Militarism

In "Chapter 13: Militarism and Violence" from Inequality & Violence in the United States: Causalities of Capitalism, Chasin defines militarism as the "maintenance of a large military establishment that goes far beyond the needs of national defense, the ideas that justify military actions, and the actions themselves." Within the chapter, Chasin takes an in depth look on how militarism in the United States is associated with all three types of violence. She makes a point of how militarism adds to the destruction (over time) of democracy. Militarism makes it almost impossible for a country to be democratic without violence being essential to its success. This is apparent in countries around the world, especially in the United States. The US relies on having a large military, its latest escapades being the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. The United States, as of right now, is in a severe economic recession, and it is apparent how much of the wars and conflicts that we are involved in provide grave downturns for our economic stature. The goal of these conflicts is to bring democracy and freedom to everyone involved, but it, in turn, makes it incredibly difficult for any progress to happen when thousands are dieing from both sides. As of today, April 24, 2009; 4277 United States soldiers have died in Iraq since the 5/1/2003; and in Afghanistan 679 since 2001. These are just military deaths. Contractor deaths in Iraq are 1264; and the number of journalist deaths in Iraq is 139. All together, that equals 6,359 American soldiers and civilians (those being the contractors and journalists) have died. If you go to http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/2009.04.html, there is a complete list (along with information about them and a picture) of all those who have died in the Iraq conflict. This is nothing compared to the 1,320,110 Iraqi deaths that is estimated by antiwar.com. The number of total Iraqi deaths can only be an estimate, as there is no actual count or record of how many Iraqis die. I believe that Iraq has become a wasteland, and Saddam Hussein is not necessarily the overlord that created it; the imperialistic, militaristic agenda of the American government is.