US military policy

Pillar one supporting that edifice: ideology. As long as most Americans accept the notion that it is the God-given mission and right of the United States to go anywhere on the planet and do more or less anything it cares to do with its military, you won’t see Pentagon spending brought under real control. Think of this as the military corollary to American exceptionalism—or just call it the doctrine of armed exceptionalism, if you will.

The doctrine of nuclear deterrence that leaves open the possibility of launching a "first strike" before an enemy attacks will remain the basis of U.S. policy even as new generations of nuclear weapons are introduced, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday. "That's our doctrine now, and we don't have any intention of changing that doctrine," Carter told airmen in a question-and-answer session at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.