The President - Militarism and the presidency

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