Andrew Bacevich: Seduced by War

[arisbe]

"When you look at the shock of 9/11, it’s really remarkable that there was virtually no debate about plausible alternative responses. The problem is not terrorism; the problem is the threat of radical Islam. Again, the political elite — meaning Republicans and Democrats and the establishment media, which very quickly embraced this — almost immediately concluded that the necessary response was a global war, which by common consent is going to last decades, generations. They all think there are no plausible alternatives. Let me be clear: it could be that other alternatives were defective in some way, but my point is, we never really looked for them. We instantly embraced this notion of open-ended global war. This shows the extent to which the political elite in this country has bought into the notion that if you have a big problem, the way to solve it is by going to war."