The Left and the Military

The American left has proved very adept at identifying the misuses of American military power and the distortion of national priorities that defense spending has entailed. But despite the left’s consistent attention to military matters, it lacks a coherent approach to military policy. At best, the left has an inclination on military issues—and that inclination has been consistently anti-military. This does not preclude banging the drum occasionally for select interventions. But it does mean that whenever the left relates to military policy, it relates as an outsider; it relates as though the realm of military policy is unremittingly hostile to progressive values. But a progressive military policy is both possible an...