Donald Trump, notorious for his dubious statements, says one thing and does another, which means his talk of reduction of American troops abroad should not be taken seriously, as is evident by the astronomical increase in everything warmongering, not just related to the US army, but to sports, films, advertisements, etc.
The following is the part one of a 2-part article, titled “The Militarization of Everything” for the ‘TomDispatch’ site by William J. Astore, a retired US lieutenant-colonel and history professor.
We’re in an age in which the US president who claims that he captured and killed the Daesh leader, and has tweeted his fervent desire to end America’s “endless wars” and “bring the troops home” can only imagine increasing an already astronomical military budget. Since May, by the way, at least 14,000 more US troops have actually been deployed to the West Asia region. And oh yes, he’s hot to create a whole new service to add to the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard, a Space Force guaranteed to ensure yet more conflicts in new places in the decades to come. Meanwhile, he’s dealt with the almost 18-year-old Afghan War by cancelling peace talks with the Taliban at the last moment, even as he’s praised the US military for its increasing destructiveness in that country. His drone strikes across West Asia have soared far above the Obama-era level. Moreover, he has ordered almost 3,000 more American troops, two squadrons of jet fighters, and two Patriot missile batteries to Saudi Arabia, another obvious move to end this country’s wars. (And what’s more, the Saudis will pay!)
That’s the self-acclaimed antiwar president of the United States. Now, add in the rest of the official Washington crew, increasingly assertive retired generals and admirals. For instance, consider the general Donald Trump once loved to death for his moniker “Mad Dog,” former Secretary of Defense James Mattis. The president recently called him “the world’s most overrated general.” Mattis responded, “I earned my spurs on the battlefield… Donald Trump earned his spurs in a letter from a doctor this way: bone spurs.”
By the way, in the midst of such chaos, you can check out Democratic presidential debates (or Republican commentaries) until hell freezes over and, as innocents continue to die from Syria to Afghanistan and beyond, here’s a topic you won’t find discussed anywhere: a growing American militarism at home in this era of never-ending wars and soaring national security state budgets.
When Americans think of militarism, they may imagine jackbooted soldiers goose-stepping through the streets as flag-waving crowds exult; or, like Trump, they may think of enormous parades featuring troops and missiles and tanks, with warplanes soaring overhead. Or nationalist dictators wearing military uniforms encrusted with medals, ribbons, and badges like so many barnacles on a sinking ship of state. (Was Donald Trump only joking recently when he said he’d like to award himself a Medal of Honor?) And what they may also think is: that’s not America.
But militarism is more than thuggish dictators, predatory weaponry, and steely-eyed troops. There are softer forms of it that are no less significant than the “hard” ones. In fact, in a self-avowed democracy like the US, such softer forms are often more effective because they seem so much less insidious, so much less dangerous. Even in the heartland of Trump’s famed base, most Americans continue to reject bellicose displays like phalanxes of tanks rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue.
But who can object to celebrating “hometown heroes” in uniform, as happens regularly at sports events of every sort in 21st century US? Or polite and smiling military recruiters in schools? Or gung-ho war movies like the latest version of Midway, timed for Veterans Day weekend 2019 and marking America’s 1942 naval victory over Japan.
What do I mean by softer forms of militarism? I’m a football fan, so one recent Sunday afternoon found me watching a game on CBS. People deplore violence in such games, and rightly so, given the number of injuries among the players, notably concussions that debilitate lives. But what about violent commercials during the game? In that one afternoon, I noted repetitive commercials for SEAL Team, SWAT, and FBI, all CBS shows from this quietly militarized American moment of ours. In other words, I was exposed to lots of guns, explosions, fisticuffs, and the like, but more than anything I was given glimpses of hard men in uniform who have the very answers we need and, like the Pentagon-supplied police in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, are armed to the teeth.
Got a situation in Nowhere-stan? Send in the Navy SEALs. Got a murderer on the loose? Send in the SWAT team. With their superior weaponry and can-do spirit, Special Forces of every sort are sure to win the day (except, of course, when they don’t, as in America’s current series of never-ending wars in distant lands).
