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Washington Rules: America's Path To Permanent War (2010)

by Andrew J. Bacevich(Favorite Author)

4.05 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0805091416 (ISBN13: 9780805091410)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Metropolitan Books

review 1: This was a recommendation from a co-worker. I found it to be very interesting in that it answered questions I had about our global precense throughout the world. This was a quick history lesson on some of our military here in the US and how some things came to be. Overall there were many interesting things throughout this book. It is informative. Not sure I agree with all of Bacevich's theories though but informative nontheless.
review 2: Though it sometimes lacks nuance and occasionally strays into hyperbole or clichés regarding what some might call the "imperial hubris" of the United States, Bacevich's Washington Rules makes the straightforward and compelling case that the American "military-industrial complex," so feared and derided by the libertarian crowd... more, has been progressively expanding its clout vis-a-vis the civilian authorities since the Second World War, and consequently threatens to swallow up American civic culture. The Goliath of the defense establishment, according to Bacevich, has become especially formidable over the last decade, as the American experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq saw expectations for quick and stunning victory devolve into a grim determination on the part of policy-makers to persevere in the "long-war" of counterinsurgency efforts and covert action. This mindset, which, given the abstractions involved in identifying our enemies and the arbitrary nature of distinguishing between civil and military affairs and of defining victory or defeat, serves to justify a permanent state of war. As a result, military institutions which have traditionally been called upon only when necessary for national defense and viewed with suspicion, are becoming and could continue grow as permanent staples of our political life. I found the last chapter to be especially thoughtful and prescient, as Bacevich implores us to "cultivate our garden," in the words of Voltaire's Candide, and dust off the insights of men like George Washington and John Quincy Adams. Although idealists at heart and firm believers in the new nation's republican virtues, they felt that the United States should lead by its example, and not by the force of its arms. In order for the world to be made safe for democracy, America must be made safe for democracy. They warned that empire-building could not "resolve" history; a prospect put forward by idealists as diverse as Hegel and Fukuyama. As J. William Fulbright eloquently said, and Bacevich quotes, "I think that man is qualified to contemplate metaphysics but not to practice it. The practice of metaphysics is God's work." less

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