Every time I attend a public event with yet another flyover, I think of this book. At the very least, read James Webb's review here: www.jameswebb.com/amsch.htm ( )

Bacevich's consideration of how republic congeals into empire is a useful examination of the roots of the current intractable situation the United States finds itself in: That of applying more and more force to resolve our security commitments for seemingly less result and at greater cost. This being in the wake of explaining how the reasonable agendas of rebuilding the US military after Vietnam and securing the American way of life have played out in dysfunctional ways. That Bacevich says upfront about his own values that he considers himself a Catholic conservative is apparently his way of observing that he has little use for imaginings of American special providence as a basis for determining American policy.

If there is a special virtue to this book it's that Bacevich has no particular villain that he wants to excoriate, though the Army officer corps, defense intellectuals, Hollywood, evangelical political activists, Reagan, and Clinton all come in for some pointed analysis. The current administration is almost an afterthought here; mostly the unfortunate recipients of thirty years of policy making gone wrong. Their sin being to believe that more of the same will achieve results.

The policy proposals that Bacevich enunciates are also doable, with the hardest part being that this society is going to have to come to the consensus that indefinite hegemony is not a viable policy goal. In fact, one might say that a big part of the overarching theme here is that lack of collective sacrifice put us in our current situation and that a certain measure of collective sacrifice will be needed to keep the ship of state off the rocks.

Finally, I find it ironic that Jimmy Carter is something of the pivot of this book. First for being the last president to try demanding sacrifice from American society; the rejection setting the tone for the next generation. Secondly for being the man who basically started World War IV; a term which Bacevich reserves for the struggle to maintain the world order needed to uphold the prosperity Americans have come to demand as their just entitlement, with particular attention to the Middle East. ( )