“American approach to national security is fundamentally defective”
Published: 07 October, 2009, 11:21
Edited: 10 October, 2009, 04:01
TAGS: Military, NATO, Ukraine, Politics, Terrorism
The US has stuck for years to using military power in foreign policy, despite the fact that there is but a handful of problems that can be solved by brute force, says Andrew Bacevich professor at Boston University.
“The American people have to come to the recognition that our approach to national security is fundamentally defective,” he told RT.
“There are very important continuities between Bush and Obama, and I think one of the most important ones of these continuities has to do with the emphasis placed on the role of military power as the primary instrument of the US foreign policy. We spend lavishly on the Department of Defense, we don’t spend anything approximating lavishly on our State Department.”
Meanwhile the way in which Washington tried to fix problems like Iraq and Afghanistan by military force does little to help America’s national interests in those regions.
For instance, in Afghanistan the only interest the US has from the national security standpoint is not to let Al-Qaeda-like elements use it as a base. Surveillance of Afghani territory and destruction of Al-Qaeda bases does not require keeping an occupational force and maintaining costly counter-insurgency and nation-building campaigns, Bacevich says.
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I thing that US foreign policy is fundamentally defective. It relies on threats, sanctions and military action. This creates long-term problems. Instead of at least trying to make an honest effort to make peace with somegovernments, like N. korea and Iran, who are not threatening anyone and could be useful, the US just antagonizes and provokes them. If the US thinks that it can confront iran or N. korea and not suffer immense casualties, then it is truly deluded.
I am very pleased to see Andrew Bacevic on RT. He is an intellectual force to be reckoned with. But in US "mainstream" press, you would hardly know it. In fact, the vast and growing numbers of American progressive thinkers have been left outside of the national discussion. But the mainstream media is loosing its importance as the alternative media increasingly is the only one with some "real" information. One can find much more on the writings of Andrew Bacevic on Antiwar.com, and many other information sources gaining in popularity.
Fundamentally - the Patriot Act - in a State comprising Peoples from all around the World - is a piece of legislation that Hitler and the Nazi government would have been proud to call their own. It is a Statute that still has majority support by all in Congress and Government - including the Head of State - newly crowned as a "Peacenik". First and foremost, its Citizens need to have that Law abolished - forthwith. Second, the oligarchic power of the Military Industrial Complex has to be reined-in. Third, its Constitution, that many newly independent States aspire to ape, has to be that instrument to acheive this. Its Economy is in tatters - its Politics are archain - its Ideology benefts only the fatcat super rich. The force to acheive this - as in all countries is the "vanguard" of the organised sector of the Working Class. Its back to "Where To Begin?" and "What's To Be Done?" again. ///snowyone.