Historian Andrew Bacevich on Democracy Now (5/11/09)

[laststeamtrain]

AMY GOODMAN: What do you think needs to be done right now?

ANDREW BACEVICH: Well, I mean, that is the core question, and I think you can come at that question at several different levels. I think the most important level, the most fundamental level, is that we need—the Obama administration needs to revisit some core questions that it has thus far ignored.

And what do I mean by that? I mean that in the wake of 9/11, the Bush administration, as it launched this so-called global war on terror, did so assuming that the United States possesses the capacity and also has a requirement to determine the fate of nations in the greater Middle East. And the Bush administration intended to begin this project of determining the fate of nations in that region by focusing on Iraq. It seems to me that the Obama administration has implicitly endorsed that notion, that we can determine the fate of nations there, albeit its focus is on Afghanistan and Pakistan. And I think that that core issue needs to be critically addressed. Do we possess the capacity to determine the fate of a place like Afghanistan? Do we need even to make the effort? That is to say, do our interests requirement—require it? And I think the answer to both those questions is, no, we don’t have the capacity, and we don’t have the requirement. So, what we need to do first of all, I think, is ask fundamental strategic questions.

Now, you can come at it at a second level, which is more the tactical or the operational level. And I think that’s what brings you face-to-face with things like this US policy with regard to air strikes. You cited General Jones commenting that we can’t tie the hands of our commanders. Well, Jones knows that we always tie the hands of our commanders. That is to say that we establish parameters. Certain things are permitted, certain things are allowed, certain resources are provided to commanders; and other things are not permitted, and other resources are denied. We don’t allow General McKiernan in Afghanistan to use nuclear weapons if he thinks it’s necessary. And so, the question is whether or not we are tying the hands of our commanders or establishing those operational parameters in ways that are smart. And frankly, the promiscuous use of airpower in Afghanistan, and also, I think, in Pakistan with the UAV strikes, is not smart. It’s counterproductive. And that also needs to be critically reexamined.

<snip>

AMY GOODMAN: Andrew Bacevich, lay out the triple crises you say face America today and your argument about the limits of power.

ANDREW BACEVICH: Well, I mean, I think the essence of the point that I want to get to here is that Washington’s inclination to view the economic crisis as not connected to our national security crisis is a big mistake, that there is really one overarching problem. And I think the essence of that problem is that we have so mismanaged our economy, falling into the habit of living beyond our means. When I say “our means,” I mean not simply the government’s reckless spending, but also the penchant of the American people for conspicuous consumption. We have so mismanaged our economy that we have fallen into the habit of thinking that we can defer a day of reckoning by relying on American hard power to create a global environment that will sustain our profligacy.

And the chickens really came home to roost in the latter half of 2008. We don’t have enough hard power in order to reshape the global order so that we can continue to sustain the American way of life along the lines that we came into the habit of doing. We need to change the way we live, rather than focus so much an effort on changing the way others live in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan.

<more>

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/11/conservative_historian_andrew_bacevich_warns_against