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Wed 24 Dec, 2003 02:34 pm
Militarism
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They do it their way
Leader
Wednesday December 24, 2003
The Guardian
Even before the costs of the Iraq war and occupation, which themselves exceed $100bn, the United States had a regular defence budget this year of $334bn. The sum is larger than the combined defence spending totals of the 10 next largest military powers on the planet. For this outlay the US possesses the world's largest navy, the world's third largest air force and the world's sixth largest army, all of which are incomparably better equipped than their rivals, and employ a total of 1.43 million personnel between them. The US has taken part in 14 wars since Vietnam, and has troops of some sort stationed in the majority of the world's nations, with significant numbers in a dozen or more, from Iraq to our own.
To call the US a militaristic culture may be an exaggeration, but it is a pardonable one. This massive investment forms the bedrock of an intense national feeling in America about its armed forces. Pride in the military has become an essential theme in the national story, from George Washington to George Bush, represented in movies, monuments and an immense range of military literature. Though that narrative took a hit during and after Vietnam, it was rekindled in the Reagan years and has never looked back since. From the 50th anniversary of D-Day in 1994 onwards, modern middle America has been sustained by a renewed self-image of itself as heir to the "greatest generation". That connection was explicit in Mr Bush's Iraq speeches, and it has now reached a new apotheosis in Time magazine's decision to award its Person of the Year accolade to "the American soldier" in the aftermath of the Iraq war.
All of this will play well in Peoria. But the award shows precisely why some Americans just do not get it about other countries, this one included. Earlier this year, in his book Of Paradise and Power, Robert Kagan argued that the US and Europe now see the world differently. Naturally he placed the whole blame for this on the Europeans. Well, anyone who wants to understand why the US is indeed different from us, but why it also bears at least some of the responsibility for the current divergence of ways, would do well to read the current Time. From the front cover onwards, with its trio of posed soldiers - one white man, one black man and one white woman, all straight from central casting - the magazine exemplifies the gap between how America sees itself ("They are the face of America, its might and good will," as Time expresses it) and how so many others around the world see the current US administration and its military works.
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Does anyone recognise this as a true picture? (McT)
I do, and I'm in the US at the moment. That's why I think the choice of the soldier as Time's person of the year was a bad idea. Nothing like purposely re-inforcing negative stereotypes!
Great Britian was just like this at one point.
Look at the British Empire now.
Don't suppose for a second it cannot happen to us. And one way to speed us down that road would be to do to ourselves what Ronald Reagan forced the Soviet Union to do to itself...
...spend itself into the ground...piss it away on "I'm the biggest baddest SOB on the planet."
Frank Apisa wrote:Great Britian was just like this at one point.
Look at the British Empire now.
Don't suppose for a second it cannot happen to us. And one way to speed us down that road would be to do to ourselves what Ronald Reagan forced the Soviet Union to do to itself...
...spend itself into the ground...piss it away on "I'm the biggest baddest SOB on the planet."
Of course, that's obviously not happening now...
What bothers me is that this country is beginning to look a lot like France in the 1780's. Power is, in large part, based on illusion. If we suffer a major embarrassment in the middle east, given our huge public debt and fragile social makeup, there could be trouble.
The shrub still has time to pull a rabbit out of the hat, it's not over yet.
I guess I don't really believ they have the intelligence to put the rabbit there in the first place.
From this part of the planet, the US certainly looks very militaristic - from its very inception.
It was very striking travelling around to see how many monuments to wars there are in the US - especially in Washington, of course, which may very well have given me a very biased view!
Here, in Oz, there were many, many monuments to WWI - not so many to WWII - and that is it. There is a different tone to ours, too - they tend to be sad and pensive - a bit of "glorious dead" stuff for WWI - but mainly looking at the tragedy of war - apart from the Vietnam memorial, most US ones seem to be about victory and pride. Prolly not valid - but just an observation.
There was also, for me, a sense of armedness about the US - eg flags everywhere - even on private homes - a weird thing indeed, here.
I take Frank's point that all empires look much the same re this, though
hobitbob wrote:I guess I don't really believ they have the intelligence to put the rabbit there in the first place.
When you call it, the bunny will come at once :wink:
Happy Christmas downunder in the sun
I'd say it had already reached 31 by 7am this morning. We're having a typically hot, sticky Oz Christmas.
As to the topic of the thread. From OS the US is seen as militaristic, power hungry, paranoid, and isolationist.
We operate on a different scale over here. 31 on the Farenheit scale would be below freezing -- so the message is probably getting lost.
For the longest time I couldn't understand why "The desert steamed" at "45 degrees."
Sydney's 33C = 91.4F
And I"m sure it's above 33.
45C = 113F which is what we get when the hot westerly's blow.
oops; I was wrong, it's "The western Desert lives and breathes....At 45 degrees."
As I recall the conversion, if you take the temperature in Oz in Celsius (45 per Wilso), multiply by 9 and then divide by 5, and then add 32, you will come up with the temperature in "our " language. (113 F!). It might be time to take your tie off, Mr Wilso. That is hot!
Yep - bloody hot here!
I've just been outside, and scurried in again. Thank God for aircon!
and a Merry Christmas!