A retired colonel in the US Army, Andrew Bacevich, has written an important book about perpetual war, which makes one realize that such a situation, as we have now in Afghanistan, and with continued involvement in Iraq, and now possibly a war in Korea renewed, is a tragic situation which will lead to the downfall of the United States as a superpower! 🙁
Bacevich, a former West Point instructor, member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a professor of international relations at Boston University, has published a book about the Vietnam War and the opposition, at the time, of Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman.
Bacevich utilizes this book on Fulbright to point out that we now have a situation that is being made permanent with the unwillingness of President Barack Obama to decide to withdraw from a war in Afghanistan which cannot be won, is bleeding our economy, and preventing us from dealing with the domestic crisis we face as a nation since the collapse of Wall Street in 2008! 🙁
Pointing out that we spend $700 billion per year on defense, more than all of the other nations of the world combined, Bacevich warns that we are going down the road of disaster, and that Obama is caving in to the defense establishment by continuing the involvement in Afghanistan at a time when many NATO nations are cutting back, and others, such as Great Britain, are making clear their limits on future commitment!
Bacevich asserts that we need to rebuild our own society, and that we cannot afford the financial cost for “permanent” war, and have limits on troops available for constant warfare! We cannot be global policemen, and occupy dozens of countries with our military so many years after World War II and Korea! Bacevich concludes that the Founding Fathers would be shocked to see us as much involved overseas as we are now in the 21st century! 🙁
Of course, others come out in support of what our government is doing, and call Bacevich an old style isolationist, but when one realizes that a great portion of our national debt has been for war and defense, and that we are hemorrhaging so much funding for the military at a time of desperation at home, Bacevich just seems to make a lot of sense, and causes one to have to sit and reflect on his message in a serious manner! 🙁