Andrew J. Bacevich, retired Army colonel and intellectual, offered some profound thoughts a while back to Bill Moyers. They have "reality check in the Great Disruption" written large on them:
D.C., but it reflects the perceptions of our political elite about what
we want, we the people want. And what we want, by and large – I mean,
one could point to many individual exceptions – but, what we want, by
and large is, we want this continuing flow of very cheap consumer
goods.
We want to be able to pump gas into our cars regardless of how
big they may happen to be, in order to be able to drive wherever we
want to be able to drive. And we want to be able to do these things
without having to think about whether or not the book's balanced at the
end of the month, or the end of the fiscal year. And therefore, we want
this unending line of credit.
And
There was a time, seventy, eighty, a hundred years ago, that we
Americans sat here in the western hemisphere, and puzzled over why
British imperialists went to places like Iraq and Afghanistan. We
viewed that sort of imperial adventurism with disdain. But, it's really
become part of what we do. Unless a President could ask fundamental
questions about our posture in the world, it becomes impossible then,
for any American President to engage the American people in some sort
of a conversation about how and whether or not to change the way we
live.
I think that “imperial adventurism” has more or less always been an aspect of U.S. foreign policy — certainly within the time frame cited by Col. Bacevich. We fought protracted counterinsurgency wars in the Phillippines (1899-1902 and beyond) and in the Dominican Republic (1917-21), for example, early in the 20th century:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine%E2%80%93American_War#War_against_the_United_States
https://countrystudies.us/dominican-republic/10.htm
Jon-please come home to Phoenix and exult in your perceptive comments when you were here.I know it probably won’t make any difference with the neanderthals but I would sure enjoy it.Your post reminds me of Tom Friedman’s new book and the fact we can no longer “act as dumb as we wanna be”Hopefully the new leadership can make this point with the American people.
I saw Bacevich’s interview and it was one of the most thoughtful and deep interviews I have seen on Moyers. If conservatives had listened to a true conservative voice like Bacevich’s, the Country and the Republicans (the Demos could learn something too) wouldn’t be in the mess they are now. And Bacevich is entirely right about how things are not going to change. I see the same old faces being appointed from the party machine.
Another voice against American imperialism is the forgotten Marine Corps Commandant, Smedley Butler — another great American.
So why no posts on the company that has ruined America — Goldman Sachs?
Jon-please come home to Phoenix and exult in your perceptive comments when you were here