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148588 tn?1465778809

Non-Believer

http://www.newrepublic.com/blog/foreign-policy/76091/non-believer#

" The 43d president was a well-intentioned fool, who inflicted grievous harm on his country. Yet when Bush stands before his Maker (or the bar of History), he will say without fear of contradiction: “I did what I thought was right.”

Barack Obama is anything but a fool. Yet when called upon to account for his presidency, honesty will prevent him from making a comparable claim. “The problems I inherited were difficult ones,” he will say. “None of the choices were good ones. Things were complicated.”


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Who is more deserving of contempt? The commander-in-chief who sends young Americans to die for a cause, however misguided, in which he sincerely believes? Or the commander-in-chief who sends young Americans to die for a cause in which he manifestly does not believe and yet refuses to forsake?"


Andrew J. Bacevich
3 Responses
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148588 tn?1465778809
"Bacevich is critical of American foreign policy in the post Cold War era, maintaining the United States has developed an over-reliance on military power, in contrast to diplomacy, to achieve its foreign policy aims. He also asserts that policymakers in particular, and the American people in general, overestimate the usefulness of military force in foreign affairs. Bacevich believes romanticized images of war in popular culture (especially movies) interact with the lack of actual military service among most of the U.S. population to produce in the American people a highly unrealistic, even dangerous notion of what combat and military service are really like."
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148588 tn?1465778809
Bacevich's views are obviously influenced by having lost his only son in a war he didn't believe in. I think both Presidents were constrained to work within in a system that Eisenhower warned about 50 years ago when he spoke of the 'military-industrial complex' in hs farewell speech. The 'best they can' ? I have to disagree.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Bacevich

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY
Helpful - 0
973741 tn?1342342773
I would say that both are trying to do the best they can and neither need contempt personally.  
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