Editing and excerpting by Carolyn Bennett from Andrew J. Bacevich’s The Limits of Power: the End of American Exceptionalism.
The passing of the Cold War yielded no “‘peace dividend’. Nor anything remotely resembling peace,” Bacevich begins The Limits of Power. When the East-West standoff called by some the ‘Long Peace’ ended in 1991, the United States had already embarked on a decade of unprecedented interventionism.
In the years that followed, “Americans became inured to reports of U.S. forces going into action — fighting in Panama and the Persian Gulf, occupying Bosnia and Haiti, lambasting Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Sudan from the air.” All of these turned out to be but an overture. In 2001 came the main event, open-ended global war on terror — known in some quarters as the ‘Long War.’
The price of the long war is high indeed.
“The United States today finds itself threatened by three interlocking crises, Andrew Bacevich writes. The crises are “economic and cultural, political, and military.” All share a critical characteristic: “they are of our own making.”
We embrace an unexamined notion of freedom as consumption, which threatens society, individuals, and our posterity. Entrenched powers insist on our dependency as freedom — as nine-eleven shoppers. Heinous acts are committed in the name of it and entrenched powers reap great dividends from the people’s perpetual dependence.
Freedom as dependence, exceptionalism
“For the United States the pursuit of freedom, as defined in an age of consumerism,” Bacevich writes, “has induced a condition of dependence—on imported goods, on imported oil, and on credit. The chief desire of the American people, whether they admit it or not, is that nothing should disrupt their access to those goods, that oil, and that credit. The chief aim of the U.S. government is to satisfy that desire, which it does in part through the distribution of largesse at home (with Congress taking a leading role) and in part through the pursuit of imperial ambitions abroad (largely the business of the executive branch).”
Meaningful action to reduce U.S. dependency is nonexistent—Why? Because “The centers of authority within [federal] Washington—above all, the White House and the upper echelons of the national security state—actually benefit from this dependency: It provides the source of status, power, and prerogatives.”
Imagine, for example, “the impact on the Pentagon were this country actually to achieve anything approaching energy independence. U.S. Central command would go out of business. Dozens of bases in and around the Middle East would close. The navy’s Fifth Fleet would stand down. Weapons contracts worth tens of billions would risk cancelation.”
Instead of “addressing the problem of dependence, members of our political class [are] hell-bent on exacerbating the problem,” says Bacevich. “Rather than acknowledging that American power is not limitless, they pursue policies that actually accelerate the depletion of that power—this most assuredly has been the case since 9/11.…
“In the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Washington’s resolve that nothing [should] interfere with the individual American’s pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness hardened. That resolve found expression in the Bush administration’s with-us-or-against-us rhetoric, in its disdain for the United Nations and traditional American allies, in its contempt for international law, and above all in its embrace of preventive war.”
Collaboration, containment strategies
After 9/11, President George W. Bush abandoned substantive collaborative and containment approaches.
“No president had ever told so many other governments what they ‘must’ do, with such unvarnished insistence. Bush obliged nations to choose: They could align themselves with the United States, or they would find themselves pitted against the world’s only superpower.…”
War after 9/11 became a seemingly permanent condition. “In the Pentagon, senior military officers spoke in terms of ‘generational war,’ lasting up to a century. Two weeks after 9/11, then-U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld instructed Americans to ‘forget about exit strategies [and look] at a sustained engagement [carrying] no deadlines.’…
“Hubris and sanctimony have become the paramount expression of American statecraft. After 9/11, they combined to produce the Bush administration’s war of no exits and no deadlines.
Instead of endless war or global war on terror, Bacevich recalls a better, tried-and-true alternative to perpetual war.
“A strategy that aims to contain violent extremists would likely be far more agreeable to American allies and could persuade them to shoulder a greater portion of the load. Reinventing containment, however, does not mean creating a new NATO or funding a new Marshall Plan. It means intensified surveillance of Islamist activity combined with sustained, multilateral police efforts to prevent terrorist attacks and to root out terrorist networks. It should deny [violent] Islamists the sanctuary and the wherewithal—especially financial wherewithal—necessary to pursue their agenda.
“Containment during the Cold War did not preclude selective engagement. Nor should it today.
