FROM
WHERE I SIT...
Dwight
Eisenhower’s
statement
warning of the
Military-Industrial Complex:
This speech was made in January as
Eisenhower handed the torch to Kennedy.
As we peer into society's future, we – you and
I, and our government – must avoid the impulse to live only for today,
plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow.
We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the
loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to
survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of
tomorrow.
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
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 alone more than
the net income of all United States corporations.
Now 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 Statehouse, 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. Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in
our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during
recent decades.
In this revolution,
research has become central, it also becomes more formalized, complex, and
costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction
of, the Federal government.
The prospect of
domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocation,
and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet in holding
scientific discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the
equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of
a scientific-technological elite.
ALSO:
commitment
in Southeast Asia to be long term.
- Then, behind closed doors, Kennedy, under
pressure from the Military/Industrial
Complex,
started increasing our
footprint there, while
everyone swooned
over what a beautiful person he
was.
- Johnson
owed many people political I.O.U.’s and the
M/I Complex held quite a few. He oversaw a
huge Military buildup; to over
600,000 Troops.
- Then, 1968-1969-1970 happened in the
U.S.
Martin Luther King - April 4, 1968, Memphis,
TN
Bobby Kennedy - June 6, 1968, Los
Angeles, CA
Woodstock - August
17, 1969, Woodstock, NY
Kent State - May 4, 1970, Kent, Ohio
*note: I was serving in the
Army over that period of time,
so I wasn’t in the U.S. and that
made it hard to fully
appreciate what was going on
back home.
Rich
people paying poor people
to
kill other poor people on the
other
side of the world. War is
a
rich man’s game. All wars are
banker’s
wars.
Then we
got the Reagan - W. Bush years, and we
still insisted on fighting wars in foreign lands. I must say that, since the
Vietnam Conflict, the U.S. hasn’t had a very good track record of actually winning
or ending our Military Expeditions and National objectives, or our wars. Nobody
knows how to formulate an “exit plan” from all our recent conflicts, large and
small.
No one
can lay blame on the Military’s doorstep. The Military did what they were sent
to do, and won the battles. There were, and are, forces at work that have a
burning desire to micro-manage every aspect of our war machine, so our men and
women in uniform can only do their masters’ bidding.
Who are
their masters? That would be the Congress
and the Military/Industrial Complex. This
Complex is not what you see on the surface. It has many layers and runs deep
into our economic system.
1)
The
major Manufacturers of our war machine
2)
Subcontractors in this Country & foreign
Countries
3)
the weapons design community; including our Universities
4)
etc...........
That is
just a brief overview of how this system works. It takes a lot of money to make
the production chain work; from raw material sourcing to finished product. All
the banks and almost all the producers have shareholders who expect to make
money. That is when the bankers arrive to start the ball rolling.
The
larger players also have their lobbyists on K
Street in Washington DC. During this cycle, there are trillions of dollars changing
hands. Where does that money eventually come from? If you guessed the American taxpayer,
you would be correct.
I think
the hardest pill to swallow is that “We The
People” are
purposely blocked from having any say in how our money is spent. There is also
no accounting or auditing on where and how all these trillions of dollars are
spent. Somehow, we have left Congress in
charge of allocating these monies in their best interests: not ours. More often
than not, our Congress bows to those who
donate large sums of money to their reelections.
I feel
what it comes down to is there has to be some structural changes in the way our
elected officials get elected and what they are restricted from doing once
elected.
If you
can’t be elected to an office without accepting corporate donations from lobbyists, perhaps
you’re in the wrong business. If you come under the spell of the sinister,
greedy lobbyists on K Street in DC, a
career change is a great option.
The only
thing that “We The People” have left to control is the ballot box. A
staggering number of Americans opt out of
the ballot box; they just stay home and suck their thumbs. Meanwhile their
world is crumbling and they don’t have a clue. The best this Country can do is
send maybe 60% of eligible voters to the polls in a Presidential election year.
This percentages are even worse when it comes to State and local elections.
If
American democracy is
to
survive, these percentages
must
be brought up to
the
90-95% level.
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