Andrew Bacevich Andrew J . Bacevich , Jr . ( born 1947 ) is an American political scientist specializing in international relations , security studies , American foreign policy , and American diplomatic and military history . He is currently Professor of International Relations and History at Boston University . He is also a retired career officer in the Armor Branch of the United States Army , retiring with the rank of Colonel . He is a former director of Boston University ' s Center for International Relations ( from 1998 to 2005 ) and author of several books , including " American Empire : The Realities and Consequences of US Diplomacy " ( 2002 ) , " The New American Militarism : How Americans are Seduced by War " ( 2005 ) and " The Limits of Power : The End of American Exceptionalism " ( 2008 ) . He has also appeared on television shows such as " The Colbert Report " and the " Bill Moyers Report " and has written op - eds which have appeared in papers such as " The New York Times " , " Washington Post " , " Wall Street Journal " , " Boston Globe " , " Los Angeles Times " , and " Financial Times " . He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations . Bacevich has been " a persistent , vocal critic of the U . S . occupation of Iraq , calling the conflict a catastrophic failure . " In March 2007 , he described George W . Bush ' s endorsement of such " preventive war s " as " immoral , illicit , and imprudent . " His son , also an Army officer , died fighting in the Iraq War in May 2007 . Life and work . Bacevich was born in Normal , Illinois , the son of Martha Ellen ( Bulfer ) and Andrew Bacevich . His father was of Lithuanian descent and his mother was of Irish , German , and English ancestry . He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1969 and served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War , serving in Vietnam from the summer of 1970 to the summer of 1971 . Later he held posts in Germany , including the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment ; the United States ; and the Persian Gulf up to his retirement from the service with the rank of Colonel in the early 1990s . He holds a Ph . D . in American Diplomatic History from Princeton University , and taught at West Point and Johns Hopkins University before joining the faculty at Boston University in 1998 . On May 13 , 2007 , Bacevich ' s son , 1LT Andrew John Bacevich , was killed in action in Iraq by an improvised explosive device south of Samarra in Salah ad Din Governorate . The younger Bacevich , 27 , was a First Lieutenant in the U . S . Army , assigned to the 3rd Battalion , 8th U . S . Cavalry Regiment , 1st Cavalry Division . Bacevich also has three daughters . Writings . Bacevich has described himself as a " Catholic conservative " and initially published writings in a number of politically oriented magazines , including " The Wilson Quarterly " . His recent writings have professed a dissatisfaction with the and many of its intellectual supporters on matters of American foreign policy . On August 15 , 2008 , Bacevich appeared as the guest of Bill Moyers Journal on PBS to promote his book , " The Limits of Power . " As in both of his previous books , " The Long War " ( 2007 ) and " The New American Militarism : How Americans are Seduced by War " ( 2005 ) , Bacevich is critical of American foreign policy in the post Cold War era , maintaining the United States has developed an over - reliance on military power , in contrast to diplomacy , to achieve its foreign policy aims . He also asserts that policymakers in particular , and the American people in general , overestimate the usefulness of military force in foreign affairs . Bacevich believes romanticized images of war in popular culture ( especially movies ) interact with the lack of actual military service among most of the U . S . population to produce in the American people a highly unrealistic , even dangerous notion of what combat and military service are really like . Bacevich conceived " The New American Militarism " not only as " a corrective to what has become the conventional critique of U . S . policies since 9 / 11 but as a challenge to the orthodox historical context employed to justify those policies . " Finally , he attempts to place current policies in historical context , as part of an American tradition going back to the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson , a tradition ( of an interventionist , militarized foreign policy ) which has strong bi - partisan roots . To lay an intellectual foundation for this argument , he cites two influential historians from the 20th century : Charles A . Beard and William Appleman Williams . Ultimately , Bacevich eschews the partisanship of current debate about American foreign policy as short - sighted and ahistorical . Instead of blaming only one President ( or his advisors ) for contemporary policies , Bacevich sees both Republicans and Democrats as sharing responsibility for policies which may not be in the nation ' s best interest . In March 2003 , at the time of the U . S . invasion of Iraq , Bacevich wrote in " The Los Angeles Times " that " if , as seems probable , the effort encounters greater resistance than its architects imagine , our way of life may find itself tested in ways that will make the Vietnam War look like a mere blip in American history . " An editorial about the Bush Doctrine was published by the " Boston Globe " in March 2007 . In an article of " The American Conservative " dated March 24 , 2008 , Bacevich depicts Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama as the best choice for conservatives in the fall . Part of his argument includes the fact that " this liberal Democrat has promised to end the U . S . combat role in Iraq . Contained within that promise , if fulfilled , lies some modest prospect of a conservative revival . " He also goes on to mention that " For conservatives to hope the election of yet another Republican will set things right is surely in vain . To believe that President John McCain will reduce the scope and intrusiveness of federal authority , cut the imperial presidency down to size , and put the government on a pay - as - you - go basis is to succumb to a great delusion . " In the October 11 , 2009 , issue of " The Boston Globe " , he wrote that the decision to commit more troops to Afghanistan may be the most fateful choice of the Obama administration . " If the Afghan war then becomes the consuming issue of Obama ’ s presidency — as Iraq became for his predecessor , as Vietnam did for Lyndon Johnson , and as Korea did for Harry Truman — the inevitable effect will be to compromise the prospects of reform more broadly , " Bacevich wrote . In his article " Non Believer " in the July 7 , 2010 , issue of " The New Republic " , Bacevich compared President George W . Bush , whom he characterizes as wrong - headed but sincere , with President Obama , whom he says has no belief in the Afghanistan war but pursues it for his own politically cynical reasons : " Who is more deserving of contempt ? The commander - in - chief who sends young Americans to die for a cause , however misguided , in which he sincerely believes ? Or the commander - in - chief who sends young Americans to die for a cause in which he manifestly does not believe and yet refuses to forsake ? " In an October 2010 interview with " Guernica Magazine " , Bacevich addressed his seemingly contradictory stance on Obama . While Bacevich supported Obama during the 2008 presidential race in which Obama repeatedly said he believed in the Afghanistan War , Bacevich has become increasingly critical of Obama ' s decision to commit additional troops to that war : " I interpreted his campaign rhetoric about Afghanistan as an effort to insulate him from the charge of being a national security wimp . His decision to escalate was certainly not a decision his supporters were clamoring for . " Bacevich ' s papers are currently housed at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University .