Letters to the Editor
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Demgraphics are Destiny
The Military is only one approach to spreading "democracy," and it's the most costly and least effective way to do so. The armed forces have become a solution looking for a problem to solve.
With an aging population we simply are not in a position to fight wars the way we used to. Even the military planners understand that. You see their recognition in the emphasis on remote warfare, robot soldiers and airborne drone weapons platforms. You see the results in the very small number of US casualties in comparison to losses in previous wars. And yet, technology is facing a demographic tide that is sweeping all else aside.
The future belongs to the young. Once we were young. Now, as a country, we are old. There is just no way to kill enough of them. The young keep reproducing. They keep coming, in waves. Waves of immigrants, waves of the hungry, the poor, people seeking better lives.
Our military is facing the life force.
It might also be a good idea to know what we mean by "democracy" when we spread it. That too would give us other clues as to who best to do so.
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Thank you, FreeOregon
You have said it so much better than I have in my several letters - we are exhausted, spending so much of our energy (in our middle age) on trying to control a world that is not our property, and that cannot be controlled, even by a country in it's prime.
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Mother Courage
Bertolt Brecht was right. In his play 'Mother Courage' he put his finger on the problem. War makes some people extremely rich and America has become Armourer to the World. The drive to war then becomes a corporate matter. Eisenhower warned about all this but no one listened and now the US has reached the exact situation he warned against. War has become an industry and as long as this goes on wars will be manufactured to order. Like Iraq. Is it any wonder these maniacs preach about 'endless war'. Endless war and endless profit. The size of the army is irrelevant: it's the corporate war mentality and the extraordinary amounts of money to be made that drives the disaster.
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A Large Military Must Be Used To Justify Its Cost
We should never forget Madelyn Albright's question to Gen. Colin Powell, "Why have this superb military unless you are willing to use it?" Though Powell has said "this nearly gave me an aneurism" as a good soldier he followed Dybya's order "put on your uniform" and played a key role in starting this war with his appearance at the U.N. which was the first open step leading to the present fiasco from which we are unable to extricate ourselves. Dubya is like a casino player with a streak of bad luck using American lives to double his bet from Iraq to Iran. Did Hitler once tell an aide the reason for Germany to have such a large military force "I did not build it to merely view it on parade; I intend to use it."?