The New American Militarism

[phantom power]

My dad lent me a copy of The New American Militarism (how Americans are seduced by war), by Andrew J. Bacevich.

It's good stuff, written from an interesting point of view. Bacevich is career military, an historian, and a socially conservative Catholic. He starts his history with Wilson's presidency, as the birth of American acceptance of military intervention as a foreign policy tool. The chapter I'm currently reading is about the rise of the neo-cons, beginning with Norman Podhoretz and his magazine Commentary.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0195173384/103-9329004-2471044?v=glance

[patrice]

1. Addiction is the Model, note the co-relations, based on Biology.

and fed also by such things as: Football, Movies, Music, Religion, Fads, Social Pressure, tending toward Fascism, your Master-Energy fix, becoming the very thing you are Fighting. Believing the Ends Justifies ANY Means = God Addiction.

[phantom power]

3. Whose model are you referring to?

[patrice]

4. Christopher Hitchens's I'm sorry to say. Before he turned Sour.

He wrote a book "Why We're Addicted to War" (or something like that, but he definitely used the word ADDICTION).

I am a teacher (and Student ) of Psychology; all Behavior is Biological (and so is Addiction).

[phantom power]

6. Power corrupts. That seems to be the theme of Bacevich's book.

Since Wilson, we've been gradually seduced by the convenience of using military power to enforce our foreign policy goals. For most of the 20th century, the balance of power with the Soviets essentially held us in check. Once the Soviets were gone, it was not long before our absolute power (or, more accurately, our perception of absolute power), corrupted us absolutely. The presidency of George W. Bush, and the "Bush Doctrine," is the culmination of this long seduction.

We're nothing but the latest empire to employ the rhetoric of "right makes might" to rationalize our total seduction by "might makes right" ethics.

[patrice]

7. I think there is a sort of intoxication about power at the popular level.

[Hello_Kitty]

2. Sounds good.

I'm reading The Sorrows of Empire right now which deals with a similar theme. More people need to read this stuff.

I've also had some success getting through to pro-war folks by sending them the "War is a Racket" essay by Gen. Smedley Butler.

[patrice]

5. The same addictive physical impulses/need-fulfillments drive

Racism, Bigotry, Mysogyny, and just plane Mean-ness . . . to mention just a few.

[CornField]

8. I've got this in Mt. ToBeRead...

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm going to move it to next in line.