Post World War 2 America inserted itself into
every manner of international involvement, and that injecting of itself into
center stage demanded much from a people and a society.
The American people did not deliver, either
domestically or internationally. They
remained in the main unengaged and uninterested, acquiescing to interventionist
impulses of those they put in power and then promptly ceased vigilance on.
As strategies and strategists go, pretty much
a failure. The most they would get from
a generous but unbiased grader is a D- or D, but that would be due more to lucky events and the inherent
flaws of enemies than to forethought and will.
The US has blown the lull period. Sure, in the Cold War. But beyond that, especially, when so much
money and effort should have been made to rest and recuperate and even
advance. Instead, we got bases,
intervention, power projection, and general militarization, along with money
funneled in effectively corrupt trainloads to defense, intelligence,
“security,” etc. contractors. We built navies
and air forces that not only were largely effectively unused (and certainly not
for vital American interests), but wouldn’t have been regardless, probably even
if they had been the right type and amount (and they were neither). We DO need a United Nations Security Council (UNSC)
naval force for addressing piracy and keeping open the seas, but little else. We MIGHT need a UNSC air force.
There IS no perfect security. Everything you do to make your country MORE
secure militarily comes at a cost—a steep cost—to the very economic and social
health that is the true power of your society.
Can our Framers look any wiser? Or we any more foolish?
Historians are not going to be kind…
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