In the title of his June piece for The New Republic, Andrew Bacevich poses the question: "Will 2020 Finally Kill America’s War Fetish?”
On Thursday, former Army colonel and President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft joined Boston Public Radio to unpack his views on the nation’s use of violence and military might to solve its lintany of issues, both foreign and domestic.
Bacevich began by positing that America's victory in World War 2 represented a sea change in the American psyche.
"We’re in a moment right now where there’s kind of a big debate on ‘when does the American story begin?’ Traditionally, it’s 1776, now there’s a strong argument that we should debate the beginning from 1619, with the arrival of African American slaves… I’m not gonna argue against that, but this is an interpretation of our past,” he began.
"I think as another interpretation, as an interpretation, that the point of origin is World War 2,” he continued. "The ‘good’ war, the war fought by the Greatest Generation, and a war that, to my mind, has served as a justification, inspiration, legitimizing force in the decades since, down to the present moment.”
Bacevich described the generally accepted American World War 2 narrative as “sanitizing,” America's perspective on its own history, arguing that sanitation "becomes the basis for thinking that war can provide a solution to a host of other problems,” like drugs, terror, and most recently, peaceful protest over police brutality.
Speaking in reference to the president’s controversial May photo-op in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, which he conducted in the company of Gen. Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Bacevich accused Trump of “dragging the military into a deeply controversial moment in partisan politics,” and described the implications as "extraordinarily dangerous.”
“Sadly, I don’t think many of our fellow citizens are tuned in to the importance of the civil military tradition that keeps the military apolitical,” he said. "And also keeps the military subordinate to civilian authority. That’s a great treasure, and it’s something that we need to take care to preserve. The president doesn’t care about preserving that, and I think that the rest of us ought to sort of be alert to that.”
The former Army colonel’s critique of the U.S extended beyond Trump, however, with accusations of a “lack of accountability" across American leadership throughout the 21st century, specifically in regard to U.S. use of military force.
He called the wars in the Middle East “costly failures… in which both parties are implicated.”
“And yet there is no accountability,” he added.
Bacevich went on to reference a 1967 speech by Martin Luther King Jr., where King denounced the "giant triplets of racism, and militarism, and extreme materialism.”
“The point of my piece is to say, ‘okay, looks like we now have at least the first part figured out– figured out in the sense that we understand the depth of the problem that racism causes, and… many of our fellow citizens, both political parties, appear intent on finally addressing racism in a serious way," Bacevich said. "But nobody’s addressing militarism. I am astonished, here in 2020, coming up on an election, about the lack of accountability, the refusal to discuss our military policies for the last 20 years."
"We talk about defunding police forces,” he said, "maybe we should defund the Pentagon. What I mean by that is, at least, critically scrutinize what the heck we’re getting for all the money we’re shoveling to the Pentagon."
