Gwynne Dwyer is obviously wondering why world powers are clinging to so much military capacity.
Defence Budgets and Cave Men
For the first time in history, NO great power is planning to attack any other great power. War between great powers became economic nonsense more than a century ago, and sheer suicide after the invention of nuclear weapons. Yet the military establishments in every major power still have a powerful hold on the popular imagination.
In effect, the new US defence strategy says that for the United States to be safe, everybody else must be weaker. This displays a profound ignorance of human psychology – unless, of course, it is just a cynical device to convince the American public to spend a lot on "defence".
The answer is very simple. Fear has
bought votes and profits since the end of WWII. Maybe one of these days we'll do something about that.
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