The long-winded answer.
I just finished a fascinating book: The new American militarism: How Americans are seduced by war. Its author, Andrew Bacevich, who is a Westpoint graduate, Vietnam vet, history professor and a solid conservative, writes about how 40 years of actions by different people and groups ranging from the military, Neocons, Evangelicals, RAND, Reagan, the Bushes and even Carter, have led to a situation where America has become so obsessed by military might that it now dwarfs the top 10 other countries in military spending and is now satisfied with nothing less than the ability to have total domination in two multi-regional conflicts at once as well as the ability to field a number of minor skirmishes around the world.
It is an insightful and erudite condemnation from someone who clearly has a great grasp on military history both as a participant and observer. I’d highly recommend it.
One of the more interesting bits of history that I hadn’t been aware of was how America got so deeply involved in the Middle East in the first place. The decision was made by Jimmy Carter who, struggling with gas shortages and inflation, and rebounding from a disatrous “malaise speech” set into motion what was later to be known as the Carter Doctrine, a policy of using necessary force to defend the interests of the US in the Persian gulf. His actions set the stage for increased US military involvement and presence, arguably spawning Bin Laden. Later administrations simply built upon this premise, accepting it and expanding it (perhaps unwittingly) to the point where America is now inextricably bound to the region.
For me, it was a reminder of the importance of applying large time scales to ones thinking. The true impacts of actions taken today can’t be measured tomorrow. If you don’t have a sense of the larger trends and movements at play, you will simply be a pawn. The Iroquois had a famous saying, when considering taking a major step, they would ask why have seven previous generations not taken this step and what will happen to seven generations to come if we do take this step. I think we need more of this kind of clarity as we look at what we do in all areas.
It’s very easy to get caught up in the minutae of what happens on a daily or even weekly basis and make idiotic proclamations like this:
“The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.”
Like Paul Boutin did in his recent Wired article that’s making its way around Twitter and the blogosphere, but that’s to forget that there is a time for brevity and there is a time for appreciating the full spread and scope of a subject.