The New American Militarism

Andrew J. Bacevich has impeccable conservative credentials. He’s written for First Things, The Weekly Standard, National Review, is a West Point grad and a Vietnam vet. But his new book The New American Militarism is a scathing indictment of what passes for conservatism nowadays.

Tom Engelhardt’s TomDispatch is carrying an excerpt from Bacevich’s book.

Bacevich

writes that he still situates himself “culturally on the right. And I continue to view the remedies proferred by mainstream liberalism with skepticism. But my disenchantment with what passes for mainstream conservatism, embodied in the present Bush administration and its groupies, is just about absolute. Fiscal irresponsibility, a buccaneering foreign policy, a disregard for the Constitution, the barest lip service as a response to profound moral controversies: these do not qualify as authentically conservative values. On this score my views have come to coincide with the critique long offered by the radical left: it is the mainstream itself, the professional liberals as well as the professional conservatives who define the problem.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself! I voted for Bush in 2000, but couldn’t bring myself to do so in 2004 for precisely these sorts of reasons.