Tomgram: William Astore, All the President’s Generals
In a sense, human history could be seen as an endless tale of the rise and fall of empires. In the last century alone, from the Hapsburgs and Imperial Japan to Great Britain and the Soviet Union, the stage was crowded with such entities heading for the nearest exit. By 1991, with the implosion of the USSR, it seemed as if Earth’s imperial history was more or less over. After all, only one great imperial power was left. The Russians were, by then, a shadow of their former Soviet self (despite their nuclear arsenal) and, though on the rise, the Chinese were, in military terms at least, no more than a growing regional power. Left essentially unchallenged was the United States, the last empire standing. Even though its people rejected the word “imperial” as a descriptive term for their “exceptional” country — just as, until oh-so-recently, they rejected the word “nationalist” for themselves — the world’s “sole superpower” was visibly the only game in town.
Its military, which already garrisoned much of the planet, was funded at levels no other country or even groups of them combined could touch and had destructive capabilities beyond compare. And yet, with the mightiest military on the planet, the United States would never again win a significant war or conflict. Though its forces would be quite capable of taking the island of Grenada or briefly invading Panama, in the conflicts that mattered — Korea and Vietnam — victory would never come into sight. And it only got worse in the twenty-first century as that military fought an endless series of conflicts (under the rubric of “the war on terror”) across the Greater Middle East and Africa. In those years, it left in its wake a series of brutal sectarian struggles, ascendant terror movements, and failed or failing states and yet, despite its stunning destructive power and its modestly armed enemies, it was nowhere victorious. Never perhaps had an empire at its seeming height attempted to control more while winning less. (The power of its economy was, of course, another matter.)
Now, its losing generals — under the circumstances, there could be no other kind — are, as TomDispatch regular retired Lieutenant Colonel William Astore points out today, being elevated to positions of power. The man doing so only recently derided their skills, claiming that American generalship had been “reduced to rubble” and was “embarrassing for our country.” At the moment, his chosen generals are preparing themselves to take over key civilian positions in the country’s ever more powerful national security state, now essentially its fourth branch of government.
And let’s add to this one more curious aspect of the coming age of Trump: a phenomenon until now restricted to the military and its distant wars seems about to spread to what’s left of the civilian part of our government. By the look of things, Trump’s cabinet is being assembled along eerily familiar lines. Its members are unlikely to have the power to “win” (despite the president-elect’s deification of that concept), but they will indeed have an unprecedented power to destroy.
They seem, in fact, to have been chosen largely for their desire to dismantle whatever agency or department will be in their care or to undermine the major tasks it is to carry out. Former Texas governor Rick Perry, recently picked to head the Energy Department, an agency he previously wanted to eliminate (and whose name he infamously forgot in a televised presidential debate), is typical. See also Scott Pruitt, prospective head of the Environmental Protection Agency; Betsy DeVos, the Department of Education; and Tom Price, Health and Human Services. The question, of course, is: Will the civilian part of our future government, in the end, add another country to the count of failed states the U.S. military has already chalked up?
As our first declinist candidate, Donald Trump seems determined to ensure that the once sole superpower will join that endless human tale of felled empires. He’s already working hard to make certain that its government will be hollowed out or simply dynamited in the coming years, while his covey of retired generals will undoubtedly do their damnedest to create further havoc on planet Earth, as they give new meaning to the latest American “principle” being put in place (see Astore): military control over the military (and much else). Tom
Too Many Generals Spoil the Democracy
Trump’s Push to “Win” with Warriors is a Loss for America
By William J. AstoreAmerica has always had a love affair with its generals. It started at the founding of the republic with George Washington and continued with (among others) Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. These military men shared something in common: they were winning generals. Washington in the Revolution; Jackson in the War of 1812; Taylor in the Mexican-American War; Grant in the Civil War; and Ike, of course, in World War II. Americans have always loved a hero in uniform — when he wins.
