Our Military Obsession

The U.S. has nurtured a dangerous obsession with military might since the end of World War  II.  I say this as a former military officer who is proud of my service and proud of the service of my many close relatives who have had careers in the military.  Here is a simple fact. The U.S. spends more on its military each year than the next eight (8) countries combined!!  Here are the numbers for 2016 (the two numbers are total budget in billions of dollars and percent of GDP):

USA	611.2	3.3
China	215.7	1.9
Russia	69.2	5.3
Saudi Arabia	63.7	10
India	55.9	2.5
France	55.7	2.3
United Kingdom	48.3	1.9
Japan	46.1	1
Germany	41.1	1.2
South Korea	36.8	2.7

Note that Russia spends one ninth of the amount that the U.S. spends!!  And what in the world is Saudi Arabia doing spending 10% of its GDP on its military!  The absurdities in these numbers abound.

In a speech on the eve of his departure from the Presidency, Dwight Eisenhower, a career military man, warned of the potential dangers of a ‘military industrial complex’:

“A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction...

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence—economic, political, even spiritual—is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.

This speech came at a time when the cold war was in full bloom and a perceived arms race with the Soviet Union was dramatically increasing our military budget.  The so-called ‘missile gap’, a myth that the Soviets had superior numbers and capabilities in nuclear missiles, along with other paranoid fantasies about the spread of international communism, led to a veritable frenzy of military spending amidst dark predictions about the future.

The cold war ended in the late 90’s.  It is generally believed that we bankrupted the Soviet system through the arms race and that Ronald Reagan cleverly brought the USSR to its knees.  I think history will show that Mikhail Gorbachev was the real architect of the dramatic dismantling of the Soviet system and its stranglehold on Eastern Europe, a belief that is already almost universally embraced by Western Europeans.

However, the burden of the arms race was certainly a major factor in the evolution of the USSR.  How proud we should be of that accomplishment is open to debate. Had we recognized the legitimate concern that the USSR had for its defense and sovereignty after centuries of outside threats and incursion (the Nazi double cross being the most recent and devastating), and taken a more measured approach to engagement, then perhaps the Soviet Union could have evolved over time into a more stable and more democratic nation with less economic distress and less military angst.  Today’s autocratic Russia is hardly a testament to the success of our cold war strategy.

The role of our military in the last 30 years is also fraught with contradictions and massively expensive missteps.  Our 17-year-and-counting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may well go down as one of the worst mistakes in human history.  The cost in lives, limbs and opportunity are difficult to comprehend or catalog.  And our own losses pale in comparison to the woes that we have visited upon the nations that we have chosen to ‘rescue’.  Other than the occasional seductive successes of our Hollywood archetypal special forces, every military adventure we have undertaken has settled into a quagmire of unsolicited nation building and mass destruction.

I do not blame the soldiers and sailors.  The vast majority are good people who are performing a job to the best of their abilities, often under very challenging circumstances.  I don’t blame the generals and admirals either, to the extent that they are honest advocates for their profession and do not perjure themselves to prejudice our civilian decision makers.  I do blame our politicians for a lack of vision and imagination.  Reliance on military might and adventurism as our primary means to negotiate the troubled waters of the modern global community is a lazy and dangerous mistake.  The unintended consequences of our military follies will provide fodder for historical bemusement for years to come. If only we had learned from our many foolhardy forays.

It is time for the U.S. to see military power as a defensive, rarely used alternative to other forms of diplomacy and positioning.  The notion of the ‘indispensable nation’, a concept that Madeline Albright used to justify the use of military force by the U.S. as the guarantor of global peace, has proven to be a sophistic delusion.  Our use of force has not guaranteed peace, but rather ensured endless war.  We should not squander our treasure on more missiles or more warships, but rather invest it at home and abroad to support more stable and economically viable nations with functioning, honest political systems.  If we are truly the ‘exceptional’ Americans, then let’s do something exceptional!