ISIS and their hairy howling beheading hordes have captured the headlines and airwaves the world over. ISIS — largely a U.S. creation funded and supported by our loyal allies and friends the Saudis, has given us all a collective case of the yips and shudders. ISIS and “radical Islam” has become our latest enemy of choice.
However, ISIS is not a grave threat to either U.S. security or global survival. The sentinel threat to both is the rampant expansion and ever growing threat of U.S. militarism. Dwight Eisenhower in his famous and perhaps the most important farewell address in U.S. history warned us about the threats of the military industrial complex. Everything Ike feared has come to pass to a degree he never could have envisioned and has become an entrenched part of American culture.
Consider that you cannot go to a movie without getting bombarded by military recruiting propaganda. And look at the permanent marriage of the NFL and the U.S. military. Professional football has become a show piece for military glorification and jingoism. And these are just two examples.
Americans need to come to terms with one stark reality: Militarism has absolutely nothing to do with the defense of the country. In fact, left unchecked and unchallenged, U.S. militarism poses a threat not only to the U.S. Constitution and domestic democracy, but to human survival. George Washington warned a young nation about the “threat of standing armies” and the inherent threat of an expanded military posed to a domestic democracy. Eisenhower expressed the same concerns. We would do well to heed these warnings. Attempts to reign in the juggernaut of U.S. militarism may well be the most daunting challenge ever faced by the population. However that challenge must be met if we’re to maintain any vestiges of democracy and harbor any hopes of ending our growing legacy of endless war torture, foreign occupations, drone strikes and other facets of our “dirty wars” that have turned a once great nation into a rogue statue.
Jim Sawyer
Edmonds
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