The Danger of Militarization in an Endless 'War' on Terrorism

Since the early 1930s, the United States has become significantly militarized in government, economy, society, and culture. While never quite slipping over the edge into militarism either in behaviors, policies, or norms and values, the American people’s identification with and use of war images and thinking, and a belief in the primacy of standing military forces for American safety, have become normalized. The danger of an endless “war” on terrorism is that the militarization common to America society in wartime will become permanent, infecting the country with militarism, and transforming the United States incrementally, over time, into a nation its founders would recognize, but abhor.