How America Is Squandering Its Wealth and Power
Andrew Bacevich, a military veteran and scholar, blames the Bush administration and the American people
Reader Comments
Foreign policy
Too much of our foreign policy is based on protecting the Jews. Why? Because the Jewish population in this country have too much influence on the Washington gang. The Jews are capable of protecting themselves. Additionally, money controls a big part of our froeign policy. Too many ex-congress people lobbying for foreign governments where too much American money is invested. While we protect the world we let our country go to hell with borders that are like sieves. I say bring our troops home and station them in this country where they can cover our most important ports of entry. Bush's idea "I would rather fight them over there then fight them here" is what is destroying our military.
"Not that the majority of Americans thought that invading Iraq was a good idea either, but that they were satisfied and wanted to protect the American way of life, which requires access to massive amounts of oil."
With this, he has lost all credibility. This argument that we somehow went to war for oil is tiresome. If we went to war for oil, why in the world are we trying to get Congress' butt to allow us to drill here and why are we still paying a lot for gas?
"We must also ask what we've actually won. In the first place, we've lost over 4,000 American lives and thousands of others injured. We've spent $800 billion and yet have done next to nothing to advance the cause of changing the Middle East, which was the reason for the war in the first place."
I'm glad this clairvoyant individual knows exactly what the world will be in 20 years.
Bin Laden and Russia learned the lessons of Vietnam. They learned that when push comes to shove, the US will tire of fighting and want a quick end to war. Too bad many people, including this "conservative" historian didn't learn that lesson either.
We are our own worse enemy
Because we, as Americans, do not want to have to give up our easy going, hungary for power, evnious ways we will have to pay in the future. If not us directly, the sins of the father will be passed on to our children and grandchildren. Do we really need to live in McMasions? I was brought up in a small, three bedroom, one kitchen, dining/living room house and my brother and I grew up without any physical/emotional problems. Today, I see these monstrosities being built for just two people and a dog! Three car garages and no one walks anymore. Just to go two blocks they must have a car! We, as Americans, are our worse enemies because we do not want to sacrifice anything. Our children will be innocent victims of our greedy and self-centered lives. We are going to burden our future children with debt, war, pollution, and God only knows what else. We con't blame the Muslims or Al Queda for that. And, since most of our elected officials own or are obligated to Corporate America there will be no change unless we make the change ourselves.
I look around Las Vegas where I live, and still, you see it. The first thing that a working guy does when he starts making money is go buy a big vehicle. To the typical Joe, the cost of the American lifestyle, centered around status and/or macho mobility, is $45,000 for a big pick-up and $3.85 a gallon. Is it because American men don't get it or they don't mind that the cost of our mass consumption requiring all this petroleum is trillions of dollars for our war machine that sends our troops anywhere & everywhere NOT where there's "islamo-fascims" but where there's OIL. We could have taken the trillions to develop alternative energy & mass transporation systems, but AMERICANS WANT THAT BIG GUZZLER, hell or high water. Any politician who talks too much SierraClub-ese gets sent packing. Unfortunately, it will take a CATACLYSM to change our ways, and it is only a matter of WHEN not IF. I shudder to think how we will pay for our greed & profligacy and refusal to change from our damn-you-I-want-my-truck mentality.
How America Is Squandering Its Wealth and Power
No one is suggesting an isolationist stance. This, in fact, would further erode our position in the world.
However, Americans should and must re-evaluate our life styles to make them more consistent with the facts that exist in this world. We are not entitled to change the world. We are only entitled to live on this planet in a manner that benifits all and does not destroy the future for the sake of an arrogant present.
We do not have the right to force anyone's beliefs to confrom to ours. We can not even do this legitimately to Americans, although many try.
RESPONSE
Good points here. But, after WW2 if America had taken an isolationist approach, would the world as a whole have been really better off?
Bacevich is mostly right, but...
"Most important is to see the connection between the American way of life and the foreign policy that our government conducts. There are some critics of American foreign policy, Noam Chomsky, for instance, who portray U.S. foreign policy as a great conspiracy where certain elites pull the wool over the eyes of the people to benefit themselves and their cronies. I've come to believe that U.S. foreign policy is broadly conceived to reflect the will of the American people."
There certainly is a strong connection between the American way of life and foreign policy, but Bacevich is wrong to suggest that the public has much input at all in its formulation. In suggesting the above he marginalizes the hugely important role of propaganda and secrecy in producing the elbow room for policymakers to conduct all sorts of foreign operations that are both positive and negative relative to the lives of Americans. Was the war in Iraq a product of American popular opinion? No, but massive propaganda efforts produced positive opinion polls and linked Saddam to 9/11. Does the average American appreciate how much military support his/her country sends to Israel, Egypt, Colombia, and other nations that torture their own people? Of course not, but these policies are in service of the economy the average American sometimes benefits from. Does the American public support "free trade" as it stands now, and do current trade arrangements favor the average American? Actually, mostly no on both counts.
Americans can be blamed for failing to pay enough attention to foreign policy, but to the degree that they might try to do so they are misinformed by a mainstream media that is decidedly pro-corporate, and that consistently follows the Washington line. I recommend "A Legacy of Ashes," by Tim Weiner, "Nemisis," by Chalmers Johnson, and "Manufacturing Consent," by Chomsky (see also the footnotes to his Understanding Power at http://www.understandingpower.com/) to further perfect the valuable picture Bacevich has helped develop.
Thousands of Arabs die in the Iraq War
From the interview to Mr Bacevich ( the author of the book ) :
"Are you wary of new declarations of victory in Iraq?
We must also ask what we've actually won. In the first place, we've lost over 4,000 American lives and thousands of others injured. We've spent $800 billion and yet have done next to nothing to advance the cause of changing the Middle East, which was the reason for the war in the first place."
My comments :
Yes Mr Bacevich, Good Points, I want your book.
But add the thousands upon thousands of Iraquis ( Arabs or Moslems ) who have died uselessly.
How many ?
This is a topic for the Future. Perhaps more than 100,000 and close to 200,000. This is for Future Research by Future Historians.
Who is going to love America for these absurd deads ?
It is very easy to say that all, including women, children and the old, are despicable terrorists. But nobody is going to believe such absurdity in the Future.
The thousands of Iraquis who have died
From the interview to Mr Bacevich ( the author of the book ) :
"Are you wary of new declarations of victory in Iraq?
We must also ask what we've actually won. In the first place, we've lost over 4,000 American lives and thousands of others injured. We've spent $800 billion and yet have done next to nothing to advance the cause of changing the Middle East, which was the reason for the war in the first place."
My comments :
Yes Mr Bacevich, Good Points, I want your book.
But add the thousands upon thousands of Iraquis ( Arabs or Moslems ) who have died uselessly.
How many ?
This is a topic for the Future. Perhaps more than 100,000 and close to 200,000. This is for Future Research by Future Historians.
Who is going to love America for these absurd deads ?
It is very easy to say that all, including women, children and the old, are despicable terrorists. But nobody is going to believe such absurdity in the Future.
Everything in this article makes sense except lumping the word "entitlements" in with our problems with energy consumption and consumption in general. Social Security and Medicare are not broke. They are so flush (so far) as to have actually lent $2,000,000,000,000.00 to the other dysfunctions of government. The baby ain't the bathwater. Without those programs, the middle class would disappear and be as broke as Uncle Sam with merely the few millionaires to billionaries remaining. That's an America not worth having for fighting for at all.
