10:40 AM
(The) conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
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. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defence with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
President Eisenhower (1961)
Pasted from <http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html>
Nobody was duped. Really. Secret report 'leaked'. A General giving speeches out of the border criticizing his Commander-In-Chief. Gates saying, before even reading McChrystal's paper, that he is sure that it will be on target 'and set for the challenges we have in front of us.'
The military wants to do war. On a big scale.
It does not want to stop. For security reasons? Maybe.
For political and financial reasons? Surely.
Well, that's what the journalist Seymour Hersh thinks.
And i don't think he's too far from the truth.
From Huffington:
Seymour Hersh: Military Is Waging War Against The White House
In addition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States military is also fighting a war against the Obama administration at the White House, Seymour Hersh said in a little-noted speech at Duke University on October 13. The military is "in a war against the White House -- and they feel they have Obama boxed in," he said.
Hersh, a Pulitzer-prize winning investigative journalist who exposed the My Lai massacre in Vietnam and the Abu Ghraib scandal in Iraq, sees an undercurrent of racism in the Pentagon's dealings with the White House. "They think he's weak and the wrong color. Yes, there's racism in the Pentagon. We may not like to think that, but it's true and we all know it."
As Neil Offen writes in the Durham Herald Sun:
"A lot of people in the Pentagon would like to see him get into trouble," he said. By leaking information that the commanding officer in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, says the war would be lost without an additional 40,000 American troops, top brass have put Obama in a no-win situation, Hersh contended.
"If he gives them the extra troops they're asking for, he loses politically," Hersh said. "And if he doesn't give them the troops, he also loses politically."
Hersh considers the worsening situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan as the principal test of the Obama presidency, which will require the cooperation of the top military brass. Obama must face up to the military, Hersh said. "He's either going to let the Pentagon run him or he has to run the Pentagon." If he doesn't, according to Hersh, "this stuff is going to be the ruin of his presidency."
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/23/seymour-hersh-military-is_n_332139.html
Actually, let's put it another way.
Stop the war, get healthcare to pay for itself.
The wars crippled the nation. We started something we just couldn't afford.
The time has come for O.B. Man to learn from past mistakes and take
the steps to create wealth by creating peace. And jobs.
Don't let war, big porky business and neowingnuts eviscerate everything we hold dear for a buck and a half and a private jet.
Again, in the famous words of President Eisenhower:
'America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.'
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