What’s the point of having a large military if you can’t use it?
Madeline Albright's question to Colin Powell
Q: What’s the point of having this superb military that you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?
Madeleine Albright to Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in the 1990s, on Bosnia, recounted in Madam Secretary (2003), p. 182
A: One might think the point of having a superb military is having the abililty to defend you country from attack. Or has the department of “defense” been superseded by the department of “war”?
The temptation of “Peace through Strength” is that it leads to Aggression because every president inherits a powerful military at their disposal which they seek to put to immediate use.
Then there is the saying “The best defense is a good offense”, which leads one to use offense with confused motivation. Human rights can become a pretext for employing financial or strategic offensive military goals.
Then there is the caution about the perils of maintaining standing army.
QUESTIONS:
What are the lessons one can draw from the founder’s caution against standing armies?
What role do corporations play in pushing for military involvement in foreign countries?
What role does the Military Industrial Complex or MICIMATT play in pushing for a large military complex?
Could “Peace through Strength” be reworked to be more defensive and less offensive or does the whole concept have to go?