The United States of Fear

That's the title of a new book by Tom Englehardt.  I think that the title does describe our situation quite accurately.  Although I have yet to read the book, this interview seems to be a reasonable summary of his argument. He opens by comparing us to Russia before its fall - the spending on the military of money it did not have, the refusal to attend to a crumbling infrastructure and a little war in some place called Afghanistan.  Does that sound familiar?


Here is an intriguing excerpt:
Fear - of terrorism and nothing else - has been the "drug" that has powered the national security state to heights and a size it never reached when it had a genuine superpower enemy with a nuclear arsenal. Today, the intelligence bureaucracy dwarfs what existed in the Cold War era; the Pentagon budget is so much larger and so on. Give credit where it's due: it's been quite a feat based on remarkably little when you think about it.