And it hardly ends with those three shows. Consider, for example, this century’s update of Magnum P.I., a CBS show featuring a private investigator. In the original Magnum P.I. that I watched as a teenager, Tom Selleck played the character with an easy charm. Magnum’s military background in Vietnam was acknowledged but not hyped. Unsurprisingly today’s Magnum is proudly billed as an ex-Navy SEAL.
Cop and military shows are nothing new on American TV, but never have I seen so many of them, new and old, and so well-armed. On CBS alone you can add to the mix Hawaii Five-O (yet more models with guns updated and up-armed from my youthful years), the three NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) shows, and Blue Bloods – and who knows what I haven’t noticed? While today’s cop/military shows feature far more diversity with respect to gender, ethnicity, and race compared to hoary classics like Dragnet, they also feature far more gunplay and other forms of bloody violence.
As a veteran, I have nothing against realistic shows on the military. Coming from a family of first responders – I count four firefighters and two police officers in my immediate family – In my youth I loved shows like Adam-12 and Emergency! What I’m against is the strange militarization of everything, including, for instance, the idea that first responders need their very own version of the US flag to mark their service. As a military veteran, my gut tells me that there should only be one American flag and it should be good enough for all Americans. Think of the proliferation of flags as another soft type of up-armoring (this time of patriotism).
Speaking of which, whatever happened to Dragnet’s Sergeant Joe Friday, on the beat, serving his fellow citizens, and pursuing law enforcement as a calling? He didn’t need a thin blue line battle flag. And in the rare times when he wielded a gun, it was .38 Special. Today’s version of Joe looks a lot more like G.I. Joe, decked out in body armor and carrying an assault rifle as he exits a tank-like vehicle, maybe even a surplus MRAP from America’s failed imperial wars.
Besides TV shows, movies, and commercials, there are many signs of the increasing embrace of militarized values and attitudes in the US. The result: the acceptance of a military in places where it shouldn’t be, one that’s over-celebrated, over-hyped, and given far too much money and cultural authority, while becoming virtually immune to serious criticism.
Let me offer just nine signs of this that would have been so much less conceivable when I was a young boy watching reruns of Dragnet:
Point No. 1. Roughly two-thirds of the federal government’s discretionary budget for 2020 will, unbelievably enough, be devoted to the Pentagon and related military functions, with each year’s “defense” budget coming ever closer to a trillion dollars. Such colossal sums are rarely debated in Congress; indeed, they enjoy wide bipartisan support.
Point No. 2. The US military remains the most trusted institution in society, so say 74% of Americans surveyed in a Gallup poll. No other institution even comes close, certainly not the presidency (37%) or Congress (which recently rose to a monumental 25% on an impeachment high). Yet that same military has produced disasters or quagmires in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, and elsewhere. Various “surges” have repeatedly failed. The Pentagon itself can’t even pass an audit. Why so much trust?
Point No. 3. A state of permanent war is considered America’s new normal. Wars are now automatically treated as multi-generational with little concern for how permanent war might degrade democracy. Antiwar protesters are rare enough to be lone voices crying in the wilderness.
Point No. 4. US generals continue to be treated, without the slightest irony, as “the adults in the room.” Ex Secretary of Defense James Mattis (cited glowingly in the recent debate among 12 Democratic presidential hopefuls) will save the US from unskilled and tempestuous politicians like Donald Trump. In the 2016 presidential race, it seemed that neither candidate could run without being endorsed by a screaming general (Michael Flynn for Trump; John Allen for Clinton).
Point No. 5. The media routinely embraces retired US military officers and uses them as talking heads to explain and promote military action to the American people. Simultaneously, when the military goes to war, civilian journalists are “embedded” within those forces and so are dependent on them in every way. The result tends to be a cheerleading media that supports the military in the name of patriotism – as well as higher ratings and corporate profits.
That was part one of “The Militarization of Everything”, an article for the ‘TomDispatch’ site by William J. Astore, a retired US lieutenant-colonel and history professor.
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