‘Drift’: Rachel Maddow On Why We Go To War

‘Drift’, The Unmooring Of American Military Power

by Rachel Maddow

May 7, 2012

In past wars, the U.S. practically dismantled its military after the troops came home. But today, says MSNBC News anchor and writer Rachel Maddow, we find ourselves in a state of almost permanent war.

In her new book Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power, Maddow invokes Thomas Jefferson, pointing out that one of Jefferson’s main concerns was the danger of having a large military.

“That was a really animating thing going on for the Founding Fathers. I mean, they were very upset about what was going on with the British Empire and the British king, and there’s a reason that the ‘quartering soldiers’ thing, which seems so random, is foundational in our founding documents,” she says.

Her book argues that the U.S. military has grown bloated partially because the nation is insulated from the wars its soldiers fight.

We gave ourselves a tax cut before Sept. 11, 2001, and then went to war in Afghanistan without debating whether to give it back, Maddow notes. Two years later, we gave ourselves another round of tax cuts after going to war in Iraq.

“Those are not the actions of a country that feels that it is sacrificing alongside its men and women in uniform. And that divide, I think, Americans feel emotionally, and I’d like that emotional divide to become defined as a political problem that we should solve,” Maddow says.

She joins Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep to talk about the ideas in Drift.   READ THE STORY OR LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW…..