Taking a bite out of the war machine

This is late, but it was nice to see Nick Kristof publish a column (on Christmas Day, appropriately enough) making the case for reduced military spending. To me, the person who has made the case that Americans over-rely on military solutions most persuasively is Andrew Bacevich in his three books The New American Militarism, The Limits of Power, and most recently Washington Rules. It’s really striking that military spending is almost never asked to rigorously justify itself in cost-benefit terms and that hardly any “serious” people ever ask if the resources used to fund war and preparation for war might bring about more good if reallocated to other uses. Good for Kristof for injecting this into the mainstream conversation.