20070918 Military- Why Military Expansion Still Makes Sense

Military.com via Black Five

In the linked article, Kathy Roth-Douquet makes an argument for thinking twice about expanding the size of the US Military even as many of our allies choose to shrink theirs. Her reasoning makes a certain kind of sense, from a political and economic standpoint, however I believe she misses the larger reasons why the United States must have the world’s predominant military for its own good.

First, we are at war. The practitioners of fundamentalist Islam–not just al Qaeda but Eqyptian Qutbis, Iranian Shi’a, Saudi Wahhabis, Pakistani mullahs, Indonesian imams, and others–have declared war on the United States and the West. They prosecute that war in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, and Sudan and continue to attack us in places like Bali, Madrid, and London. We need a larger military simply because the military we have is not large enough or properly organized to effectively fight in this war. To rely on other nations to fight this war on our behalf would be foolhardy and likely fatal.

Second, regardless of whether other nations rely on the United States for their defense or simply choose not to defend themselves, the United States must look to its own defense. Fortunately, enough Americans still realize that the best defense is a good offense that there is still a desire to expand the US Military to deal with the threats the United States faces. We need to expand to meet those threats precisely because other nations will not. The alternative is to let ourselves be vulnerable, and 9-11 proves what the consequences of that choice are.

Finally, the author misses that, for much of the history of the Western World, there has typically been one predominant power. One nation, one empire, one people has always stood above the others. The only times where that was not true, there was war until one of those powers achieved supremacy. There is a cultural understanding in the West that someone has to lead and that others have to follow. Certainly, some nations–France–like claim their independence, but practically speaking even France defers to the will of the United States, even when it disagrees with what the United States is doing.

Ms. Roth-Douquet presents a compelling reason for the United States to proceed cautiously with its military expansion, however she avoids why the United States must expand its military anyway. Powerful nations must have the ability to defend themselves–and their allies–from threats. Nations that choose to abdicate that ability, whatever their reasons, cease to be powerful and often cease to be free.

-=DLH=-

This entry was posted in Culture, Entities, Funding, Future Military, Nations, Politics, United States, War on Terror, West, the, World Watch. Bookmark the permalink.

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