Thursday, September 3, 2009

American Militarism

Please read this essay by a retired Lt. Colonel. It might surprise you and hopefully disturb you, the essay itself that is, not its author.

I also recommend that you book mark TomDispatch.com. Tom Engelhardt is a mature voice of reason.

Lighthouse Keeper

2 comments:

The Old New Englander said...

Actually, we are a less militaristic country than we were in the 1970's and 1980's. The end of the Cold War and of the draft have diminished the role of the military in American society. I do not disagree with the argument that the role could be further reduced, but it is wrong to suggest that the military looms as large today as it did 35-30 years ago.

Leanderthal, Lighthouse Keeper said...

My take is that the author was saying that though the role of the military is diminished in the conscious minds of American public, it is still a huge, though more unconscious presence. The Pentagon budget is obscene, the military/industrial complex even more powerful, and we are in an endless, by definition, war on terrorism, now doubling down in
Afghanistan. Perhaps he could have defined American society more narrowly to the right wing fringe which equates support our troops ribbons and flags of all sizes to patriotism.

But I believe that Americans of all stripes are becoming more isolationist in the absence of draft, and the end of the Cold War, which was waged to prevent a territorial and global war with a specific enemy, the USSR.

It's more underground now, but still subtly kept in the often unconscious minds of Americans with a less obvious, but still powerful appeal to patriotism.

Did someone write, 'Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel'?

 
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