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"The founders of our nation understood this well and tried to create a form of government - a republic - that would prevent this from occurring. But the combination of huge standing armies, almost continuous wars, military Keynesianism, and ruinous military expenses have destroyed our republican structure in favor of an imperial presidency. We are on the cusp of losing our democracy for the sake of keeping our empire." Eventually, however, we'll keep neither.
In a July 30 article, titled "Three Good Reasons to Liquidate Our Empire," Johnson cited:
(1) Postwar expansionism is no longer affordable;
(2) We're losing the Afghan War and pursuing it is bankrupting us; and
(3) Our shameful "empire of bases" must end; close them down, at least most, ideally all, and also sharply cut our standing army.
His main message: "we must give up our inappropriate reliance on military force as the chief means of attempting to achieve foreign policy objectives." Few empires ever did it voluntarily. Britain did, chosing democracy. The Soviets didn't and fell.
A Grim Pentagon Afghan War Assessment
In its most recent semiannual report, released late November, titled, "Progress toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan," Pentagon commanders were worried, suggesting that despite 100,000 US forces and 50,000 others (double the force since 2008), conditions are no better, saying;
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