Wednesday, December 18, 2013

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Wounded_on_Way_to_Hospital.jpg

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Breach of Trust - Part 2

[This book is a part of The American Empire Project in which Metropolitan Books offers "short, argument driven books" regarding the American Imperium.]

"Empire, long considered an offense against America's democratic heritage threatens to define the relationship between our country and the rest of the world." The American Empire Project

Closing the circle of history.

Bacevich opened this book with an epigraph from Edward Gibbons classic, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:

In the purer ages of the commonwealth, the use of arms was reserved for... citizens who had a country to love, a property to defend and some share in enacting those laws which it was in their interest to maintain. But as public freedom was lost in extent of conquest, war was gradually improved into an art, and degraded into a trade...That public virtue which among the ancients was denominated by patriotism derived from a stray sense of interest in the preservation of free government... Such a sentiment could make but a very feeble impression on the mercenary servants of a despotic prince.

Bacevich closes his book with the words of General George Marshall's warning against criminal governments:

There must not be a large standing army subject to the behest of a group of schemers. The citizen-soldier is the guarantee against such a misuse of power.

Behold the beauty of history, regenerating mans story over and over and....

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Book Review by Joe Brosius

Breach of Trust

How Americans Failed their Soldiers and Their Country

By Andrew J. Bacevich

Metropolitan Books Henry Holt & Company, NY

Colonel Bacevich has just blared reveille: Wake up Americans – if you do not take part in national service, America will go down the same path as other failed empires. This short, easy to read and understand call to duty not only describes the danger America faces as Bacevich sees it, but offers the history behind it and his solutions.

Bacevich summarizes his argument thusly –“The all-volunteer force is not a blessing. It has become blight.” The blight is from citizens not participating in what their government does in their names.

The all-volunteer force began when Nixon ended the draft during the American war on Vietnam. Since the draft has ended, our government has actually increased the number of overseas military adventures. Bacevich deftly gives a short American military history of the past 40 years

Bacevich does make a strong case for national service. It would restore some power back to the people. Yet with the draft opposed by the Army, by politicians and by the American public, a national service would be difficult to institute. If there was a draft would there be no more wars like Vietnams or Iraq? Bacevich argues that these would be less likely since all Americans would have ‘skin in the game’.

Having read all of his books I’ve been expecting this one since Colonel Bacevich does have a strong sense of duty. Bacevich foresees “impending bankruptcy, both moral and financial” if Americans fail to regain control of the use of their military. Bacevich deploys heavy firepower against the pundits on the left and the right who support America’s military adventures while having no ‘skin in the game’.

From praise to shame, from Smedley Butler to Bush and Obama, Bacevich has given the American people a history lesson and a literary spanking. While I agree with his argument, I doubt the American citizenry will heed his call for any sort of national service, military or civilian, and step up to save their republic. As the song says – The hour is getting late.

http://www.bu.edu/ir/faculty/alphabetical/bacevich/

http://www.amazon.com/Andrew-J.-Bacevich/e/B003AQW7VG

http://www.fas.org/man/smedley.htm

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