Great power rivalry will take the political divisions in this country and make them even worse in an atmosphere of supercharged nationalism and suspicion.
Kagan more or less comes out and says the quiet part out loud:
1. A Scary Enemy is needed to justify empire, not to mention sky high military and spy budgets. Why are we constantly invading and attacking and sanctioning countries we don't like? Is it because Scary Enemy, or is it because we are glorified robbers?
2. A Scary Enemy is necessary to head off calls for domestic reform. ("We don't have time for education/healthcare/infrastructure/etc. now! What are you, some kind of commie? Don't you know we gotta fight Saddam/Milosevic/Bin Laden/Saddam again/Putin/Assad/Maduro/Kim/Xi?")
EDIT: 3. A Scary Enemy is needed to justify a crackdown on civil liberties. "Censorship is necessary to protect freedom of speech!" as Borrell put it yesterday some straight up 1984 War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery level nonsense.
Given our track record (during my entire life, which dates from 1957), the one thing we can be assured of is that in the competition war we (and the world) will lose and lose badly.
Kagan more or less comes out and says the quiet part out loud:
1. A Scary Enemy is needed to justify empire, not to mention sky high military and spy budgets. Why are we constantly invading and attacking and sanctioning countries we don't like? Is it because Scary Enemy, or is it because we are glorified robbers?
2. A Scary Enemy is necessary to head off calls for domestic reform. ("We don't have time for education/healthcare/infrastructure/etc. now! What are you, some kind of commie? Don't you know we gotta fight Saddam/Milosevic/Bin Laden/Saddam again/Putin/Assad/Maduro/Kim/Xi?")
EDIT: 3. A Scary Enemy is needed to justify a crackdown on civil liberties. "Censorship is necessary to protect freedom of speech!" as Borrell put it yesterday some straight up 1984 War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery level nonsense.
Silly cat.
Given our track record (during my entire life, which dates from 1957), the one thing we can be assured of is that in the competition war we (and the world) will lose and lose badly.