On the Newstand: Defining the American Purpose

Granted I've never actually seen Proceedings, which is put out by the US Naval Institute, on a newstand, but it's a magazine so it qualifies. In the September issue conservative apostate Philip Gold reached for the "Kennan Prize," the fictional award bestowed on whoever can shape and define American foreign policy for the forseable future. Gold believes that the previous two centuries, from the American Revolution to the collapse of the USSR, was defined by "Wars of Ideology" and that now we have entered an era that can best be described as the "War of Ways." What are the War of Ways you ask?

Ideology still matters. So does religion. So does the rest of the human capacity for furor, vice, and folly. But the mix is different now, more subtle and more complex. I suggest that we have entered an era that might be called, at least provisionally, the Wars of the Ways. Across the planet and its increasingly irrelevant national boundaries, three sets of human beings are involved.

• Those nations, peoples, regions, groups, and movements who partake of the 21st century, its freedoms and diversities and possibilities: those whose ways are those of prosperity, tolerance, and humane aspiration.

• Those who want out of the 21st century: jihpadi, political exremits, violent racial and ethnic separatists, terrorists of other ilk (animal rights, ecological, etc.), male supremacists, leftover Marxist and traditional tyrants, and the gurus and gauleiters of philosophies and movements yet to be espoused—those whose ways would bring upon us new Dark Ages of hate, intolerance, oppression, and worse.

• Those who can't get into the 21st century: the three billion of us who live on under two a day, amid conditions of overpopulation, disease, and starvation, havoc, degradation, despair; most of the women of this planet; youth with no sense of opportunity and place—in sum, all those who may choose to live by the motto, "When you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose."

The Wars of the Ways will pit those who partake, or desire to partake, of the 21st century, against those who want out, who will deliberately and cynically ally with those who can't get in, who will deliberately and cynically accept their help.

So what should be our mission?

It should be the American purpose to serve as a guardian of the 21st century, protecting those who cherish and partake of its ways, opposing those who would destroy them, and doing everything in our power to aid those who want in. This will require a national commitment, a stern and reasoned national commitment, at least as steadfast as the Cold War consensus. But it will also require new ways of thinking. John Maynard Keynes once remarked that, in the end, even the most practical businessman is the slave of some defunct economist. For too long we have been the slaves of too many (living and dead) social scientists, pundits, and prognosticators, military and civilian. It's time to zero-base our thinking and, in accordance with the motto of a certain ersatz Australian steak house chain, adopt as our interim guide: "No Rules. Just Right."

First to go: the entire "world's only superpower" cant. Not only does it encourage hubris, it positively mandates irrelevance. Next on the list: the notion that balance of power must be essentially bipolar or, if you prefer, manic-depressive. We've entered an era, similar in some ways to Europe from Westphalia to Napoleon although far more complex, of fluid and shifting arrangements. We have a few friends. Beyond that, we have relationships of various degrees of permanence. Beyond that: hook-ups. Best we remember which is which. Also time to deep-six the whole "If you're not with us, you're against us" mentality. It sounds tough. But it's also worth remembering that the rest of the planet has concerns of its own, and sometimes even your friends wouldn't mind seeing you taken down a peg or two. In any case, a nation that grows ever more deeply indebted to the world, while willfully destroying its own economic capabilities, should not expect its "superpower" or any other status to last forever.

Finally, we need to rid ourselves, once and for all, of the belief that the planet's highest aspiration is, or should be, to be like us—along with the notion that we can force people to be free...

This is how Gold proposes that we get this done:

First, let regions take care of their own problems, including war and national break-ups, whenever possible. As for the United Nations: We should listen respectfully to any delegation whose members pay their parking tickets.

Second, help the Islamic and African worlds create the civil societies without which constitutions are mere machinery to be taken over and civil rights weapons in the hands of those who would destroy them. Civil society requires, above all else, citizens. To the Greeks, a citizen was a man who was empowered to participate in the public world by virtue of education, material sufficiency, and arms. We must reaffirm this "enabling civic triad"—adequate education, remunerative work, and the bearing of arms for all citizens, male and female.

Third, adopt humane and rational policies on everything from environmental protection to the strict regulation of child labor and the abolition of all forms of human trafficking. An old Rudy Vallee song holds that, "You're Going to Do It Someday So Why Not Do It Now?" Let's do it now.

Finally, remember the Politiques. These were the men who ended the French Wars of Religion by deciding that, whatever their beliefs, they weren't going to kill each other over them anymore. Today, the more Politiques, the better. Especially among the young.

Here is the military angle:

It is not necessary, for this readership, to review the current condition of America's armed forces, save perhaps to note that we may well be approaching a situation described as "Defenseless on a Trillion Dollars a Year." At best, we're imploding: the Army, Marines, and National Guard because of Iraq, the Navy and Air Force because of the obscene cost of new ships and planes. To reverse this situation, it's vital to rediscover one great truth. America's military must be structured and used primarily for those things that only the military can do, most specifically, win wars decisively.

This means that our great comparative advantages, aerospace and naval power, must be maintained and enhanced, and that most of our land forces should remain oriented toward such eventualities. Counter-insurgency and operations other than war are best handled by the Marines, enhanced special operations forces, and (please pardon the non-PC allusion) modern variants of "colonial infantry" within the Army.

He closes with a few words of advice on Iraq:

I suggest here that it does not matter how long we stay, or how many insurgents we kill, or how many constitutions and elections we honcho. I suggest also that the time is coming when we should say to the people of Iraq:

"We liberated you from a hideous tyrant. We gave you years to think about what you wanted. We poured in billions of dollars to protect you, to help you rebuild. We sacrificed thousands of our finest young men and women, now dead, maimed, and hurting in body and spirit. We proclaimed you a lesson to the world. But now it is you who must teach that lesson. We've other work to attend to. Let's see what you do with your freedom. Your success may well inspire others. Your failure will teach lessons, too."