I blogged yesterday on the militaristic instinct that had some calling for Obama to consider military action in Libya. It is refreshing to see the National Review, perhaps the leading conservative magazine, editorializing against that idea. It would be a beautiful thing if we could start to see the shared anti intervention tradition of both the Left and the Right make a dent in public policy again. Such a movement is given expression at this website as well as this one. The discussion of the deficit should help forge an anti intervention alliance between Left and Right, especially in light of this report detailing how the true cost of America’s national security is at $1.2 trillion a year. The greatest joy of my master’s work at Boston University was getting to work with Andrew Bacevich in the research of his masterful American Empire. He has gone on to write a number of other brilliant critiques of American militarism, but I still think American Empire is the best primer on why post Cold War America has continued to maintain and expand its global military footprint.
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