The Military-Industrial
Complex
In
the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted
influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.
The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or
democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted.
-Dwight Eisenhower, 1961
(In the version he read from that night, those words were underlined. Several were typed in capital letters.)
It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear. While such an economy may produce a sense of seeming prosperity for the moment, it rests on an illusionary foundation of complete unreliability and renders among our political leaders almost a greater fear of peace than is their fear of war.
-Douglas MacArthur, 1951
Half a century later, with 4% of the world's population our country now spends more on the military than every other nation on Earth combined. And politicians on both sides will tell you it still isn't enough.
Beginning.
Middle.
End of story.
addendum:
(2/26/08) James Carroll sums it up well in America's ghost story.
addendum2:
(3/17/08) Glenn Greenwald talks numbers in The bipartisan consensus on U.S. military spending.
addendum3:
(3/17/08) Chalmers Johnson on the MIC- The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke.
addendum4:
(7/5/08) WARSAW (Reuters)- "In the months-long negotiations, Tusk's center-right government had sought billions of dollars worth of U.S. investment to upgrade Polish air defenses in return for hosting 10 two-stage missile interceptors."
So to summarize, the plan is to spend billions of dollars "defending" Poland, whether they want us to or not, so that we can then be allowed to spend more billions of dollars "defending" the rest of Europe. From Iran. Whether they want us to or not. While the dollar sinks. And the Euro rises.
All completely true.
