-Caveat Lector- >>>For those of you are interested in such things as "war' and how this human activity has emerged and progressed and affected the World in which we live, I recommend the following book. There seems to be this impetus for cataclysmic change in the world lately and the agent being used is the organised application of military power to effect resolution of conflicts, paradoxically enough, through conflict. I have not yet finished it but it has been so far very instructive as to how war and the reordering of the world have gone hand in hand with the rise of the state, something that is metamorphosising into the "New World Order".
What really struck me was the recent comments by the "Godfather of War", the "Don" Rumsfeld who declared France and Germany to be "Old Europe". Reading through Porter, he argues that it was Napoleon, one of them "Old Europeans", who actually was the genius behind using war to effect changes in his and other nations and their state apparatii. Through war, many things can be done in the name of supporting same that could not be otherwise done, or if done at all, done over a much longer period of time. And it is interesting that the GoW is shunning nations who -- in their histories -- have taken war to unimaginable lengths to effect the modernisation of the European continent. The French were, apparently, the first to understand the various relationships between battles and logistics as well as the circuit between State, taxation, and military -- the "Iron Triangle" (the State enforces taxation which is enforced by the military that reinforces the State which takes more taxes to expand the military that reinforces the enlarged state, and so forth). It was Napoleon's effective ruling of Iberia that allowed the South Americans to seek their independences at a time when Spain and Portugal were unable to defend their empires abroad. French was at once time the Continental language, something to which the Russians were not immune, emulating the enforcement of militarism in their ordering of their societies. I am sure there are other books that may cover the same material but Porter has (and I'm sure will [as I get further along]) provided an excellent starting point for *why* the Founders may have discouraged the existence of standing armies as threats to freedoms and liberty. A<:>E<:>R >Amazon is one source that I used because of its extensive reviews< War and the Rise of the State: The Military Foundations of Modern Politics by Bruce D. Porter http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743237781/ref% 3Dnosim/addallbooksea-20/702-8856810-7624028 US List Price: USD $22.95 CDN Equivalent: CDN$ 34.98 Our Price: CDN$ 34.98 Paperback - 400 pages (January 1994) Language: English Free Press ISBN: 0743237781 Other Editions: Hardcover Editorial Reviews >From Kirkus Reviews By Porter (Political Science/Brigham Young/Harvard), an important assessment of the critical role played by war in expanding and defining the modern state. Drawing on five hundred years, mainly of European history, Porter argues that, far from being the transient phenomenon that liberals or progressives believe, or the dialectical engine of progress imagined by Marxists, war is above all ``a powerful catalyst of change,'' the consequences of which can be both reforming and ruinous. Concerning himself ``not with what causes war, but with what war causes,'' the author sees it as the main force behind the territorial consolidation of Europe from perhaps a thousand political entities in the 14th century to 25 by 1900; and as the single greatest force for bureaucratizing and government growth: ``wherever the gun went, the filing cabinet followed.'' The Napoleonic Wars swept away feudal structures through much of Europe; the Russian Revolution followed the huge losses suffered by the Russian armies; and the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century have used the glorification of war in their ``prostration of all politics to the good of the state.'' One of Porter's most persuasive revisions of current orthodoxy is his argument that the welfare state in the US was constructed between 1939 and 1945 rather than during the Depression. The substructure was built during and following WW I, when the principle of the state's responsibility for the welfare of its citizens became widely accepted, but was ``essentially finished in its full bureaucratic and fiscal form'' by 1949. Even after peace had come, the budget was almost five times larger than in 1938, the peak spending year of the Depression. Well written, thoughtful and provocative. Porter has made a strong case with persuasiveness and historical sweep. -- Copyright �1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Forwarded for your information. The text and intent of the article have to stand on their own merits. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply because it has been handed down for many genera- tions. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of teachers, elders or wise men. 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