by people culturally and linguistically like themselves, and to have a judiciary to prevent abuse of power by the police force," he noted.
The world does not have this option if Washington is allowed to be the only arbiter.
"If Americans would never, under any circumstances, submit to the laws and enforcers of another country on US soil, why should we expect the citizens of other nations to submit to being made to obey our interpretation of laws by means of armed US troops?" he asked.
The analyst's second reason has to do with history. Even if the United States is guided by a genuine desire to help those in needs, its military interventions have failed to make life better. In fact, America's military adventures have created additional instability and exacerbated pre-existing tensions.
"There have been a few occasions when a neutral outcome resulted, but far more often our deployments have greatly worsened the situation into which they were injected. None in recent decades have restored peace," Davis confirmed, citing Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya as prime examples.
The same is true of Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and other countries in Africa.
"In not one of the above cases where the United States has exercised its so-called 'moral obligation' to militarily intervene on behalf of the innocents in these lands have violence or war been resolved. To the contrary, all have worsened," Davis emphasized.
Davis' remarks came in response to Rasmussen invoking morality with regard to the US serving as a global policeman in a recent opinion piece for the WSJ.
Recent history of the Greater Middle East and North Africa begs to differ with Rasmussen's assessment.
"Our actual experience of performing the duty of the world's policeman has universally failed. American national security has not been served and the plight of the helpless has markedly deteriorated. Is it not time to acknowledge this unbroken string of failures and consider alternative policies? Viable alternatives exist, but none are possible until we admit decades of America-as-policeman have failed," Davis observed.