US media article: The United States is still trying to play the "global policeman"

An article published on December 9 on the bimonthly website of national interest argued that the United States is still trying to play the role of "global policeman." The author is Ivan Eland, a senior fellow at the Independent Research Institute of the United States, and the full text is excerpted below:

The 2021 Global Posture Review is the Pentagon's analysis of the global deployment of U.S. forces, and it only makes incremental changes compared to the Trump administration's global deployment of troops.

In some parts of the world — Europe, East africa, and West Africa — the Biden administration could reverse Trump's disarmament policies. In addition, Biden will push him to revive the Obama administration's policy of "shifting the center of gravity to (East) Asia" with great fanfare by ending U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, while building bases, amassing forces, and forming coalitions in East Asia. However, even with the latter shift, the number of troops has gradually increased.

In short, a country with a whopping $29 trillion in debt is still trying to continue to play the role of "global policeman." The United States accounts for 39% of the world's defense expenditure, but its GDP is less than 25% of global GDP, which is an indicator of the current overextending of US hegemony. U.S. defense spending is now almost equal to the sum of the 12 countries that follow it, meaning U.S. defense spending funds the power that U.S. forces project around the world.

Although the U.S. presence in Afghanistan and Iraq has decreased slightly, it will continue to station large numbers of troops in the Persian Gulf region.

In addition, the Biden administration has hesitated on whether to continue implementation of Trump's plan to withdraw troops from Somalia in East Africa, and has promised France that it will assist it in counterterrorism in West Africa, perhaps sending more U.S. aircraft and drones to the region. U.S. troops in Europe will gradually increase, not decrease.

Historically, many empires have collapsed, or at least been forced to retreat, as a result of similar overextendence.

It would be wise for future GNRs to be candid about this overextension, but no matter what the real security threats the United States faces, the Department of Defense has always pursued a larger budget and has little incentive to do anything other than demand more funding to put the U.S. economy on a larger military burden.

Theoretically, the Founding Fathers of the United States enshrined the power of Congress to declare war in their Constitution, and the legislature should grant advance approval for any U.S. military presence abroad. Even in the first post-state war, an undeclared quasi-war against U.S. ally France, Congress carefully laid out the rules of deployment and engagement for U.S. forces. However, the current "Imperial President" boldly claims sole jurisdiction over U.S. troops stationed around the world and scoffs at any intervention by Congress.

The Founding Fathers narrowly envisioned the president's role as commander-in-chief—one that would carry out congressional will only in foreign policy and war, as he or she did with domestic legislation.

But throughout U.S. history, presidents have repeatedly and unilaterally made provocative U.S. troop deployments that would trigger war, essentially nullifying Congress's power to make war and peace decisions. This can be seen in the run-up to the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War.

Because Congress is usually reluctant to cut off funding when U.S. troops are already under attack, it is not enough for Congress to exercise its war powers simply by approving war appropriations.

Congress must not only restore its war power by requiring the right to declare war before hostilities begin, it must also insist on its own right to authorize the deployment of U.S. troops abroad, as it did in the early days of the Republic's history.

Allowing the president to report to Congress only in the Global Posture Assessment that he or she has decided to deploy troops around the globe would would make Congress relinquish the constitutional authority to make decisions about war and peace.

Source: Reference News Network