Part 2 of Tom Engelhardt's interview Andrew Bacevich, a former military
man and now a vocal critic of US foreign policy
(See also Part 1, The delusions of global hegemony)
Tomdispatch: I'd like to turn to the issue of oil wars, energy wars.
That seems to be what holds all this incoherent stuff together - minds
focused on a world of energy flows. Recently, I reread [president Jimmy]
Carter's 1979 energy speech. Isn't it ironic that he got laughed out of
the room for his sweater and for urging a future of alternative fuels on
us, while we latched on to his Rapid Deployment Force for the Persian
Gulf? As you argue in your book, The New American Militarism, this
essentially starts us on what you call "World War IV".
Andrew Bacevich: I remember the Carter speech. I was a relatively young
man at the time. In general, I have voted for Republicans, although not
this Republican in 2004 [George W Bush]. But I did vote for Carter
because I was utterly disenchanted with [president Richard] Nixon and
[his national security adviser Henry] Kissinger. [President Gerald] Ford
seemed weak, incompetent. And I remember being dismayed by the Carter
speech because it seemed so out of sync with the American spirit. It
wasn't optimistic; it did not promise that we would have more tomorrow
than we have today, that the future would be bigger and better. Carter
essentially said: If we are serious about freedom, we must really think
about what freedom means - and it ought to mean something more than
acquisition and conspicuous consumption. And if we're going to preserve
our freedom, we have to start living within our means.
It did not sit well with me at the time. Only when I was writing my
militarism book did I take another look at the speech, and then it
knocked me over. I said to myself: This guy got it....
[I did reevaluate Carter too.]
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HE27Aa01.html
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