(no subject)

[furrbear]

August 15, 2008

BILL MOYERS:

Welcome to the JOURNAL.

America's in a pickle. Our friends, the Russians, with whom we were about to conduct joint military exercises, decided instead to attack some of our other friends, the Georgians, who not only aspire to democracy but control access to lots of oil and pipelines in which American energy companies have huge investments. But when President Bush demands Russia go home and leave Georgia alone, his pal Vladimir Putin - the modern Russian czar - gets that sardonic smile on his face.

He knows that American troops are spread so thin in Iraq and Afghanistan that Uncle Sam more resembles Gulliver, tied down by too many commitments, too much hubris, and too many mistakes, than he does to Superman. It's a pickle and a predicament, and it's serious.

The limits of American power have never been more vividly on display. That's the subject of my conversation this week with Andrew J. Bacevich. Here is a public thinker who has been able to find an audience across the political spectrum, from THE NATION or THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE magazines, lecturing to college classes or testifying before Congress.

Bacevich speaks truth to power, no matter who's in power, which may be why those of both the left and right listen to him.

Perhaps it's also because when he challenges American myths and illusions, he does so from a patriotism forged in the fire of experience as a soldier in Vietnam.

After 23 years in the Army, the West Point graduate retired as a colonel and has been teaching international relations and history at Boston University. Bacevich has published several acclaimed books, including this one, THE NEW AMERICAN MILITARISM. His latest, published this week, is THE LIMITS OF POWER: THE END OF AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM.

Read the rest

Comments

[mellowtigger]

"Unless a President could ask fundamental questions about our posture in the world, it becomes impossible then, for any American President to engage the American people in some sort of a conversation about how and whether or not to change the way we live."

Amen.

We could have made changes 25 years ago!

[beartech420.livejournal.com]

What blew my mind about the show was that Bacevich referred to Carter's Malaise Speech as a tipping point, I went back to read it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter

Here is the important part that we didn't listen to...

" In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning.

I'm asking you for your good and for your nation's security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit, and to set your thermostats to save fuel..I have seen the strength of America in the inexhaustible resources of our people. In the days to come, let us renew that strength in the struggle for an energy-secure nation."

We didn't listen to him and voted for Reagen, Bush, Clinton and Bush because they told us "What me worry?". So now we have a national debt of 52 Trillion dollars and no energy independence.

I'd love to blame an Imperialist Presidency, but you know it comes down to the American people decided to fiddle while Rome burned.

Re: We could have made changes 25 years ago!

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

And some would also say that the auto companies were in collusion with the oil companies to keep usage high.

Re: We could have made changes 25 years ago!

[beartech420.livejournal.com]

I'm sure that the collusion is true! But there was nobody twisting American's arms to buy SUVs. The only people buying big cars in the world besides the USA were Oil producing countries, "DUH"!

There is going to have to be a big political turnover in this nation. Large mass transit projects, large government investments in all alternative energy sources including I believe Nuclear. A big program to retool American car companies to build plug in hybrids.

I just start grinding my teeth every time I hear about the billion dollar tax breaks we have given Big Oil. Then there is always a Republican Senator screaming that if we take away these tax break gas prices will go up!
Exxon made 12 billion in profit this quarter!

[backrubbear.livejournal.com]

We're not really up to imperialism.

We're rather well equipped for a genocide though. :-P

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

Especially against brown people who are sittin' on our God-given supply of oil, No?

[backrubbear.livejournal.com]

That's one of of 'em.

I keep hoping that we'll invest as much money and effort in a diplomatic and state-building corps as we do in blowing stuff up. :-/