The “Big Dick” Theory

The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke

While this article is enlightening to the ills of a military welfare state, I think it neglects a more thorough look at what occurs when a nation possesses an abnormally huge military. I like to refer to this idea (sorry, it’s crude) as the “big dick” theory. The theory, which is almost uniquely male (at least at the extremes, see: porn stars), basically says that if you have a unusually big dick you’re going to want to use it, regularly and unusually. I think the sheer volume of incursions of the U.S. military in the sovereign affairs of countries around the globe is ample evidence of this theory. We have an unusually enormous military and we use it regularly and most certainly unusually. Said another way, we don’t use the military in the direct defense of our country, however we tell each other that is being put to good use. The rationalizations for the use of this institutionalized violence have been by various and essentially rooted in irrational fear. This is illustrated in the blunt and overly UN-complicated rationalizations such as the “domino effect,” the “war on drugs,” the “war on terrorism,” the “cold war,” etc., etc., etc.

The magnitude of threat exaggeration in the U.S. is tremendous. In the same time frame (the past 50 years) dozens and dozens of nations around the world have NOT perceived such threats where the U.S. has and where in reality none has actually existed or at the very least the magnitude of the threat certainly didn’t warrant military intervention. While the military postures of these relative peaceful countries have assuredly been steered by their culture, our culture has been directed by what General and President Dwight Eisenhower warned us against in his farewell address, the convergence of “an immense military establishment and a large arms industry,” their pervasive institutional enormity and the very existence of which, as we’ve seen all too well, have encouraged their overuse.

And oh boy how we’ve used our “big dick!”

Letter to Future President: True Al-Qaeda Threat

President of the United States
Washington, DC

Dear Mr. President:

I am writing to you because I am convinced that current American policy toward the greatest instigator of jihad around the world, Al-Qaeda, is not succeeding, and that we may soon face a more serious threat in the Middle East than any we have known since the end of the Cold War. I urge you to enunciate a strategy that would secure the interests of the U.S. and our friends and allies around the world. That strategy should aim at not further emboldening terrorists at the expense of our military and the taxpayers by waging counter-productive conventional wars, especially against nations that do not support, train or have any relations with Al-Qaeda. It is my fear that this administration may replicate the same missteps of previous administrations by falling into the trap laid by this crafty non-state actor that often acts on the world stage.

Please do NOT underestimate the potential calamity that awaits us if we fail to understand the importance of this reality. Al-Qaeda’s goal is to manipulate the U.S. into confronting them as if they were a state and convincing us to meet their terrorist acts with conventional warfare. The risk that this tragic misunderstanding presents is the effect of radicalizing more and more moderate Muslims throughout not only the Middle East but the entire world. Make no mistake about it, this is NOT a cultural war, this is a war amongst extremists concerning our past and present policies. Our fear should be of replicating past actions leading to an even greater violent blowback than the acts we’re attempting to mitigate. Al-Qaeda’s truest threat lies in convincing our great nation to destroy itself from within by alienating us from our allies and the rest of the world while strengthening support for the extremists. Mr. President, the bad news is they’re winning; the good news is that our ignorance is allowing it to happen.

The policy of the ill-defined, directionless and now irrelevant “war on terror” must be strangled until it can be drowned in the bathtub by reason and reality. As recent events have demonstrated, we can no longer depend upon the policies of past administrations as they have proven to be an even greater threat to our security than Al-Qaeda. These policies have increased worldwide suspicion about the motivations of the United States, have alienated us from the allies whose support we require and have further aggravated an already serious situation leading to a fourfold increase in worldwide terrorism since the beginning of these futile policies. They have also been instrumental in creating an environment whereby support and sympathies for Al-Qaeda have dramatically increased the world over. While it is almost assured that Al-Qaeda will have an extremely difficult to nearly impossible time manufacturing weapons that are truly capable of mass destruction and it is also highly unlikely that rogue states would risk national obliteration attempting to work with Al-Qaeda on this front, please don’t underestimate the true nature of the threat. Al-Qaeda was founded and has grown in strength due in large part to the uninformed and dangerously inept Middle Eastern policies of the past 30 years. The “war on terror” will only be won when Al-Qaeda is defeated not on a battlefield but in the hearts and minds of the more moderate Muslims that Al-Qaeda is hoping to radicalize. It is imperative that we do not allow them to succeed.

It will take great courage and a much different perspective to confront Al-Qaeda but the first place we can begin is by completely reevaluating our policies in the Middle East. Additionally, Al-Qaeda presents a threat in part because of their ability to coordinate attacks using many highly educated and recently radicalized Muslims. Continuing the policies of the past will only lead to an increase in the number of radicalized Muslims and a further destabilizing effect on the entire Middle East. Mr. President, the security of the world in the first part of the 21st century will be determined largely by how you handle this threat.

As we have already observed the only acceptable strategy is one that eliminates the possibility of undertaking military action as diplomacy has proven time and time again to clearly be the only way to succeed in the long term. In part this means assuring countries throughout the world that our actions demonstrate that we are not a threat to their security. The dozens of nations around the world that champion freedom and have a similar way of life yet have avoided violent conflict with Al-Qaeda and other related terrorist organizations are examples of how the U.S. can marginalize those radical fundamentalist Muslims that seek to destroy us and are by far the most extreme of minorities. As Michael Scheuer, former 22 year CIA veteran who headed the group responsible for tracking Osama Bin Laden has stated, “If our policies stay the same, no one is going to listen to our diplomacy” (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/interviews/scheuer.html) which will leave us only with the military option, which is hopelessly creating a cycle whereby the more we kill the greater the growth in the number of “terrorists” who want to kill us.

Thank you

(Some language excerpted from the 1998 PNAC letter to President Clinton)

Next Page »