Read Jake Whitney's interview with Andrew Bacevich in Guernica magazine. Bacevich, author of Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War, breakdowns America's policy of perpetual war. His opinions are timely, wise, and solution-driven.
Bacevich is critical of all sides, he says governments and citizens both share the responsibility of transforming America from an oil-dependent beast to a sustainable, enlightened, peaceful, and safe country.
Bacevich says that the divide between Washington D.C. and the rest of America is serious, and that it will get larger if the idea of permanent war is not rejected by U.S. leaders because the "well-being of the country" is not served by it.
Guernica: In Washington Rules, you define Washington as not only policymakers but also corporations and financial institutions that directly benefit from America remaining in a state of perpetual war. Are you saying that Wall Street is also part of the military-industrial complex?
Andrew Bacevich: No question about it. In my book I refer to something I call the American credo. That is the claim that the United States alone has been called upon to lead, liberate, save, and transform the world: If we fail to shoulder the task then the world will be thrown into chaos. There is not an iota of evidence to support this proposition. But it is one that is deeply embedded in the thinking of corporate America, in the thinking of the people that run the New York Times or CBS news. It pervades the institutions that comprise the national security state—the CIA, chiefs of staff, military services. But I argue that these convictions stem not only from a perception of what is good for the country but also from what is good for the institutions and the people who lead them. The national security consensus may well serve these institutions; the Washington rules do provide the basis for the Pentagon to argue for its budget; the Washington rules do provide opportunities for generals and admirals to fly about the world in their executive jets. But the Washington rules no longer serve the well-being of the country. People in Washington are blind to that reality.
Guernica: A point that you’ve repeatedly made is that a key moment on our path to permanent war was when Nixon ditched the draft in the nineteen seventies because it disengaged most Americans from wars fought in their name.
Andrew Bacevich: Yes, the abandonment of the draft and the concept of the citizen-soldier—as well as the refusal of the present generation to pay for wars. We don’t serve and we won’t pay: these two factors together have created circumstances in which Washington has acquired ever greater latitude in terms of deciding when and where to send the army. To state the matter starkly, it’s no longer America’s army, it’s now Washington’s.
In the last sentence Bacevich is raising a point that many people, including myself, take for granted. It is a serious state of affairs when the deployment of the country's military doesn't benefit the country as a whole, but a well-connected few.
Contrary to what war hawks claim, a government that starts wars on false grounds and sticks its nose in other people's affairs isolates itself from its own citizens and the international community. Bacevich, and others who criticize the American empire in similar ways are not isolationists or impractical. The isolationists are the ones that advocate dropping bombs on villages and towns because they're too conceited to sit down, and talk with other groups and nations eye-to-eye.
A state of perpetual war cannot last. The war-crazed regime in Washington is acting against the basic moral laws of the universe by continuing its illegal presence in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries in the Middle East.
To date, no proof has been given by the U.S. government that the governments of Afghanistan and Iraq were responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, nor have they provided evidence that either of them allowed a safe harbor in their country for the perpetrators who were involved in the 9/11 attacks.
Citizens of the world, including millions of Americans, are continuing the call for a new criminal investigation of 9/11 to find out which parties are truly culpable so that they be brought to justice.