“A strategy of containment should permit and even underwrite educational, cultural, and intellectual exchanges. It should provide opportunities for selected students from the Islamic world to study in the West; and it ought to include a public diplomacy component.”
Added to this, “Americans ought to give up the presumptuous notion that they are called upon to tutor Muslims in matters related to freedom and the proper relationship between politics and religion. The principle informing policy should be this: Let Islam be Islam. In the end, Muslims will have to discover for themselves the shortcomings of political Islam, much as Russians discovered the defects of Marxism-Leninism and Chinese came to appreciate the flaws of Maoism—…even as we ourselves will one day begin to recognize the snares embedded in American exceptionalism.”
The Citizen
Into the mix of progressive thought and action, overcoming an oppressively dangerous status quo, comes the citizen and citizenry “reeducation” and responsibility.
The belief that all (or even much) will be well, if only the right person assumes the presidency or commander in chief of the armed forces is merely to underwrite the status quo, Bacevich says. “Counting on the next president to fix whatever is broken promotes expectations of easy, no-cost cures, permitting ordinary citizens to absolve themselves of responsibility for the nation’s predicament…
“Rather than seeing the imperial presidency as part of the problem, [citizens] persist in the fantasy that a chief executive, given a clear mandate, will ‘change’ the way Washington works and restore the nation to good health. Yet to judge by presidents’ performances over the past half century, including both [John F.] Kennedy and [Ronald] Reagan (whose legacies are far more mixed than their supporters will acknowledge), a citizenry that looks to the White House for deliverance is assured of disappointment.”
Ultimately a nation must act out of its own and the world’s interests.
“Acknowledging the limits of American power is a precondition for stanching the losses of recent decades and for preserving the hard-won gains of earlier generations going back to the founding of the Republic… A nation satisfies its interests more easily when those interests are compatible with the interests of others.…
“A realistic appreciation of limits…creates opportunities to adjust policies and replenish resources—perhaps even to renew institutions. Constraints subject old truths to reconsideration, promote fresh thinking, and unleash creativity.”
Source and notes
Andrew J. Bacevich is Boston University professor of history and international relations.
The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (Bacevich, Andrew J), New York: Metropolitan Books, 2008, pages 1, 2, 6, 10, 171-177
Showing posts with label U..S. foreign policy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label U..S. foreign policy. Show all posts
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Sacrifice unlamented ─ incapable-of-rising dead
Re-reported, compiled, edited with comment by Carolyn Bennett
Holiday casualties, costs, critics and loss; obstructionists, deniers, debaters and liars ─ U.S. theaters of WAR
Casualty sites reporting
April 4, 2010 (accurate totals unknown, usual reporting not updated)
• Anti-war dot com March 19, 2003 ─ [Since the Obama inauguration January 20, 2009: 159] Wounded 31,762-100,000; U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000; Suicides 18 a day [April 1 update], http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
• Iraq Body Count figures documented civilian deaths from violence: 95,775 – 104,481, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,387 U.S., 4,705 Coalition; AFGHANISTAN: 1,034 U.S., 1,713 Coalition http://icasualties.org/oif/
Who permits and who prohibits criticism?
Who is allowed to criticize and who is protected from criticism?
War costs
Warmongers’ kin
Roughly, 120,000 foreign troops occupy Afghanistan, a figure scheduled to reach close to 150,000 by year’s end. U.S. deployment by the summer will have risen from about 34,000 personnel when Obama took office last year to 100,000, according to Al Jazeera reports at the end of March and start of April.
Thousands of NATO and Afghan troops have launched a massive offensive in southern Afghanistan. This is the largest offensive since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. U.S. and NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan total approximately 113,000. Another estimated 40,000 troops will descend on Afghanistan in the coming months.
March 29, 2010
Afghanistan
U.S. president Barack Obama during a six-hour surprise visit last Sunday in Afghanistan met with President Hamid Karzai and called on that country to crack down on corruption and promote the rule of law.
March 31, 2010
Afghanistan
Seventeen people died and 45 suffered injuries on Wednesday when a bomb concealed on a bicycle exploded in a crowded village market in the southern Afghan province of Helmand where farmers had gathered to receive free seeds from government officials. Eight children were among the casualties.
