What is Reddit's opinion of The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War?

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Currently reading a very insightful book on this subject from the perspective of a former darling of the right; The New American Militarism by Andrew Basevich.

Viewing war as "normal" rather than aberrant is incredibly dangerous to a democracy, doubly so when you create a professional class and then declare them entirely above reproach. It insulates the citizenry too much from war's costs and impacts while also creating powerful incentives for perpetuating conflicts.

Please read a book by Ret US Army Colonel Andrew J Bacevich.

I can't speak to some of his most recent books but The New American Militarism: How Americans are Seduced by War is excellent.

The article is presenting an argument that isn't all that new, I myself first encountered it in Andrew Bacevich's The New American Militarism. Bacevich takes Tom Clancy to task much in the same way that this author is criticizing Call of Duty, though I would personally argue that Tom Clancy is a much better whipping boy than the obviously exaggerated storylines of Call of Duty. He complains that Call of Duty feeds into rightwing conspiracy theories regarding Benghazi, but in the very next paragraph intimates that the US "Obliterated" a convoy of retreating Iraqi soldiers (not, AFAIK, a crime or even morally wrong) and killed civilians. Yet the claim that there was any significant number of civilians in the convoys are undermined by the complete lack of evidence to support the claim. According to most accounts and analyses of the HoD, almost none of the convoy's supposed 10,000 members were even killed! The highest I've personally ever seen was 500. Of those, there has never been AFAIK any attempt to calculate the number of civilians killed. But its very telling that one of the first teams on the ground in that area was a BBC film crew. Despite later claims (by people who were not on the team) they, nor any other film crew, produced images of civilian casualties. Despite having taken photos and videos of numerous Iraqi dead. To maintain otherwise, then, is to indulge in another very convoluted conspiracy theory.

I also wonder how much CoD really presents American power as a good or positive thing. Many of the games are, IMO, very cynical about American power. The things you do are so obviously illegal and unethical. I would think even a young gamer would know that you shouldn't kill prisoners, or torture suspects. To put another way, Im not even sure CoD is really even the most egregious example of the ways in which American media pushes and sanitizes militarism. The militarism in CoD isnt even that clean! This is why I bring up the Bacevich book. There are a lot more works out there that treat war like Tom Clancy than like Call of Duty. Films and shows and games that show the military as a total unadulterated good, that service is always noble and the "the troops" never do anything wrong. You see a similar analogue with cop shows. "The bad guy" always does the worst possible things. Theyre undeniably evil. When cops confront them they always confess (has anyone else ever noticed that? 90% of cop shows end with a genuine confession). And so whatever injustice the cop does to get from A to B, even if the kill or torture or break the law, then its okay because the perp deserves it. I think there are a lot of movies about the GWOT that do the same thing, especially media that focuses on SOF units and operations.

But this isn't all that surprising. The author defends this same treatment of WWII, after all the Nazis were bad and every German was a Nazi right? Nazism is bad, but maybe there is also a problem with CoD:WWII presenting the Germans or the Japanese as a nameless faceless bad guy. Perhaps it isn't the media at all, but the way that Americans themselves choose to visualize war. War as a 100% moral struggle between wrong and right in which we, the right and just side, can do whatever it takes to win. Everything is excusable if it brings victory. But isnt that a flawed, shallow way of looking at military conflict.

 

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https://www.amazon.com/New-American-Militarism-Americans-Seduced/dp/0199931763

Show 27, "Warrantless Eavesdropping & Intellectual Diversity", published December 20, 2005

From the foam-encrusted, sound-proof fortified compound...

Topics, and Dan's opinions

Monologue: Bush is making the poor argument that Article 2 permits the warrantless eavesdropping his administration had been doing in secret. He exaggerates the threat the enemy poses to justify this, but our nation has faced larger threats in the past without giving up so much of our freedom. This crippling level of paranoia is Unamerican. This is a power grab by the Executive branch, undermining the balance of power. Bush argues that even talking about it helps the enemy, but that's an argument against oversight, which will extend to countless other presidents in the future, who may be less trustworthy. The solution is to "trust, but verify", and in order to verify, we need transparency. If not, this cancer of no oversight will vindicate the idea that long wars are the death of republics.

...Encouragement to email Dan...

Book recommendation: The New American Militarism amazon.com/New-American-Militarism-Americans-Seduced/dp/0199931763

Updates: Despite the fact that the UN exists to prevent war, they are pulling out of Eritrea because it's looking like there will be a war there. chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-12/15/content_503596.htm

A student claimed he was visited by federal agents for requesting a copy of Mao Zedong's "The Little Red Book." This may seem alarming, but after this podcast was published, the student admitted he made the whole story up. alt.politics.libertarian.narkive.com/MPOaFicI/feds-visit-student-for-reading-mao-s-little-red-book insidehighered.com/news/2005/12/28/little-red-book-big-fat-lie

Pushes to ban parents from smoking in their own homes around children is yet another step down a slippery slope that legitimizes all sorts of other restrictions to our freedoms. washingtontimes.com/news/2005/dec/15/20051215-112826-9119r/

The argument that socialized medicine will be fine in the US because it's going fine in other countries is a poor argument, as evidenced by a UK smoker who is being refused surgery until he kicks the habit.

Root causes: There are a disproportionate number of liberal professors at universities. This is exacerbated by hiring policies written by liberals. We should want our kids to be exposed to a wide variety of views, not indoctrinated.

Miscellaneous

Nixon: "when the President does it, that means it is not illegal"

The UK has gotten even stricter about requiring lifestyle changes before helping the sick: dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4990970/Smokers-face-breath-tests-surgery.html

Here's a great book on this:

The New American Milatarism

https://www.amazon.com/New-American-Militarism-Americans-Seduced/dp/0199931763

Military corporations are generally rivals of each other, hence there is no single grand conspiracy.

However there exists a system of legalized bribery thanks to lobbyists, who basically ensure that both Team Red and Team Blue support "national defense" that help defense corporations get more contracts. Think Tanks and various "defense publications" they fund or editorialize further help shape public opinion, and help defend the bribed politicians.

This is why there is no anti-war party in the US anymore, only two forever war parties.

https://www.amazon.com/New-American-Militarism-Americans-Seduced/dp/0199931763

Unfortunately, Americans themselves are too seduced by this new forever war militarism; which is why there is widespread denial of how the MIC - no matter its specific details - have in fact gravely damaged America's place in the world and their national security.

In short, MIC is not a grand conspiracy - but the lies to help justify a few bribes to get a few more defense contracts in fact do have an enormously bad effect to the nation as a whole. This is why governments used to hang war profiteers.