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Mercer: Praying to the military Moloch
BLUF (Bottom line up front):Like government, it [the military] must be kept small. Conservatives can't coherently preach against the evils of big government, while exempting the military mammoth." Better still, if the military is government -- and it is -- fanatical militarism is a facet of statism. And if the military is government -- and it is -- then the missions on which the government sends the military must be questioned. An equally distinctive characteristic of the current military statism is to extend the worship of The Man in Uniform to His Mission. We worship the men and women in uniform and their mission without question. The 'men and mission worship' is in my view, an inaccurate lumping by Mercer. Conservatives question government programs. War is a government program. If they hope to retain a modicum of philosophical integrity, conservatives will have to include a critique of the state's warfare machine in their case against its welfare apparatus. Powerful Liberals have already conducted the 'critique.' Welfare has clearly triumphed. There's plenty for conservatives to criticize about the military, and we do so frequently. We also recognize, unlike liberals, that we need a military and that said military needs to be strong. We could have avoided a couple wars in our history had our military been seen to be prepared. The blanket chant -- "thank you for your service; thank you for fighting for our freedoms" -- is the hallmark of a propagandized people in the grip of fanatical militarism. Even the most irrational person has to recognize how tentative are the ties between "helping" toothless Pashtuns to be more like Americans and protecting Americans like granny. The'granny' Mercer speaks of is the hapless Obamacare recipient. Her perspective is no doubt clouded by Lord Kitchener's grand invasion army and it's disastrous results. A case could certainly be made for comparing British colonial expansionism to modern day 'nation building.' Not certain Mercer has achieved that connection in this writing. Posted by: Besoeker 2014-06-06 |
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