Back at the time of the collapse of the USSR, some
commentators claimed that the West had driven the Soviets into bankruptcy by
escalating the arms race beyond their means while simultaneously making sure that
the Afghan war continued to drain them. All that unsustainable spending,
pundits insisted, had brought the rickety Soviet system crashing down into a
heap.
It may be time to ask whether the tables have been turned
upon us.
President Biden has asked Congress for additional monies for
the DoD, the better to prepare ourselves for a stand-off with Russia in Europe.
Congress, never particularly reticent when it comes to military pork for
members’ districts, promptly insisted on giving him more than he asked for.
Biden’s proposed $813 billion Pentagon bill dwarfs all
previous budgets for arms and warfare, and Republicans promptly attacked it as
too little. While gummint programs often come in for the criticism that they simply
throw money at a problem, there is a sudden 180 pivot when the same approach is
used in this particular sphere.
I remember attending a Pentagon briefing in 1981 when the
incoming Reagan Administration was boosting the budget numbers left behind by
Carter. The briefing book literally had the Carter numbers crossed out and new
percentage increases penciled in over each item, giving the strong impression that
the only thought in anyone’s mind when they got the checkbook out was, “More!”
The never-never question of, “How are we to pay for all
this?” remains off limits given that, by long-established custom, it is only
asked of programs that improve people’s lives such as Social Security or transportation
infrastructure. But under no circumstances must this query be put to those
demanding new funds for weaponry.
However, it might be a relevant inquiry these days as we
witness inflation reach double-digits and our trade deficit with China (tomorrow’s
enemy!) explode.
Biden and his neocon war council seem confident that the
United States can stage confrontations with large and small rival powers such
as Russia, China, Iran (perhaps toss in India and Pakistan as well if need be),
wage economic war upon them, and emerge unscathed.
Biden’s guys are happily ensconced in a virtual world dating
to about 1992 (or perhaps 1946) in which the U.S. rules the four winds and the
seven seas, dictates terms, and punishes renegades.
That world has come and gone, but if you believe that
perceptions matter more than reality, the Golden Age can be summoned back with
magical thinking and some good old Edward Bernays-style PR.
After all, Ronald Reagan made us “feel good about America”
after the hardships of the 60s and 70s, and for four decades that has stood us
in good stead. We recovered from the so-called Vietnam syndrome and returned to
our rightful place as the beacon of freedom and democracy around the world, as
witnessed by our efforts to promote both in Panama, El Salvador, Serbia,
Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. As long as we feel good, everything will work out
fine.
Like Napoleon, we—or least Messrs. Blinken and Sullivan—believe
in the historical mission of advancing democracy and free-market capitalism on
the point of our nuclear-tipped lances. The neocons, true to their original Trotskyist
roots, have led an ideological battle inspired by their revolutionary beliefs
and backed up with the vast coercive resources of the world’s costliest
military machine.
Whether it’s the best prepared or most competent remains to
be seen as the neocon zealots push us ever closer to open battle with Russia on
the European front. War ideas that were once far-fetched edge ever closer to
reality as the Biden leadership shows no signs of discovering a reverse gear
despite the evidence that Plan A hasn’t gone so well. We now face the prospect
of a direct face-off.
But notwithstanding their crushing triumph in the
information war, the U.S. and its western allies haven’t found a winning
formula to reverse Russian advances in the field. Meanwhile, the economic war launched
with vast confidence that the Russian economy (“a gas station masquerading as a
country”—John McCain) would promptly collapse and force Putin to his
septuagenarian knees has generated a boomerang effect that has only just begun
to be felt here at home.
Americans are currently enthusiastic about the nobility of
the Ukrainian cause and happy to display blue and yellow face-paint and donate
to the widows-and-orphans charities springing up.
Of course, a couple of years back people were clapping out
their windows for the heroic nurses tending to Covid patients, the same nurses
who are now the object of hostile comments at the grocery store for their role
in the “fake” epidemic and its inconvenient restrictions.
How long will Ukraine solidarity survive in the face of
seven-dollar-a-gallon gas? Or apples suddenly costing $3 a pound instead of
$1.75?
No doubt all we’ll need is tighter restrictions on
“pro-Russian” propaganda on Twitter and YouTube to revive that fighting spirit
of sacrifice. After all, the defense of Ukrainian agency and the preservation
of its options for NATO membership are certainly worth canceling that family
vacation or moving into a two-room flat.
Given that the US of A is the greatest country on earth with
an awesome fighting force and the best of everything, we’ll be up to the
challenges facing us once they’re explained by credible leaders like Joe Biden,
Kamala Harris, Mitch McConnell, and Donald Trump.
The American economy dwarfs most others and certainly will respond
with resilience even though its captains of industry long ago packed up the
nation’s factories and shipped them to Mexico, Bangladesh, and China. But we
have Facebook, Google, and many iProducts and dozens of billionaires each worth
ten times the net worth of ancient Mesopotamia. We are indestructible.
Nothing can go wrong, and all will be well.
