Creeping militarism

Back during the Katrina crisis, this is one of several bad ideas that came up: Bush eyes bigger military role in disasters: White House says debate raises 'a lot of issues to address' CNN 09/27/05.

There are very good reasons why democracies limit the role of the military in domestic affairs.  Of course, there can be situations where there is little choice but to use the active military in domestic crisis management of some kind.

But that is one of the main reasons to have a National Guard.  What is need for disaster planning is to make sure that the National Guard is adequately prepared and staffed to handle such disasters.  In the case of Katrina, not only many soldiers but also necessary equipment were over in Iraq.

The Army has built there force structures since the days of the Vietnam War in such a way that a mobilization of the reserves would be necessary in the case of a war the size of the Gulf War of 1991 or today's Iraq War.  A big part of the reason was that they believed it would provide more solid public support for the particular military action.

That part of the doesn't seem to have worked out so well in the Iraq War: Poll: American attitudes on Iraq similar to Vietnam era by Susan Page USA Today 11/15/05.

But when it comes to public opinion, Americans' attitudes toward Iraq and the course ahead are strikingly similar to public attitudes toward Vietnam in the summer of 1970, a pivotal year in that conflict and a time of enormous domestic unrest.

Some political scientists and historians predict that the Iraq conflict, like the one in Vietnam, will shape American attitudes on foreign policy and the use of military force long after it's over.

"This war is probably a really big deal historically in terms of America's perspective on the world," says John Mueller, a political scientist at Ohio State University. "What you're going to get after this is 'We don't want to do that again - No more Iraqs' just as after Vietnam the syndrome was 'No more Vietnams.' "

InaUSA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, more than half of those surveyed wanted to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq within the next 12 months. In 1970, roughly half of those surveyed wanted to withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam within 12 months.

So the Pentagon needs to give that idea up.  If they get involved in a war like this one, that they knew beforehand was likely to last for years, then the civilian and military officials should be realistic about the force needs and plan to use conscription (the draft) to fill them.  The idea of mobilizing National Guard troops for 2+ years for a war leaves the home front unprepared for emergencies.

The  idea of further streching the regular military's commitment to include domestic emergency-response duties now the responsibility of the National Guard and other agencies would only increase the personnel pressures for the regular services.

The "creeping militarism" of this post's title refers to that.  Obviously, as the poll results indicate, the general public isn't nearly so ready to embrace the militaristic ideas promoted especially by the Christian Right as many Republicans are.

And, by the way, "no more Iraqs" is not a bad idea at all.  Especially if most people understand it to mean "No more preventive wars".