Doctor Science Knows

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Book Review: The New American Militarism

The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War, by Andrew Bacevich

I think this is an enormously important book that should be read by everyone who's associated with the American military, or concerned about the role of the military in American politics, or concerned about American military policy. That should cover everybody.

Andrew Bacevich is not your average peacenik. A Vietnam veteran who rose to the rank of Army Colonel, since his retirement he has become a professor of International Relations at Boston University. He is a self-described "Catholic conservative", but he parted ways from the conservative movement in the late 1990s.

Like all sensible soldiers, Bacevich hates war. What makes him unusual for a soldier is that he also hates militarism. What makes him especially unusual for a critic of the Bush II administration is that he sees how their militarism and their military failures are not their own invention. Modern American militarism is a project on which Democrats and Republicans have cooperated, and in which Americans are almost all complicit.

Over his years in academe, Bacevich has come to reject the "Great Man" theory of history. He doesn't blame American militarism on Ronald Reagan, or Dick Cheney, or Lyndon Johnson; on any single person or even any single movement. We have acted together to bring ourselves to this pass: where the US is the greatest military power in the history of the world, where every problem seems to cry out for a military solution, and where it is never enough.

I think this is a really important book and I hate to oversummarize. Nonetheless, here are a few of the arguments Bacevich makes:

a) The American military -- specifically, the officer class -- responded to Vietnam *not* by trying to figure out how that type of war could be successfully fought, but by refocusing their efforts on getting ready for the Least Likely War -- one against the Soviet Union, taking place in Eastern Europe. This was good for their institutional interests, but bad for true national security. This strikes me as exceedingly plausible, because that's how human beings behave.

b) The Cold War does deserve to be called World War III. World War IV, though, did not begin on 9/11/2001: it began with the "energy crisis" and the OPEC "oil shock" of the late 1970s. When President Carter asked the American people to focus on conservation and self-restraint as the way out of the Crisis, the American people basically said, "No." We chose freedom, where "freedom" is "the ability to do what we feel like regardless of consequences". This choice made the Middle East perforce the pivot of American foreign policy, and World War IV -- the War for Oil -- has been going ever since.

c) Bacevich clearly thinks Carter was the most (possibly the only) moral President of the past 30 years at least, but he could not do his job -- sell the American people on what needed to be done -- when it mattered most. He considers Reagan a myth-maker, a convincing salesmen of fairy-tales. Bush I was almost a non-entity, Clinton too politically savvy to have principles, while Bush II is playing a role laid out for him: the Christian warrior, though he is acting neither as a Christian nor a warrior.

d) The bond that has developed between Israel and the US has made both countries more militaristic, more respectful of their military and more inclined to use military solutions to their problems.

I've only scratched the surface on Bacevich's analysis of American militarism, what it is and how it has grown. I'm going to skip to the end, though, and give his To-Do list, which is more concrete and detailed than most and which I haven't seen discussed online.

1. Heed the intentions of the Founders. Their experience of war was personal and direct, and they were right to be distrustful of standing armies. Military power should *not* be the cornerstone of American greatness in the world, and to think of it that was is an obscene distortion. Military power should be focused on "the common defense" in a direct and pragmatic way, not on exanding the area Americans feel obliged to defend.

2. Revitalize the concept of separation of powers. Congress is supposed to be in charge of declaring war, not the Executive, but Congress has been shirking its duty for decades.

3. View force as a last resort. This doesn't mean that the US can't consider responding to *direct* threats, but it is both sensible and moral for us to stop thinking of military intervention as the main thing America is good for.

4. Enhance US strategic self-sufficiency. In particular, of course, we have to stop being so dependent on foreign oil. As Bacevich says, though we have been saying this for 30 years, "in all that time, the US has yet to take any meaningful action to reduce its energy dependence." He's right, this is both intolerable and bafflingly stupid.

5. Organize US forces explicity for national defense -- not on projecting our power around the globe. This means drawing down our overseas garrisons and turning over most of our network of bases to our allies. In other words, to treat our allies as allies, not vassals.

6. Devise an appropriate gauge for determining the level of US defense spending -- not just our current method, which is "always more". Bacevich suggest pegging US defense spending to what others are spending, e.g.: the next ten biggest defense budgets combined. That should be more than enough for true defense, while still limiting what's available for adventurism.

7. Embrace alternative instruments of statecraft. In particular, why are Americans so intolerant of waste and inefficiency in State Department programs, so lax about it for the Defense Department?

[I think the answer here is related to a major aspect of militarism that Bacevich overlooks: the military-industrial complex. Basically, ill-spent Defense Department money enriches American corporations and their pet congressmen, wasted State Department money mostly does not.]

8. Revive the concept of the citizen-soldier. The "All-Volunteer Army" is meant to sound very Minute Man-like, but Bacevich says "the actually existing ethos of today's active force is more akin to that of the French Foreign Legion." They are professionals who go anywhere without question to obey their leaders, and they are not particularly interested in being part of civilian society for which they do not have a great deal of respect.

