Andrew Bacevich writes in Tom’s Dispatch about how the Boomer Generation mythos has affected US policy making for much of recent history.
“In Washington, policymakers have shown little inclination to consider the possibility that the United States itself might be guilty of doing evil. In effect, the virtuous intentions implicit in “Never Again” inoculated the United States against the virus to which ordinary nations were susceptible. V-E Day seemingly affirmed that America was anything but ordinary.
Here, then, we arrive at one explanation for the predicament in which the United States now finds itself. In a recent article in the New York Times, journalist Katrin Bennhold wondered how it could be that, when it came to dealing with Covid-19, “the country that defeated fascism in Europe 75 years ago” now finds itself “doing a worse job protecting its citizens than many autocracies and democracies” globally.
Yet it might just be that events that occurred 75 years ago in Europe no longer have much bearing on the present. The country that defeated Hitler’s version of fascism (albeit with considerable help from others) has since allowed its preoccupation with fascists, quasi-fascists, and other ne’er-do-wells to serve as an excuse for letting other things slip, particularly here in the homeland.
The United States is fully capable of protecting its citizens. Yet what the present pandemic drives home is this: doing so, while also creating an environment in which all citizens can flourish, is going to require a radical revision of what we still, however inaccurately, call “national security” priorities. This does not mean turning a blind eye to mass murder. Yet the militarization of U.S. policy that occurred in the wake of V-E Day has for too long distracted attention from more pressing matters, not least among them creating a way of life that is equitable and sustainable. This perversion of priorities must now cease.
So, yes, let’s mark this V-E Day anniversary with all due solemnity. Yet 75 years after the collapse of the Third Reich, the challenge facing the United States is not “Never Again.” It’s “What Now?”
For the moment at least, Tom and I are still around. Yet “our times” — the period that began when World War II ended — have run their course. The “new times” upon which the nation has now embarked will pose their own distinctive challenges, as the Covid-19 pandemic makes unmistakably clear. Addressing those challenges will require leaders able to free themselves from a past that has become increasingly irrelevant.”
Will this latest pandemic foster a new set of priorities across the globe? Many people would like to think so, but I think they underestimate the potency of the current establishment and how entrenched they are in the societal disequilibrium they have created. I most certainly do hope for a new normal, but I’m not optimistic about it actually coming to fruition.
4 comments
May 6, 2020 at 6:35 am
Carmen
It seems increasingly clear to me that people are very anxious to get back to doing the same damned things they’ve always done. As much as I had hoped we’d all change our priorities it appears that we’ll do no such thing. Perhaps at an individual level, yes, but collectively? Nope. Depressing, to say the least. :(
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May 6, 2020 at 7:58 am
Bill Malcolm
What mindless drivel from Katrin Bennhold.
The US, as usual, believes its own myths. And BS. And belief that they won everything. It hardly was the big winner in Europe in WWII. Had enough of that braggadocio to last me for ever. Russia was who really brought down the Nazis, as anyone who can read history bar ordinary Americans can tell you. And it was the Brits who beat Rommel in North Africa, and Canadians and Brits who fought just as hard after D Day, and in fact were ahead of the mighty GIs until slowed down to let them catch up. But all we ever hear is American boasting. Enough. They didn’t think enough of their own troops to prevent Bradley from reinserting barely healed-from-wounds and PTSDed soldiers back in the front line. I have a library of almost two hundred books, a lot written by dispassionate US historians, who get at the real facts and are not blinded by the PR.
I was born in 1947 in England, my father in the RAF. By the time I was sentient in 1950 and from then on until we emigrated to Canada in 1959 , there was much resentment in society about the Americans and them taking all the credit for everything in sight. Justifiably so. Overpaid, oversexed and over here was what people thought. You know, when they bothered to actually show up two years late. No Marshall Plan for Blighty.
It has hardly been a surprise that the world’s champion navel-gazing country was caught out by Covid-19. They’re so special, they believed they had the world’s best health care system, and told everyone in no uncertain terms. Typical.
Let’s have some Canadian perspective on all things. Some originality. We have US caterwauling aplenty on every subject under the sun, without repeating these maundering soliloquies from underinformed patriots.
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May 6, 2020 at 8:07 am
Carmen
Bill,
I have to tell you that I was nodding my head in agreement with many things you mentioned in the above comment and read your yesterday’s comment -on another blog entry – to my husband. He was nodding, as well. It does get a bit tiresome to hear Americans consistently refer to us as ‘Canada’ (as if it’s just a vast wasteland north of their border) instead of using proper nouns such as “Toronto”, “Tofino” or “Tatamagouche”. I have pointed it out diplomatically in the past but it does get tiresome.
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May 6, 2020 at 11:55 am
Jim Hunchuk
First , the USA did not win world war 2. They were the last nation to join in the war . This is most of the problem, you and they believe they won the war.
The British, Canadians, and those Europeans, and especially the Russians won the war.
The USA propaganda won the war for the USA. Once The British Empire was the handed to the USA then they helped to win the war.
These self proclaimed victories and the stolen power of the world and the bullshit lies from the USA have carried through to this pandemic and the failure to save the gullible people of the USA as well as any other nationality that wants to believe in the USA.
They won two wars, independents and the invasion of Panama.
The USA is delusional as this pandemic has proven.
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