This is thoughtful. In an uncertain world our military strength is vital to defend ourselves and the kind of world we want to live in.
The illusion-free case for enhancing U.S. military mightBy Rosa Brooks
Don’t let the title fool you: Eliot A. Cohen’s newest book, “The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force,” isn’t a pro-war polemic. Instead, it’s very much in the “older, sadder, wiser” vein: Once seen as a cheerleader for the George W. Bush administration’s ambitious neo-conservative agenda, Cohen now offers a vision of American power largely stripped of illusion. The United States must enhance its military capabilities and remain engaged in shoring up the international order, he contends in this thoughtful and erudite book — but not because it is infallible. It’s simply that in this messy and uncertain world, there are currently no better alternatives.
Even though Cohen is passionate about a United States that is militarily powerful and internationally engaged, he is also a student of history, and for the most part, he owns up to recent U.S. failures. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States was “unprepared, intellectually and organizationally.” It made “fundamental misjudgments,” and the military adapted only haltingly and intermittently to the new forms of conflict it faced. Ultimately, Cohen concludes, the Iraq War, which he once staunchly supported, was “a mistake.” False intelligence about weapons of mass destruction damaged U.S. credibility, as did the abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. More broadly, the war strained civil-military relations, caused tensions with key U.S. allies and left the United States weaker rather than stronger.
Cohen is equally critical of American military and political leaders. Enamored of Special Operations forces and drone strikes, U.S. policymakers have confused tactical success with strategic progress, and the military has failed to invest in “the intellectual infrastructure” of hard power and to develop innovative new ways to bring in vital talent. . . .
IMO there is no need for America to enhance it's military might; why?
The US has for decades attempted to impose it's will upon the nations of planet Earth, and what has occurred during that time?
The world has morphed & progressed into a huge ball of sh!t larger than Uranus.
What else has occurred during that same time frame? The US government has neglected the battles we needed to fight here in our own backyard.
Why would a people, in this case Americans, believe that imposing their will, their military might, their attitude, etc., upon the planet change anything?
We (America) have enuff nuclear weapons to destroy the planet multiple times over; great. So do other nations; great.
Is it actually a reality for ANY nation to act, and to perform as the policeman of the planet?
When a policy of failed coercion (terrorism) is obviously not producing the desired result what does one do?
Does a nation continually feed at the trough of marginal success/failure when it obviously is not working?
That nation should look inward to build itself from within, educating it's people, building it's infrastructure, maintaining it's already supreme military powers, waiting until which time a true threat manifest itself upon our own shores, then and only then striking ONE decisive & brutal blow to the enemy that breaches our sovereignty.
Why can't America do that? We have the ability to do just that.
America has the ability to defeat any potential enemy militarily, yet our leadership has over the decades allowed US to become our own worst enemy; we have become a victim of our own misplaced aggressions & paranoia, all while we have failed our own here at home.
Irony rules the universe & the universe seeks balance.
For so many decades we have been blinded by our leaders that have failed US.
We could have been building ourselves up, instead of tearing down the world.
We have only ourselves to blame for our short sightedness, and for those we have elected.
We need some serious forgiveness but we will reap what we have sown.