April 3, 2010
Afghanistan
An estimated five Afghan troops died on Friday in the northern Kunduz province when German soldiers opened fire on Afghans attempting to support other troops involved in heavy fighting with suspected Taliban. A German central command statement confirmed the incident on Saturday. Three German soldiers had been killed when forces on a bridge-building, mine-clearing mission had been ambushed by around 200 Taliban fighters. Since 2001, 22 German soldiers have died in the fighting in Afghanistan, 138 suffered wounds. Fifteen thousand German troops are on the ground; amidst German citizens’ resistance to sending more troops to Afghanistan, 800 or more are scheduled to be deployed. A German general has said that the NATO force in Afghanistan was planning, for later this year, an offensive against the Taliban in Kunduz.
April 3, 2010
Afghanistan
Afghan president Hamid Karzai acknowledged on Thursday that there had been widespread fraud in his country’s most recent presidential and provincial council elections, but “‘Afghans did not do this fraud,’” he said; “‘the foreigners did this fraud.… Foreigners will make excuses [and] do not want us to have a parliamentary election… They want parliament to be weakened and battered and for me to be an ineffective president and for parliament to be ineffective.’”
Karzai singled out Peter Galbraith for having organized the fraud and fed details to the international media in an attempt to blacken his name. The United Nations allegedly dismissed Galbraith after he criticized the UN for failing to do enough to combat voter fraud in Afghanistan. Karzai’s accusatory comments on Thursday, following U.S. President Barack Obama’s accusations of Afghan corruption, prompted angry reactions from Afghan rivals and international diplomats. In a telephone call on Friday with the U.S. Secretary of State, Karzai reportedly explained remarks accusing foreign diplomats and the United Nations of organizing massive fraud during last year’s presidential election.
April 4, 2010
Afghanistan
United States forces in Afghanistan are planning, for later this year, a major military attack on Kandahar. This Taliban-controlled province is home to more than two million people. Al Jazeera reporter David Chater travelled to Kandahar to hear what people think about the planned U.S. military operation. His report found “Fears over U.S. Kandahar offensive.”
April 4, 2010
Iraq
Thirty people died and 224 suffered wounds when a series of three car bombings occurred today close to Iranian, German and Egyptian embassies across Baghdad. Hours before Sunday’s blasts, Iraq’s Green Zone, hosting many international agencies and government buildings in the capital, came under mortar fire. Outside Baghdad, more casualties occurred: three people died and 25 suffered wounds when a car bomb exploded in the northern city of Mosul. Alleged targets were Law enforcement.
April 5, 2010
Pakistan [update]
More than 30 people died and 100 suffered wounds today when a series of bombs exploded across Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Bombs went off first at a political rally in the Lower Dir district town of Timargarah, then near the U.S. consulate in the main city of the North West Frontier Province, Peshawar.…
Pakistani Taliban representative Azam Tariq, announcing his group’s responsibility for the attack in which six people died, said, ‘Americans are our enemies …We carried out the attack on their consulate in Peshawar. We plan more such attacks.’ Four attackers and two security people died in that attack.…
Pakistan’s intelligence agency headquarters at Peshawar, close to which security forces today were reported firing their weapons, had been bombed in November of 2009…In the past three years, more than 3,150 people have died in bomb attacks in Pakistan.
April 2, 2010
Pakistan
Pakistan’s attorney-general Anwar Mansoor resigned on Friday over what he termed the government’s obstruction of Supreme Court orders to investigate the president for corruption.
The country’s parliament is currently debating a piece of legislation that will reduce the presidency to a ceremonial role. Submitted to parliament’s lower house (or the national assembly) on Friday, the bill aims to transfer powers from President Asif Ali Zardari to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
The measure known as the 18th Amendment Bill is, according to Gilani, “‘unprecedented’” in Pakistan history. The legislation seeks to reverse constitutional changes adopted by former military ruler (President) Pervez Musharraf.
April 2, 2010
Palestine
Claiming to be responding to rocket fire from Gaza, Israeli planes and helicopters on Friday launched a string of air attacks on the Gaza Strip. Among the wounded were three Palestinian children. Palestinian medical sources reported at least seven missiles targeted various sites in Gaza. Hamas blamed the Israelis for escalating tensions. Four Friday air attacks destroyed two caravans near the town of Khan Younis; a fifth missile hit and set on fire a cheese factory in Gaza City; the head of Palestinian emergency services in Gaza reported that the Palestinian children hit by flying glass were ages two, four and 11.
