The Permanent War

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THERE ARE BASICALLY TWO SCHOOLS of Western imperialism: one that seeks to dominate the world through global commerce and economic power (the internationalists) and another, cruder clique (the expansionists) that expects to go wherever it pleases with both barrels loaded and seize whatever it likes -- for example, Iraq's oil reserves and its treasury.

British economist John Hobson noted the difference between the two schools in 1902. Hobson explained that direct military imperialism is largely a losing proposition that costs more than it gains. However, he noted, it does benefit a few "powerful and well placed groups [such as] ship builders, international bankers, investors, and arms merchants" -- those elites whom Eisenhower, 20 years after Hobson's death, described as making up the military-industrial complex.

The PNAC's advocacy of military muscle went out of fashion during the Clinton administration, which preferred to sell its occasional military adventures couched in "humanitarian" rhetoric. Globalism was the ticket during the Clinton years. It took several years and a shady election, but the militarists finally got their open-ended war.

It doesn't matter who was inaugurated president in January: The war will remain. These things are supposed to be quagmires. The longer they last, the more steroids for the economy. The Vietnam conflict lasted through five administrations. Ultimately, an estimated 3 million to 4 million Southeast Asians were killed, along with 58,000 Americans. But a lot of money was made, and we staved off who knows how many recessions.

The fact is that both the Republican and the Democratic parties are subject to the same economic and electoral pressures. Presidents don't get reelected during recessions ("It's the economy, stupid"), so they have to prod the beast somehow. Most Americans care more about keeping their jobs than about foreigners losing their lives. But war doesn't solve the economic problem; it merely defers it. It's like paying bills with a credit card; we're just making a bad situation worse. Most presidents don't mind creating a mess for the next guy to clean up. But the Truman, Johnson, Reagan, and Bush II administrations appear to have been vying for some kind of record.

THERE'S NO WAY THE UNITED STATES can continue to spend this kind of money on defense and keep its domestic commitments. In the long view it would have been smarter to rebuild the domestic economy -- as was attempted in the 1990s -- and tough it out through the inevitable recessions. But greed never takes a long-term view.

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