My opinion on this topic was more eloquently stated in Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address given on Jan. 17, 1961.
There was also an excellent documentary made in 2005 called Why We Fight(2005_film)
In short, we the American people have been misled by our Government (and over many administrations—so I’m not merely pointing blame at Bush Sr. and Jr.) into believing that there are economic benefits and a “need” for America to pursue our role as the “Global Policeman”.
The threat was clear to General Eisenhower—he was truly qualified to see it from his ample military experiences and Presidential perch..He said:
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
The rise and maintenance of the United States military–industrial complex and its fifty-year involvement with the wars led by the United States to date are evidence that the we citizens of the US have not been alert and knowledgeable. Why weren’t we questioning more loudly the $100M spent invading Iraq? And what in the world did Iraq have to do with 9/11? Not a damn thing. How did it become un-American to question our government’s involvement in a foreign war? It should have been lauded, not deplorable. I occasionally saw protesters – but I’d say the Occupy movement has had better organization and press than anti-Iraq war protesters. Sad but true.
We’ve largely sat back and let our leaders fund foreign wars, an arms race and nuclear weapons. The economic benefits appear (at least today, in the depths of nearly worldwide economic depression) to not have been worth it.
What if all the money we’d spent all these years in the “Defense” of our nation had been instead simply international funding for clean water and other humanitarian (e.g. an expanded version of the Peace Corps) agencies. What if, instead of invading Afghanistan we just built schools for Afghani girls and educated them when the Taliban would not?
It wasn’t that we out-spent or had better technology than the Russians—Glasnost came from within! They wanted Western music, movies and fashion. What a waste all those years of funding Star Wars (and I don’t mean the George Lucas movies!) and such failed policy we had in the Cold War…
The same with the Arab Spring. We haven’t “brought democracy” to the Arab world by invading Iraq and killing Saddam—the Arab Spring happened DESPITE our intervention in the Middle East, not because of it.
And, just to be clear – I’m not anti-military. I have a cousin who is active duty Airforce who flies into Afghanistan and Iraq and my dear friend’s husband is Nat’l Guard currently deployed doing base tear down convoy guard duty moving those last American soldiers out of Iraq and is stationed in Kuwait. I came within a hair’s breath of signing up for the Air Force, too. I don’t find fault with the military – I find fault with the Hawks who primarily have dominated our Foreign Policy over the past 50 years.