Two lost world wars cured Germany of its militarism. American militarism has taken its place.
Yesterday’s Trump-Merkel press conference
was disturbing on several levels. Worst of all was the scene of a
German Chancellor listening to an American president boast about how
strong his military is, and how much stronger it soon will be. Not that
long ago in historical terms,
Germany was a country that stressed military dominance. Two lost world wars cured Germany of its militarism. American militarism has taken its place.
Germany was a country that stressed military dominance. Two lost world wars cured Germany of its militarism. American militarism has taken its place.
As Trump responded to
questions, again and again he returned to the U.S. military, vowing that
he’s going to strengthen it from its “depleted” condition, perhaps to a
level of power that “we’ve never seen before.”
America is “very strong, very strong,” said Trump, a “very powerful company/country,”
and soon the U.S. military would be “stronger,” and “perhaps far
stronger than ever before.” Naturally, the president added that he
hoped he wouldn’t have to use that “far stronger” military, even as the
U.S. military garrisons the globe at more than 700 bases while launching
ongoing attacks against “radical Islamic terrorism” (Trump loves
enunciating those three words) in places like Yemen.
This coming year, Trump is enlarging the military with a fresh influx of $54 billion. “My generals,”
as Trump likes to refer to James Mattis and John Kelly and Company,
support him in part because he’s boosting military spending. But will
they continue to support Trump and his advisers like Steve Bannon when the President uses that “much stronger” military in unwise ways?
When you forge a bigger
hammer, you tend not to leave it unused in the tool shed. No ― you look
for bigger nails to strike. As Trump noted at the press conference,
he’s not an isolationist. “Fake news,” he said.
That Trump, with his “far
stronger” military, is not an isolationist is disturbing “real” news
indeed. Small wonder that the German Chancellor looked discomfited; her
country has seen it all before.
What price military dominance? Perhaps Chancellor Merkel could explain that to President Trump, if only he’d listen.
No comments :
Post a Comment