The United States has eight hundred foreign military bases. The rest of the world combined has only seventy. Our nation’s leaders are the makers and breakers of combat, our presidents and generals the gods of war.

American militarism intensifies conflict and produces needless misery and bloodshed abroad. It also starves our own populace of resources that should be going to good public education, health care, housing, and jobs. For the wellbeing of people at home and elsewhere, the American left has a responsibility to oppose our nation’s military hegemony.

No doubt strong moral and ideological opposition to war and militarism are at the heart of any effective strategy. But we should also consider the tactical importance of ambitious social-democratic reforms like a federal jobs guarantee, strong unions, and the universal social provision of higher education and health care. These reforms may not put an end to American empire, but they do have an important effect: they make it harder for the military to recruit from the domestic working class. To combat the reign of the American military abroad, we need to end economic conscription at home.