Two Israeli soldiers and two armed Palestinians died in clashes when Israeli tanks made a brief incursion into Gaza. On Tuesday, a Palestinian teenager died when Israeli troops fired on protesters near the border of the blockaded coastal strip.
Sources and notes
“Obama urges progress in Afghanistan,” March 29, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/03/201032816319310458.html
“Afghan farmers die in suicide blast,” March 31, 2020, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/03/201033173331654531.html
“German troops kill Afghan soldiers,” April 3, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/2010437573466607.html
“Karzai calls Clinton on fraud charge,” April 3, 2010,
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/201043448184706.html
“Fears over U.S. Kandahar offensive,” April 4, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/2010/04/201044132439731261.html
“Baghdad hit by deadly triple blasts,” April 4, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/20104483114169984.html
“Bill seeks to curb Zardari’s powers,” April 2, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/20104284045747391.html
“Israeli air raids wound children,” April 4, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/201042155550920415.html
“Deadly blasts rock Pakistan,” April 5, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/2010458464129649.html
Holiday casualties, costs, critics and loss; obstructionists, deniers, debaters and liars ─ U.S. theaters of WAR
Casualty sites reporting
April 4, 2010 (accurate totals unknown, usual reporting not updated)
• Anti-war dot com March 19, 2003 ─ [Since the Obama inauguration January 20, 2009: 159] Wounded 31,762-100,000; U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000; Suicides 18 a day [April 1 update], http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
• Iraq Body Count figures documented civilian deaths from violence: 95,775 – 104,481, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,387 U.S., 4,705 Coalition; AFGHANISTAN: 1,034 U.S., 1,713 Coalition http://icasualties.org/oif/
Who permits and who prohibits criticism?
Who is allowed to criticize and who is protected from criticism?
War costs
Warmongers’ kin
Roughly, 120,000 foreign troops occupy Afghanistan, a figure scheduled to reach close to 150,000 by year’s end. U.S. deployment by the summer will have risen from about 34,000 personnel when Obama took office last year to 100,000, according to Al Jazeera reports at the end of March and start of April.
Thousands of NATO and Afghan troops have launched a massive offensive in southern Afghanistan. This is the largest offensive since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. U.S. and NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan total approximately 113,000. Another estimated 40,000 troops will descend on Afghanistan in the coming months.
March 29, 2010
Afghanistan
U.S. president Barack Obama during a six-hour surprise visit last Sunday in Afghanistan met with President Hamid Karzai and called on that country to crack down on corruption and promote the rule of law.
March 31, 2010
Afghanistan
Seventeen people died and 45 suffered injuries on Wednesday when a bomb concealed on a bicycle exploded in a crowded village market in the southern Afghan province of Helmand where farmers had gathered to receive free seeds from government officials. Eight children were among the casualties.
April 3, 2010
Afghanistan
An estimated five Afghan troops died on Friday in the northern Kunduz province when German soldiers opened fire on Afghans attempting to support other troops involved in heavy fighting with suspected Taliban. A German central command statement confirmed the incident on Saturday. Three German soldiers had been killed when forces on a bridge-building, mine-clearing mission had been ambushed by around 200 Taliban fighters. Since 2001, 22 German soldiers have died in the fighting in Afghanistan, 138 suffered wounds. Fifteen thousand German troops are on the ground; amidst German citizens’ resistance to sending more troops to Afghanistan, 800 or more are scheduled to be deployed. A German general has said that the NATO force in Afghanistan was planning, for later this year, an offensive against the Taliban in Kunduz.
April 3, 2010
Afghanistan
Afghan president Hamid Karzai acknowledged on Thursday that there had been widespread fraud in his country’s most recent presidential and provincial council elections, but “‘Afghans did not do this fraud,’” he said; “‘the foreigners did this fraud.… Foreigners will make excuses [and] do not want us to have a parliamentary election… They want parliament to be weakened and battered and for me to be an ineffective president and for parliament to be ineffective.’”
