Perhaps we were too greedy (or naive?) with the peace dividend. I'm reminded of how slashing spending on R&D always looks wise for the first few years, and then it is calamitous. I think this war is really those kinds of problems coming home to roost. A dysfunctional klepto-state is managing to out-produce the western world in materially relevant ways.
I can't think of a counterargument to the aphorism that good times produce weak men. Nobody knows the value of anything and counterproductive things are prioritised.
Sure, you could say that the counterexamples are just distributed away from politics, but that feels like haggling with the premise of the argument instead of disproving it.
It seems to me that the relatively good times of the late 19th Century in both Europe and America left a lot of young men spoiling for a challenge. In the US this probably contributed to the Spanish-American War. Theodore Roosevelt had questionable judgment, but I don't think he was weak.
It's not that the United States doesn't spend enough on the military, it outspends the Chinese government by more than double. What it spends that money on seems to be the problem.
Reading the title of the article, I thought about how many democracy in the world are slowly turning towards fascism. People who out of fear elect leaders that do not mind bending the law to grab more power. Do not forget that many fascist and/or autocratic leaders were elected into position.
I at first thought that by Arsenal of Democracy they meant an educated populace that actually felt some sense of responsibility towards both the generations that came before and those that will come after. Minds that have the capacity to ponder things, say what they believe, and listen to opposing viewpoints.
I saw the best minds of my generation get jobs in fintech, adding dark patterns to ridesharing apps, reinventing databases from first principles and pseudo-journalistic influencing instead of becoming policy makers.
