William Astore, professor of history at the Pennsylvania College of Technology, discusses his TomDispatch piece “American Militarism is Not a Fairy Tale,” how civilian control of the military is falling out of favor, especially among Republican chickenhawks, military budget cuts off the table through 2012, thanks to Democrats afraid of being labeled “soft” on anything, the blurred line between civilian (CIA) and military operations, how Gen. Petraeus made his own foreign policy by making a media case for an Afghan surge in 2009 (which would have got him fired in another era) and how Ron Paul’s presidential candidacy gives Americans a real choice between republic and empire – for the first time in a century.
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