The answer to this article's rhetorical title is an obvious "yes."
But my fear is, even if most Americans recognized this fact, would it bother them? Probably not. Even America's liberals don't seem very concerned. They advocate cutting the Pentagon budget, sure -- the same way conservatives vaguely advocate cutting "welfare," (which is mostly Medicare and Medicaid). Even liberals don't seem to realize how extensive the American Empire's reach is, how deeply it is committed to so many sovereign nations' security architecture, and how far and freakily our generals are looking into the future of war -- not to ensure America's security, but to create total global U.S. military dominance with things like untouchable orbiting space weapons and killer robots.
As for the conservatives, I'm even more afraid, because their conception of patriotism is so inextricably linked to a muscular, activist, "kick-ass" U.S. military. Arch-neoconservative William Kristol famously asked, in advocating a preventive war against Iraq, what good is having the strongest military in the world if we're not going to use it? Use is the operative word here. What's the use of our military -- I mean, what should it be used for?
Most Americans would probably answer, "For national defense." But the most imminent threat we face is from terrorists, against whom conventional weapons are expensive and useless. Much less likely, but much more dire, is the threat of nuclear war -- most likely, a rogue missile launch, but perhaps also a suitcase nuke. And yet a U.S. military buildup is clearly not the best way to prevent nuclear attack either. (Don't even get me started on missile defense, which is a bad joke). Anti-proliferation efforts like Nunn-Lugar, the ABM treaty (which the Bush Administration voluntarily opted out of), and universal customs screening of all imported goods for nuclear materials are the most cost-effective and plain effective ways to mitigate the nuclear threat, and yet we don't hear about them. Nor do we hear about Russia not having enough money to secure its nuclear stockpile, which could lead to suitcase nukes on U.S. soil, or about Russia's old and failing radar early-warning and control systems, which could lead to an accidental nuclear missile launch.
This quote from Engelhardt is a call to return to true American conservatism. Those who look to venerable dead white men (our Founding Fathers) as the repository of America's eternal governing wisdom should especially take note:
"The early Republic that the most hawkish conservatives love to cite was a land whose leaders looked with suspicion on the very idea of a standing army. They would have viewed our hundreds of global garrisons, our vast network of spies, agents, Special Forces teams, surveillance operatives, interrogators, rent-a-guns and mercenary corporations, as well as our staggering Pentagon budget and the constant future-war gaming and planning that accompanies it, with genuine horror."
By Tom Engelhardt
September 17, 2009 | The Nation
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