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How Americans Are Seduced By War
Oxford University Press
March 2005
270 pages
ISBN: 0195173384
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
In this provocative new book, Andrew Bacevich warns of a
dangerous dual obsession that has taken hold of Americans,
conservatives and liberals alike. It is a marriage of
militarism and utopian ideology--of unprecedented military
might wed to a blind faith in the universality of American
values. This perilous union, Bacevich argues, commits
Americans to a futile enterprise, turning the US into a
crusader state with a self-proclaimed mission of driving
history to its final destination: the world-wide embrace of
the American way of life. This mindset invites endless war and the ever-deepening
militarization of US policy. It promises not to perfect but
to pervert American ideals and to accelerate the hollowing
out of American democracy. As it alienates others, it will
leave the United States increasingly isolated. It will end
in bankruptcy, moral as well as economic, and in abject
failure. The New American Militarism examines the origins and
implications of this misguided enterprise. The author shows
how American militarism emerged as a reaction to the
Vietnam War. Various groups in American society--soldiers,
politicians on the make, intellectuals, strategists,
Christian evangelicals, even purveyors of pop culture--came
to see the revival of military power and the celebration of
military values as the antidote to all the ills besetting
the country as a consequence of Vietnam and the 1960s. The
upshot, acutely evident in the aftermath of 9/11, has been
a revival of vast ambitions and certainty, this time
married to a pronounced affinity for the sword. Bacevich urges us to restore a sense of realism and a sense
of proportion to US policy. He proposes, in short, to bring
American purposes and American methods--especially with
regard to the role of the military--back into harmony with
the nation's founding ideals.
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