Summary: Welcome to the American Empire! 2018 was its coming out party. See the evidence. Get angry and fight to reclaim America.
The massive Department of Defense website clearly stated DoD’s mission. This was on their website during the time of presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton, according to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
“The mission of the Department of Defense is to provide the military forces needed to deter war and to protect the security of our country.”
The Task and Purpose website reported that on the January 2 or 3, 2018, DoD changed their mission statement, without notice. “Deter war” is gone; “sustain American influence abroad” was added. It was a mission statement for an Empire.
“The mission of the Department of Defense is to provide a lethal Joint Force to defend the security of our country and sustain American influence abroad.”
They do not mention how “influence abroad” means, or how it benefits America. In Horizon, February 1942 Orwell made a powerful observation about imperial Britain. It also describes our America.
“It is notable that Kipling does not seem to realize, any more than the average soldier or colonial administrator, that an empire is primarily a money-making concern. …{It} is a fact that Kipling’s ‘message’ {about the glories of Empire} was one that the big public did not want, and, indeed, has never accepted. The mass of the people, in the nineties as now, were anti-militarist, bored by the Empire, …”
The American people always have had an isolationist viewpoint, liking the pageantry of empire but unwilling to support foreign wars with their money and blood – excerpt after provocations and when stoked by propaganda. As we have seen with our post-9/11 wars. They were supported by the public at the start, support faded as the war ran on.
Of course, the public’s lack of support makes no difference. As we see in the reaction to Trump’s logical partial withdrawal from Syria, the wars’ advocates remain powerful. Leaders of both major parties, journalists, and geopolitical experts of all flavors – all are cheerleaders (as seen in their hysterical reactionto Trump’s logical pullback from Syria). If we do not run America’s political machinery, then others will do so.
Now for the bad news
None of this appears in the Summary of the 2018 National Defense Strategy – all fourteen pages (nor is it on the new DoD website). Our new strategy is madness – the rapid pursuit of bankruptcy. Fourteen pages of “goals” – with no regard for cost, or weighing of costs vs. benefits.
This is the traditional way empires fall. See Paul Kenndey’s The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. Over-extension of geopolitical reach and excessive investment in military power combines with underinvestment in domestic infrastructure and R&D. It is a commonplace of history. America is on the grim path followed by so many previous hegemonic states.
But we can still step off this road to decay. Most Americans know this is folly, but our apathy is our greatest foe.
See the introduction to the book. Paul Kennedy is a professor of history at Harvard (see Wikipedia).