>Individually, perhaps, but I think the military is institutionally doltish.
>To every complex problem there is a military solution, and it is wrong.
>
>I mean, look at the Brits, now preening as the "good cops" in Iraq. Do
>Americans really want to want to entrust their future to sheer force of
>arms and wind up like the UK -- an imperial has-been with a shriveled
>economy and swollen military, wandering around the world picking
>embarrassing fights like the Falklands War? That's what comes from
>failing to identify the military as doltish.
>
>Carl
Why would the military as an institution be more "doltish" than any other institution in a capitalist economy. Most decision to invade places like Granada, Haiti, the Falklands are decisions made by civilians who use the military to carry out their dirty work. Bashing "the military" is a bad habit by many progressives. Militarism to oppress people is unquestionably bad but a military in and of itself is, in our current state of affairs, a necessary thing. Most members of the military would make good allies in a struggle for progressive ideas and they would be open to the ideas that many of us want to see implemented. Blaming people in the military for the bad deeds done by politicians using the military is like blaming the workers at a corporation for the crimes of the corporation. Successful left revolutions are the ones that include, not exclude, the military in their support base.
John Thornton