NOT THE AMERICAN FOUNDERS' MILITARY

Since World War II, the U.S. military has been used increasingly to defend other nations or its own imperial reach -- aims that run counter to the vision of the republic's founders. In the post-conscription era, uncritical public support of the military has helped pave the road toward U.S. military interventionism abroad, according to Ivan Eland, director of the Independent Institute's Center on Peace & Liberty.

"The nation's founders realized that an excessive veneration of the military was not good for a republic," writes Eland in his latest op-ed. "The American republic was supposed to be the antithesis of the militarized societies of 18th century Europe."

Although deaths of America's soldiers should be mourned, argues Eland, excessive praise of the military "is not good for the republic and it's not good for the troops."

"The glorification of the militarized U.S. foreign policy of the latter half of the 20th and early 21st centuries would make the founding generation roll over in their graves," Eland concludes.

"Is Veneration of the Military Good for the Republic?" by Ivan Eland (4/10/06)
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1702

THE WAY OUT OF IRAQ: Decentralizing the Iraqi Government, by Ivan Eland
http://www.independent.org/store/policy_re...etail.asp?id=16

THE EMPIRE HAS NO CLOTHES: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed, by Ivan Eland
http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=54

Center on Peace & Liberty (Ivan Eland, director)
http://www.independent.org/research/copal/