This is written like a journalist who wants to express an opinion under the guise of "some people believe..."
What do you believe?
I believe outcomes (or effects) matter more than intentions (or stated goals). Our Founders were more informed on history than most Americans are today. And they understood better than most people today how professional soldiers inevitablly create the insecurity they are commissioned to guard against. In fact, their existence (and the tax revenue they require) requires a little insecurity every now and then. This is particularly true of the contractors who over time rely on perpetual renewal of government contracts to remain viable. Here are other examples of intentions not matching with outcomes:
Tree-hugging liberals
intended to preserve and protect defenseless nature and vulnerable animals despite the empirical evidence demonstrating that private land ownership and stewardship is far superior to government land management. Liberals
intended to uplift the poor with welfare schemes, but in doing so they incentivized women leaving their husbands. And since single parent homes are always poorer off, the poverty rate only increased.
Law-and-order conservatives
intended to protect families from the harmful effects of drugs but in doing so broke apart families by incarcerating minority fathers at unprecedented rates. In doing so they killed the future job prospects of minority men, leading to high recidivism, and the largest prison population on the planet right here in "the land of the free." Conservatives
intended to decrease anti-Americanism by bombing, invading, and occupying foreign lands, but it turns out it was US imperialism that fueled the anti-imperial, anti-Americanism in the first place.
I believe good and naive people enter into bad organizations all the time for the best of reasons. Others take whatever jobs they can find because they are desperate. But the intentions of the participants in any system will always be mitigated by the structure, operating principles, and incentives of the organization. Hierarchical organizations, particularly in the public sector, often cannot help but do bad things and do them poorly. And the fact that some good does result from these organizations is mostly because good people go rogue sometimes and don't follow organizational protocol.
