What if?

This is a powerful article by a German pastor on the state of affairs with America and the world. Disagree if you wish, but it's worthy of a read nonetheless. I especially appreciated these concluding paragraphs:

The point is that due to their many ground-zero experiences, European nations have learned the lesson that the functioning integrity of societies is as much dependent on social stability and just labor relations as it is on their military establishments. For the U.S., on the other hand, the experience of being the global winner has become a trap. President Eisenhower's prophetic warning about the danger of the "military-industrial complex" tending to become the all-encompassing economic factor has become all too true...

It will not suffice to put the blame on President Bush and his administration alone. The temptation is there, and it will increase as the Iraqi quagmire continues to get worse. But this would be a sort of scapegoating, and it would prevent us from looking at the underlying issues.

Let me also suggest the movie "Why We Fight" as a means of investigating some of the underlying causes of the American predilection for military combat.