{"id":999,"date":"2012-09-18T18:32:13","date_gmt":"2012-09-18T23:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hushbeck.com\/blog\/?p=999"},"modified":"2012-09-18T18:32:13","modified_gmt":"2012-09-18T23:32:13","slug":"energion-roundtable-week-4-responses-%e2%80%93-the-military-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hushbeck.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/energion-roundtable-week-4-responses-%e2%80%93-the-military-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Energion Roundtable Week 4 Responses \u2013 The Military 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the ongoing discussion stemming from the week 4\u2019s \u00a0Energion Roundtable<\/a> question, \u00a0\u00a0Arthur Sido<\/a>, \u00a0wrote a long response to my comments<\/a> on the military.\u00a0 As we are already posting on week five, I will just address a couple of his question\/responses to clarify my position.<\/p>\n

Sido asked, \u201cAre the Armed Forces of the United States designed to be a force to project American will around the world or as a primarily defensive force that is intended to counter direct threats to our sovereignty?\u201d<\/p>\n

While I believe Sido intended this question to contrast our positions, the problem is that I, like Sido, would argue the latter. \u00a0\u00a0I suspect that the main difference is not in the question above but the underlying assumption behind it.\u00a0 We have a technologically advance economy that depends on international trade and alliances.\u00a0 To take just one example, we do have a direct interest in ensuring in freedom of navigation in places like the Straits of Hormuz and the South China Sea.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

One could argue that it should not be this way and we should, for example, be moving to develop our own domestic energy sources, something I would agree with. But wishing the current situation was different does not change it. Nor do I think it is even desirable in all areas and even if it were desirable I do not think it is practical.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sido\u2019s analysis of potential threats is a mixture of ridicule, diminishment, and blaming the US.\u00a0\u00a0 It is also combined with a moral equivalence that I firmly reject. \u00a0\u00a0This is not to say,\u00a0 \u201cthat our motivations are pure.\u201d At least not always.\u00a0 But I believe that in the history of the world the United States has held a pretty unique place.\u00a0 After all, it is pretty hard to find a valid selfish reason for the US to have intervened in Korea and to have kept troops there all these years. But the contrast between North and South Korea makes for a pretty good moral case.<\/p>\n

Sido confidently claims \u201cNone of the Middle East regimes is going to invade or directly attack America.\u201d \u00a0I wish I could believe that.\u00a0 \u00a0In one of his more disturbing sentences Sido writes,\u00a0 \u201cCertainly Iran is working toward nuclear weapons, the same nuclear weapons that we have had for decades and have used on civilian populations in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is quite correct.\u00a0 We did drop two atomic bombs on Japan, an action that ended a war and saved literally millions of lives.\u00a0 The problem is that there is little if any moral equivalence between America and the Iranian governments.\u00a0 Iran is a state that actively sponsors terrorism around the world. \u00a0More importantly, I believe that if Iran gets a nuclear bomb, they will use it, and have said as much repeatedly.\u00a0 So while we used atomic weapons to end a war, they will, I believe, use them to start a war, and I do not see these as morally equivalent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sido claims my argument is \u201cdifficult\u201d because \u201cWhen you examine the rhetoric that surrounds even the faintest suggestion of reducing military spending and indeed suggestions that we increase military spending, the “enthusiastic embrace of unlimited military spending” seems to be appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

I do not see what is so difficult.\u00a0 For example, the Navy says that we need at least 300 ship<\/a>s to meet the defense needs of the US.\u00a0 A bipartisan review in 2011 said that we needed 346 ships<\/a>. Yet since 9\/11 we have dropped from 316 down to 282 and look headed to 250. \u00a0As Robert Kaplan put it<\/a>, \u201cThere is a big difference between a 346-ship US navy and a 250-ship navy \u2013 the difference between one kind of world order and another.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 The difference he lays out is not an encouraging one.\u00a0\u00a0 But regardless, asking for a 300-340 ship Navy is not asking for \u201cunlimited military spending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally Sido is at least partially correct when he claims that \u201cour armed forces are rarely used to \u2018defend\u2019 America.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 While I would argue that our defense concerns are much broader that those accepted by Sido, I would agree that our actions have rarely been solely defensive.\u00a0 Many of the wars we have fought, from Korea and Vietnam, up to the current wars have, at least to some degree, been to resist evil, and this does set America apart.<\/p>\n

Most world powers could be classified as evil or indifferent to interests beyond their own. \u00a0America has been one of the few powers in history to have fought for the freedom of others. As I Christian, I do not believe that my responsibilities and concern for others in need stops at the border and that we do have a responsibility to resist evil in the world to the extent that we can.\u00a0 On the other hand, I do not believe we can be the policeman of the world.\u00a0 Between these two views are very difficult decision with a number of complex considerations and a full examination of these issues goes far beyond the scope of this discussion.\u00a0 Let me just say that to characterize this as\u00a0 \u201centhusiastic support for wars of aggression\u201d\u00a0 is a gross mischaracterization at best, yet another in a long line of straw men.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the ongoing discussion stemming from the week 4\u2019s \u00a0Energion Roundtable question, \u00a0\u00a0Arthur Sido, \u00a0wrote a long response to my comments on the military.\u00a0 As we are already posting on week five, I will just address a couple of his question\/responses to clarify my position. Sido asked, \u201cAre the Armed Forces of the United States […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,18],"tags":[1469,1450,1451,691,1473,1472,1464,1474,933,1471,1470,1348],"class_list":["post-999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-budget","category-foreign-policy","tag-armed-forces","tag-arthur-sido","tag-energion-roundtable","tag-iran","tag-japan","tag-korea","tag-middle-east","tag-navy","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-south-china-sea","tag-straits-of-hormuz","tag-vietnam"],"yoast_head":"\nEnergion Roundtable Week 4 Responses \u2013 The Military 2 - Politics and Religion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hushbeck.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/energion-roundtable-week-4-responses-\u2013-the-military-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Energion Roundtable Week 4 Responses \u2013 The Military 2 - Politics and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the ongoing discussion stemming from the week 4\u2019s \u00a0Energion Roundtable question, \u00a0\u00a0Arthur Sido, \u00a0wrote a long response to my comments on the military.\u00a0 As we are already posting on week five, I will just address a couple of his question\/responses to clarify my position. 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