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yeah the framers were actually pretty hostile to to militarism they looked at uh...
I have some quotes in the book uh... from Ben franklin and others ah... about uh...
professional standing armies that would
uh...
you know get rush limbaugh or sean hannity to
accuse you of treason and suggest you should be locked up if they were made by a political
figure today yeah
uh...
but yeah i i think uh... that that
this is a concern and this trend towards militarism
is in part driven by the fact that war is the health of the presidency and that
even when you have uh... social problems the uh... so-called commander in chief
tries to reconstitute them in military terms war on drugs or war on poverty
you say in the book that we have to become
quote a normal country again
what do you mean by that how how would we become
a normal country again
let me just say one thing before you answer that
i do not think that it is without significance
that europe
which has suffered the horrendous ravages
and the approximately
eighty million deaths of two world wars
is far less militaristically inclined then we
who have never suffered an internal war since the civil war
and who don't know what it means
and that europe is far less prone to rush to arms than we are
i would define that in part as being an normal country although god knows it's not normal to lose eighty million
people in two wars
but what do you mean when you say we have to become a normal country again well it does relate
to foreign policy
uh... i think that's that's an excellent point about the effects of the two world wars and
uh...
I've heard people suggest that and i i think there's definitely something to it uh...
our relatively much easier experience
in those wars is uh... has led us to to think that
problems uh... that that we should resort to the sword more quickly
can I interject something don't forget your point
when you say we had a relatively easier time
that's a true but
staggering comment because our time was so bad and yet it was relatively much easier
yeah the
enormity of the destruction in europe I mean it's probably even an understatement
uh
my point my point a normal country a normal country yeah
I think one of the reasons we have the presidency we do is because
uh... we've
you know some could question whether we've ever been a normal country for good or bad uh...
but
we have this wilsonian notion uh... particularly among the elites this is more of an
elite phenomenon then maybe a voter driven phenomenon but that uh...
america is anointed by God to pay any price and bear any burden and
to promote
uh... liberty and democracy around the world it is in many ways a really noble
uh... idea and I think we should do more
to promote liberty and democracy around the world I just think that uh... well certainly
the lesson of the last seven years is that uh... using the u_s_ military uh... toward that
end is uh... i think
a bad idea and
a wrong idea and it has had
drastic and and terrible consequences