The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #64026 Message #1045533
Posted By: Don Firth
31-Oct-03 - 06:19 PM
Thread Name: BS: Code of a Good Republican
Subject: RE: BS: Code of a Good Republican
Not to belabor my point above (30 Oct 03 - 07:11 PM) about the major shift to the right in the Republican position, but to put the matter a bit more graphically, in 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican, warned of the dangers inherent in the military-industrial complex when he said:—
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations. This 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 defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
The Bush administration IS the military-industrial complex.