Walt called for a more fundamental reappraisal of U.S. interests and capabilities -- a call begging the following question: [W]hat does America need to be safe and prosperous, and which tools can best achieve those ends? Until and unless such reappraisals take place it seems then, the U.S. will keep "making the same mistakes."
In his book National Security and Double Government, academic Michael Glennon examines a number of not so recognised factors that have led to the status quo, not the least being the "nominal" power of the presidency, the "dysfunctional" nature of Congressional oversight, and the "negligible" degree of judicial review in respect of formulating and enacting effective foreign policy.
"The government is seen increasingly by elements of the public as hiding what they ought to know, criminalizing what they ought to be able to do, and spying upon what ought to be private. The people are [seen] by the government as unable to comprehend the gravity of security threats." [My emphasis].
Compounding this Glennon observes, is also [that] any reform initiatives from without will require 'a general public possessed of civic virtue,' when there is a prevailing view in some quarters of the American polity of a 'pervasive civic ignorance'.
Now it's uncertain if Glennon had Pogo's refrain ("We have met the enemy, and he is us!"; see Part One) in mind when writing his book. But his view seems to be that if individual citizens allow invisible governments to grow and prosper at the expense of the collective demos -- and where transparency and the normal checks and balances of government, especially within the judiciary and Congress -- are bypassed then supplanted in favour of under the radar decision making and arbitrary, executive action -- little change will take place within the confines of the current framework, one that is increasingly at odds with the Republic's original instruction manual, the Constitution. He offers the following:
"....the term Orwellian will have little meaning to a people who have never known anything different, who have scant knowledge of history, civics, or public affairs, and who in any event have never heard of George Orwell."
(All of which brings to mind a phrase -- now morphing into a meme of sorts, even making an appearance on T-shirts -- that has begun to resonate within and across the zeitgeist: "Memo to the Power Elites: "1984" is not an instruction manual".)
Whilst Glennon does not appear to be suggesting a secret global conspiracy or malevolent New World Order-type plot to deprive Americans of their individual rights and civil liberties in the narrative he is relaying, it is still nonetheless difficult to accept his summation of the situation he describes, that being,
"...[it] is the unintended consequence of a thoughtful attempt to head off the very threats that those attempts have inadvertently created."
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