Yet twenty-first-century America is witnessing a new and revolutionary moment: the elevation of losing generals to the highest offices in the land. Retired Marine Corps General James “Mad Dog” Mattis, known as a tough-talking “warrior-monk,” will soon be the nation’s secretary of defense. He’ll be joined by a real mad dog, retired Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn as President-elect Donald Trump’s national security adviser. Leading the Department of Homeland Security will be recently retired General John Kelly, another no-nonsense Marine. And even though he wasn’t selected, retired Army General David Petraeus was seriously considered for secretary of state, further proof of Trump’s starry-eyed fascination with the brass of our losing wars. Generals who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan to anything but victory — pyrrhic ones don’t count — are again being empowered. This time, it’s as “civilian” advisers to Trump, a business tycoon whose military knowledge begins and ends with his invocation of two World War II generals, George S. Patton and Douglas MacArthur, as his all-time favorite military leaders.
Reflections on the Rise and Fall of Empires | Big Think
Sep 21, 2010 – Why then did it fall? Herodotus believed that there were invariable laws to therise and fall of empires. Empires rose and fell—as they still do …
The Rise and Fall of Empires | History Today
These events fit into a global pattern of the rise and fall of societies, that can be traced … True of all the ancient empires we know, the cycle of rise and decline …
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers – Wikipedia
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to …. The Rise of the Great Powers · Upward Spiral · List of regions by past GDP (PPP) per capita · Economic history of the United States · Empire …
The Rise And Fall Of Empires: Ibn Khaldun’s Theory Of Social …
May 8, 2015 – The most remarkable figure in medieval historiography was Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khaldun, known to us modernly simply as Ibn Khaldun. He was …
War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires: Peter Turchin …
Like Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel, Peter Turchin in War and Peace and War uses his expertise in evolutionary biology to make a highly original …
Why empires fall: from ancient Rome to Putin’s Russia – New Statesman
May 23, 2014 – What rises must fall. This seems to most of us almost as much a law in the field of geopolitics as it is in physics. Every western country that has …
The Life Cycles of Empires: Lessons for America Today? | United …
Jul 6, 2011 – For years after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, America seemingly towered … The age of decline and collapse. … The rise of empires.
[PDF]Fate of Empires – People Server at UNCW
II The lives of empires. If we desire to ascertain the laws which govern the rise and fall of empires, the obvious course is to investigate the imperial experiments …
What causes great empires throughout history to fall? – Quora
I would like to apologise but I haven’t studied the Roman, Mongol and Persian empires in depth … Slow Adaptation To New Economic Realities: Empires generally rise because there is a great concentration of human beings at a particular area …
The Decline and Fall of Empires | Stratfor
Apr 15, 2015 – Some things, though, are very close, and the historical pattern of the rise and fall of empires points toward two broad conclusions. First, we …
Rise and fall of empires – Newspaper – DAWN.COM
Dec 15, 2011 – This multi-colour mosaic of history is etched with cultural images of the rise and fall of empires established across the globe. Empires are the …
Amazon.com: War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires …
War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. … This item:War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires by Peter Turchin Paperback $11.33. … Start reading War and Peace and War: TheRise and Fall of Empires …
Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire – Episode 1: The First Barbarian …
Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire – Episode 1: The First Barbarian War (Documentary) The Roman Empire …
The Rise and Fall of Empires part 1 – YouTube
The Rise and Fall of Empires part 1 … Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire – Episode 8: Wrath of the Gods …
Empires Quotes – BrainyQuote
It is not the rise and fall of empires, the birth and death of kings, or the marching of armies that move them most. When they answer from their depths, it is to the …
The Rise and Fall of Empires by nicole espinosa on Prezi
Sep 5, 2013 – Similar factors that led to its decline: The Rise and Fall of Empires What caused these empires to rise? Wars can make an empire rise or fall.
The Rise & Fall of Empires, Nations, & City States | Armstrong …
Apr 6, 2015 – QUESTION: Marty, I remember you giving a seminar back in the early nineties and you showed a chart of the rise and fall of civilizations with …
Ibn Khaldun and the Rise and Fall of Empires | Muslim Heritage
The 14th-century historiographer and historian Abu Zayd ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Khaldun was a brilliant scholar and thinker now viewed as a founder of modern …
The Rise and Fall of Empires by Hywel Williams | Head of Zeus
In THE RISE AND FALL OF EMPIRES, a best-selling historian examines the triumph and demise of seven empires of global reach and influence, from the …
https://eslkevin.wordpress.com/2020/06/08/if-i-believed-in-a-deep-state-i-think-trump-has-been-a-perfect-tool-or-foil-of-a-deep-state/