In a world in which peace and American security depend on American power and the will to use it, the main threat the United States faces now and in the future is its own weakness. American hegemony is the only reliable defense against a breakdown of peace and international order. The appropriate goal of American foreign policy, therefore, is to preserve that hegemony as far into the future as possible. Kristol s invocation of power for its own sake and justifying it by our supposed superiority over other lesser people eerily echoes the demagoguery of other reckless adventurers. Kristol s love for armaments is weird, though perhaps not unusual for a bookish man who has never faced a threat more menacing than a surly waiter at Palm.
Defense spending is now far below the requirements of American strategy and global leadership.
We are living in a time of peace. The United States is much stronger than anyone else. Bill fulminating about our supposed military unpreparedness. Kristol does not spell them out. No one can.