Has America fetishized the military?

[daaron]

Albert Einstein said, "The pioneers of a warless world are the youth who refuse military service."

Did we libs and progs let the Bush admin get to us with their accusations that opposing war means we don't support the troops? Is it wrong to feel that soldiers shouldn't get a free pass, when they volunteer for service, knowing full-well they will be fighting in wars we have no business fighting? Has the defense industry become just that - an industry, with soldiers just another job?

This little discussed topic has been on my mind. Browsing the web reveals few recent opinions on the subject. I did find this one:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/68505.html

Defense is not now — nor was it ever intended to be — a jobs program.

So when an Aerospace Industries Association study — supported, unfortunately, by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) — attempts to warn Congress and the American people that cutting projected defense spending by as much as $1 trillion over the next decade, which might happen if sequestration takes effect, could cost 1 million jobs, the appropriate response is that this is irrelevant.

It is like arguing that defense is entitled to a specific share of the federal budget or gross domestic product. The federal government should base its defense spending on the strategy it develops to deal with the threats it faces — not on how many jobs it will create or the condition of our economy.

[LiberalFighter]

1. How many jobs can we cut and what can we have them do?

Preferably something that is not military related in any way.

[niyad]

3. how about rebuilding our infrastructure? we are short of doctors, nurses,

teachers, etc. lots of work to be done, just don't have the will to do it

[LiberalFighter]

8. I would like to see that happen

But in reality how many of them will become doctors or nurses? And if we fully implement needed infrastructure rebuilding how many more workers will be needed beyond the currently employed and those unemployed in the trades will be needed.

I think good jobs should be available when they return. It should be possible to create more jobs with demand for goods and offshoots of primary jobs.

Local and state governments probably need to change the way they encourage job creation. Possibly structure it so that a business that starts up a new business will have more incentives than an existing business. And existing businesses that create new jobs would have the incentive based on total number of employees with incentives being reduced the large the company becomes. Unless the company does not have any competition in the area. An manufacturing assembly plant usually don't have any competition. While hardware stores do. And if a hometown hardware store goes out of business because a Home Depot or Lowes took business away from them then there would be no or little tax incentive for the Home Depot or Lowes. Maybe they would need to track how many employees exist for each type of business. So as long as all the hardware stores total don't lose any employees when any of the big box stores increase jobs then they could still receive incentives.

[niyad]

2. yes,

seriously, as a friend and I were talking the other day. this country worships the gods of war, and it is sickening.

tomorrow is Pax Day in the old roman calendar, one of three yearly celebrations of the Goddess of Peace. would that we would do likewise (and yes, I know how bellicose the romans were, but when has this country done ANYTHING to celebrate peace?)

[SharonAnn]

12. Yes, absolutely.

[redgreenandblue]

4. Absolutely.

[cali]

5. I'm not sure I'd use that word, but yes.

[patrice]

6. Obviously, but the root cause is how we are motivated by violence and the real questions are about

how to get people to CHOOSE otherwise, because any form of coercion feeds this monster.

[zeemike]

7. Not a fetish but a cult of heroes.

that is what they did to us...and made us like it...or at least to afraid to say anything about it.
I remember when it all started in Ernst...during Desert Storm
I was living in a small town in Alabama at the time with a small business and had been discussing the war and comparing it to Ezekiel's prophecies about the Ram and the Goat...pretty soon this guy shows up and my store and basically said that if I did not STFU I would have trouble finding customers because people around there didn't like people that did not support the troops...

And it worked....I did STFU and watched it grow into a ritual of thanking the troops and calling them heroes at every public event and on every TV show...it was like we were praising the troops all the time, like the religious cult do god
And the method is the same...the use of social pressure to control dissent and shut us up if we don;t like it.
The one thing they are good at is controlling people...probably because they read The Prince and have a copy hidden under the bed to refer to.

[Egalitarian Thug]

9. I was going to answer no, but this definition fits.

any object, idea, etc., eliciting unquestioning reverence, respect, or devotion

So I guess the answer is yes.

Radical authoritarians only hate socialism for people, they love it when it benefits their masters.

[daaron]

11. Thx. Pop culture gave 'fetish' a sexual connotation.

When in fact a prototypical fetish would be something like a voodoo doll or idol, etc., in anthropological terms.

[whatchamacallit]

10. It's like this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=673570

[Puregonzo1188]

13. Yes we do. Though I suspect it predates Bush.

[jp11]

14. "...the appropriate response is that this is irrelevant. "

The appropriate response is that the money could be used to hire more people and make our country better for our own citizens over lining the pockets of war profiteering companies that suck at the government teat while short changing the actual troops.

How about we build a smart redundant power grid or high speed rail, new clean renewable energy sources, instead of more bombs, missiles, jets, etc?

[Comrade Grumpy]

15. Is that a rhetorical question?

[Bigmack]

16. Yup... the military and Death... "heroic" Death. nt