As a liberal, I am critical of my own Country's policies, both foreign and domestic. I am particularly critical of the US when we are contrasted with European countries.
I am thankful for China because it allows me to take a break from criticizing my own country. China is a terrible country, or rather its political elite and its political institutions are terrible. They make the US look progressive in a myriad of ways. China is more unequal, its police are more inhumane, its environmental protection are almost non existent, civil liberties non existent, most workers are treated horrendously, wealth and income are radically unequal. When contrasted with China, the US gets to look like a first world country, for a change.
Within this context, I am all in favor of keeping military spending high. I am unhappy with needless, endless and elective wars. I am tired of our civil liberties being eroded in the name of security. I am weary of the state refusing to be transparent because of imagined or exaggerated threats. However, I like a large military and military power for two liberal reasons.
The military is a jobs program, for soldiers, communities around military bases, for contractors and for those who research and develop arms and armaments. The military has acted as form of fiscal stimulus during economic downturns. The military stands as testament to the efficacy of government and to the ability of Keynesian public spending to mitigate recessions and depressions. I wish that we would be more forceful and remind conservatives of those two important facts whenever they praise the troops, US military power or national security. Conservatives should also be reminded that spending money on education, nutrition, other income supplements and infrastructure all support the military now and in the future.
The other reason why American liberals should include a powerful US military in their vision of a better America is the fact that an ascendent China could one day present an existential threat to our country. It is easy to yearn for pacifism and isolationism after the last twenty years of neoconservative foreign policy. It is even more difficult to argue that the US military can ever be a force for good in the light of the fact that we have used our power to torment and bully and manipulate the Global South for over a Century. However, great armies and fleets, when used for genuinely liberal ends have protected Americans at home and liberated people abroad. The victories in the Civil War, World War II and the Cold War were all good outcomes for America and for humanity, as a whole.
As bad as we are at home and abroad, China must never be allowed to be the World's preeminent global power. We can always find ways to govern ourselves and to use our military but in the grand scheme of things, the US and its allies need to maintain our current and lopsided and favorable balance of power.
