US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, too, reinforced the point by claiming that America resides today in a “very complex, dangerous world.”
US presidential candidate Mitt Romney declared that it is “wishful thinking” to assume “that the world is becoming a safer place.”
US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta echoed Romney’s statement. In a lecture last October, Panetta warned of threats arising “from terrorism to nuclear proliferation; from rogue states to cyber attacks; from revolutions in the Middle East, to economic crisis in Europe, to the rise of new powers such as China and India.”
US Joint Chiefs of Staff, chairman, General Martin Dempsey, also argues that “the number and kinds of threats we face have increased significantly.”
But a political analyst says US officials chronically exaggerate foreign threats and portray the world as more dangerous than it really is to cater for their own “material and political interests.”
Micah Zenko said in an interview with the website of Foreign Affairs “There is a reason we have 30,000 people in the State Department and 1.6 million in the Pentagon and that is because we see things through a militarized lens,” .
“If you look at the specific threats that people 'claim' should justify USD 600 billion on military spending and 1.6 million people on just the civilian side of the military, it does not really hold up. But that sort of threat inflation is common practice by both the Republicans and Democrats, people at think tanks, people at universities, policy makers in general, because it paints the world in which militarized responses, robust defense spending, and robust US presence in the world is necessary, but that is just not the world we face,” he added.
To illustrate his point, Zenko touched upon the US allegations against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program, saying, “Iran is not developing a nuclear weapon according to intelligence agencies,” but the US itself has more than “2,000 deployable nuclear weapons.”
He concluded by saying that the US should “readjust its priorities” and focus on the real challenges presented by climate change, pandemic influenzas and global health issues, “none of which the United States can deal with unilaterally and none of which has a military response.”
A forlorn hope in the view of SOYMB while the root reason for America's military might and its expansionism is capitalism remains unquestioned.
Source
US presidential candidate Mitt Romney declared that it is “wishful thinking” to assume “that the world is becoming a safer place.”
US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta echoed Romney’s statement. In a lecture last October, Panetta warned of threats arising “from terrorism to nuclear proliferation; from rogue states to cyber attacks; from revolutions in the Middle East, to economic crisis in Europe, to the rise of new powers such as China and India.”
US Joint Chiefs of Staff, chairman, General Martin Dempsey, also argues that “the number and kinds of threats we face have increased significantly.”
But a political analyst says US officials chronically exaggerate foreign threats and portray the world as more dangerous than it really is to cater for their own “material and political interests.”
Micah Zenko said in an interview with the website of Foreign Affairs “There is a reason we have 30,000 people in the State Department and 1.6 million in the Pentagon and that is because we see things through a militarized lens,” .
“If you look at the specific threats that people 'claim' should justify USD 600 billion on military spending and 1.6 million people on just the civilian side of the military, it does not really hold up. But that sort of threat inflation is common practice by both the Republicans and Democrats, people at think tanks, people at universities, policy makers in general, because it paints the world in which militarized responses, robust defense spending, and robust US presence in the world is necessary, but that is just not the world we face,” he added.
To illustrate his point, Zenko touched upon the US allegations against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program, saying, “Iran is not developing a nuclear weapon according to intelligence agencies,” but the US itself has more than “2,000 deployable nuclear weapons.”
He concluded by saying that the US should “readjust its priorities” and focus on the real challenges presented by climate change, pandemic influenzas and global health issues, “none of which the United States can deal with unilaterally and none of which has a military response.”
A forlorn hope in the view of SOYMB while the root reason for America's military might and its expansionism is capitalism remains unquestioned.
Source
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