04/22/05

At the U.S. Army War College's 16th Annual Strategy Conference last week, a senior Department of Defense strategist defined U.S. 'Grand Strategy' as the export of freedom and democracy. He added that the U.S. military would play a huge role in implementing the strategy. In short, and to paraphrase, the official said: 'Get ready, soldiers, you're going democracy-crusading.' Exporting freedom and democracy is not a Grand Strategy. It may be an ambition, an obsession, or -- most likely -- a hallucination. The idea that such exports are a 'Grand Strategy' spotlights the ignorance about America of the men and women who today lead the country. Ditto for many of the 535 individuals in the Senate and House. America is not a nation meant to order others how to live and then push them at bayonet point into that lifestyle. The cost of such a policy, John Quincy Adams wrote, would be the loss of America's soul...

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/scheuer.php?articleid=5690

from AntiWar.Com, by Michael Scheuer


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp