Insurance or Intimidation?

Two contrasting views:

"If our air forces are never used, they have achieved their finest goal." - Gen. Nathan Twining, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1957

"What's the point of having this superb military that you're always talking about if we can't use it?" - Madeline Albright to Colin Powell, 1993

The Founding Fathers made it pretty clear they considered large standing militaries a threat to republican government. Like every legitimate function of government, they understood that national defense could be a power perverted to unauthorized and dangerous uses. The very existence of such a potent force leads to the temptation to wield it, whether its use is justified or not. Thus, while the president was made 'Commander-in-chief,' Congress was given the power to declare war and raise forces. No one person was to have the ability to commit the nation to the fortunes of war. Only when the nation was truly threatened, they reasoned, would there be the public will behind Congress to call out the militia and let slip the dogs of war.

As with so many other safeguards, however, this set has eroded due to the natural tendency for power to concentrate and corrupt. A nation that once relied on militia for timely defense now spends more on its standing forces than the rest of the world combined. Congress routinely demurs to the President's foreign policy, issuing blank checks to be cashed at will on new battlefields. And even the so-called part-time citizen soldier now finds they are a part of the Federal machine... so much so, the President wants the right to call up the Guard even without the Governors' permission, and the Guard may even get a position on the Federal Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Gen. Twining was right: maintaining military power is akin to buying insurance--you hope it's an investment you never require. Human nature being what it is, though, the temptation to project force is hard to resist. Men have ever aspired to global hegemony, and are at their most dangerous when they think they have a chance to pull it off. Now that we're accustomed to speaking (not so) softly and SWINGING the big stick instead of just carrying it, all our problems look like a job for the U.S. military. It's a one-dimensional trap of policy thinking that's unsustainable, though it will cause no end of problems to our republic before it inevitably runs out of steam.

"It’s breathtaking. <Bush> has occupied and made rubble of two Moslem countries, and heavily supports Israel, hated by all Moslem countries, in turning Lebanon, a third Moslem country into rubble, and is threatening Syria and Iran, two more Moslem countries, with attack, possibly nuclear. By doing this he is going to inspire Moslems with a passion for American democracy, change the Mid-East into Fifth Century Athens, and make them love us. God Almighty, what a fool. What a bus-station clown. It isn’t how people work."