washington rules

I recently read the recent book by Bacevich, Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War, in which he rails against the dominance of the military in determining policy in the US. His contention is that the Washington establishment has settled on a small number of rules for relating to the rest of the world that have survived over the last fifty years, through several different administrations. These rules, he believes, have little relation to the real world, and have instead been an effort to bend reality to the prejudices of a small number of people.

His book is an interesting read, but as with so many of these books, his conclusion is only that the people need to be more involved in government and making sure that their concerns are properly reflected in determining international policies. He does not deal with how this is going to happen.

He comes across as being almost an isolationist, saying that our influence in the world should be a function of our example as a democracy, rather than of our military power. I have rather more sympathy for the necessity of the expression of military power in our interactions with the world, and the obligations of being a world power,  at least until we are no longer in that position.

From my admittedly biased position, the problems he is concerned about are the result of the structure of the government we have, which he does not address at all. In particular, the conduct of international relations, and by extension, foreign military affairs, has always, since George Washington, been disconnected from the political process. When Washington negotiated the Jay Treaty with Britain without consulting with Congress, he set the pattern for the future. Since then Congress has never been meaningfully involved in determining foreign policy, and that is the reason, in Basevich's terms, foreign and military policy has been able to proceed as it has without input from the people. Until the House of Representatives is more involved in foreign policy, the people will continue to have little input.