Karzai singled out Peter Galbraith for having organized the fraud and fed details to the international media in an attempt to blacken his name. The United Nations allegedly dismissed Galbraith after he criticized the UN for failing to do enough to combat voter fraud in Afghanistan. Karzai’s accusatory comments on Thursday, following U.S. President Barack Obama’s accusations of Afghan corruption, prompted angry reactions from Afghan rivals and international diplomats. In a telephone call on Friday with the U.S. Secretary of State, Karzai reportedly explained remarks accusing foreign diplomats and the United Nations of organizing massive fraud during last year’s presidential election.
April 4, 2010
Afghanistan
United States forces in Afghanistan are planning, for later this year, a major military attack on Kandahar. This Taliban-controlled province is home to more than two million people. Al Jazeera reporter David Chater travelled to Kandahar to hear what people think about the planned U.S. military operation. His report found “Fears over U.S. Kandahar offensive.”
April 4, 2010
Iraq
Thirty people died and 224 suffered wounds when a series of three car bombings occurred today close to Iranian, German and Egyptian embassies across Baghdad. Hours before Sunday’s blasts, Iraq’s Green Zone, hosting many international agencies and government buildings in the capital, came under mortar fire. Outside Baghdad, more casualties occurred: three people died and 25 suffered wounds when a car bomb exploded in the northern city of Mosul. Alleged targets were Law enforcement.
April 5, 2010
Pakistan [update]
More than 30 people died and 100 suffered wounds today when a series of bombs exploded across Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Bombs went off first at a political rally in the Lower Dir district town of Timargarah, then near the U.S. consulate in the main city of the North West Frontier Province, Peshawar.…
Pakistani Taliban representative Azam Tariq, announcing his group’s responsibility for the attack in which six people died, said, ‘Americans are our enemies …We carried out the attack on their consulate in Peshawar. We plan more such attacks.’ Four attackers and two security people died in that attack.…
Pakistan’s intelligence agency headquarters at Peshawar, close to which security forces today were reported firing their weapons, had been bombed in November of 2009…In the past three years, more than 3,150 people have died in bomb attacks in Pakistan.
April 2, 2010
Pakistan
Pakistan’s attorney-general Anwar Mansoor resigned on Friday over what he termed the government’s obstruction of Supreme Court orders to investigate the president for corruption.
The country’s parliament is currently debating a piece of legislation that will reduce the presidency to a ceremonial role. Submitted to parliament’s lower house (or the national assembly) on Friday, the bill aims to transfer powers from President Asif Ali Zardari to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
The measure known as the 18th Amendment Bill is, according to Gilani, “‘unprecedented’” in Pakistan history. The legislation seeks to reverse constitutional changes adopted by former military ruler (President) Pervez Musharraf.
April 2, 2010
Palestine
Claiming to be responding to rocket fire from Gaza, Israeli planes and helicopters on Friday launched a string of air attacks on the Gaza Strip. Among the wounded were three Palestinian children. Palestinian medical sources reported at least seven missiles targeted various sites in Gaza. Hamas blamed the Israelis for escalating tensions. Four Friday air attacks destroyed two caravans near the town of Khan Younis; a fifth missile hit and set on fire a cheese factory in Gaza City; the head of Palestinian emergency services in Gaza reported that the Palestinian children hit by flying glass were ages two, four and 11.
Two Israeli soldiers and two armed Palestinians died in clashes when Israeli tanks made a brief incursion into Gaza. On Tuesday, a Palestinian teenager died when Israeli troops fired on protesters near the border of the blockaded coastal strip.
Sources and notes
“Obama urges progress in Afghanistan,” March 29, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/03/201032816319310458.html
“Afghan farmers die in suicide blast,” March 31, 2020, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/03/201033173331654531.html
“German troops kill Afghan soldiers,” April 3, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/2010437573466607.html
“Karzai calls Clinton on fraud charge,” April 3, 2010,
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/201043448184706.html
“Fears over U.S. Kandahar offensive,” April 4, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/2010/04/201044132439731261.html
“Baghdad hit by deadly triple blasts,” April 4, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/20104483114169984.html
“Bill seeks to curb Zardari’s powers,” April 2, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/20104284045747391.html
“Israeli air raids wound children,” April 4, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/201042155550920415.html
“Deadly blasts rock Pakistan,” April 5, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/2010458464129649.html
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