Bacevich thinks a good start would be to have "a new GI bill that on principle ties federal education grants to citizen service" -- not to mention better signing bonuses and shorter enlistments.

9. Re-examine the role of the National Guard and the reserve components. Put the Guard and Reserves back to their original purpose -- a trained militia for community self-defense, where "community" does not mean Kosovo and Iraq.

10. Reconcile the American military profession to American society. Bacevich feels that the officer class is too remote from the rest of America, both psychologically and physically. The heart of the officer class is trained in isolated academies; their post-graduate training is in dedicated Officer Training Schools. Officers live in special "fort" communities that serve no military purpose.

Bacevich is an extremely brave man, because his proposed solution is for *all* officers,as a prerequisite, to have "a liberal education acquired in the company of their company of their fellow citizens". He suggests that the service academies should then train *all* officers for a year or so, and that officers' post-graduation education should take place in civilian universities, not War Colleges.

IMHO Bacevich's list is an excellent start for thinking about how to get America off the addiction to military power. The first step, of course, is to admit you have a problem.

5 Comments:

  • Doctorscience and rosecolored glasses
    Doctor science I agree with what you say and I agree with and respect rosecovered glasses.
    I just thought it necessary to dig up something I wroete 6 months ago on what is happening today with the Government and the military and why you as an average American do not matter. Let me know what you think! http://www.anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com
    With Increased influence of Military and Government, This is the Dire plan!
    With the real threat of a Bird Flu Pandemic! We are hearing that 50 million people could be killed around the world and we would only have enough drugs & equipment to take care of 5% of the worlds population. who will get taken care of?
    http://www2.oprah.com/...
    With Bush's increasing use, care, and empowerment of our Military over us?
    http://www.dailykos.com/...

    With everyone possessing nuclear weapons threatening to use them preemptively!
    http://www.dailykos.com/...

    You must enter an Intro for your Diary Entry between 300 and 1150 characters long.

    With the Bush initiated new world order seemingly resulting in middle east and world breakdown. We are seemingly headed WW3 (if not already started) and the real threat of nuclear war, Think about the facts as you all experience them! Look at the whole picture!
    http://www.dailykos.com/...

    With Natural disasters worsening year after year and according to experts no letup in this for the next 15 or 20 years.

    There is a plan for the future and you the average citizen are not in it! The public is not being protected! Why? I'll tell youI
    First, you probably know the military is protected. You are increasingly being told and are aware that you are on your own if there is trouble and you are.
    Knowing there will not be enough medicine and equipment to care for 5% of the worlds population. We are and you must in order to ensure life for your country in the future, putting Government and the military first.
    When disaster strikes you protect the Government to keep things running. You also have the well equipped for survival military, prepare to fight another day. Government and military together will have everything need to start over if need be.
    However, no one of the world thinks of where? The earth is too fragile at this stage of its life cycle to sustain this and still have the necessary life sustaining systems.
    No one seems to understand this! However, you better understand this! If you haven't gotten the message yet, to today's government you do not matter!

    By Blogger jmsjoin, at 7:30 AM  

  • rosecoveredglasses:

    Your account reads absolutely true to me -- *nothing* seems more likely than that "the real machinery of policy and procurement keeps grinding away, presenting the politicos who arrive with detail and alternatives slanted to perpetuate itself".

    The question for you is, what would count as "hitting a brick wall at high speed"? Are there any weak points in the system that are graspable by the outside? Is there any way to wedge apart the interests of the Pentagon military bureaucrats and the military industry?

    By Blogger Doctor Science, at 10:40 AM  

  • Dr. Science,

    All I can suggest is that you go to my blog and request a copy of my work (it's free) and something may occur to you.

    Industry and government are so closely integrated at this time that they are virtually one.

    As I have mentioned, the only way I believe that will change is a huge downsizing and that won't happen until the machine breaks.

    Ken

    By Blogger RoseCovered Glasses, at 4:50 PM  

  • "He considers Reagan a myth-maker, a convincing salesmen of fairy-tales."

    If you read Reagan's America by Gary Wills, you'll be left with the same impression. That Reagan's talent was to invent a mythic America, and to believe the myth more than reality, considering it unpatriotic to do otherwise.

    Hendrick Hertzberg, who was a speechwriter for Carter, recounted in one of articles an incident where the team had come up with a speech for a tv appearance Carter was doing to explain a bill to do away with a buch of extraneous red-tape where Carter sweeps a pile of papers off his desk to make the point dramatically.

    When Carter when on, he looked at the papers and said something to the effect of: "My staff wants me to say this paper represents the stuff I'm doing away with. Actually, its just a prop, the pages are blank." And then he went on with the presentation.

    I read that and thought that it is no wonder in the age of the P.R. presidency that his presidency would be impotent.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:16 AM  

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    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:47 PM  

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