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Zensee -> RE: Bush not backing down to Putin (6/6/2007 5:43:12 PM)
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Here's some BLAH BLAH BLAH for you - From Dwight Eisenhower's farewell address.
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Eisenhower%27s_farewell_address
quote:
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 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.
I don't think the present MIC in the USA needs the good ol' Red Menace anymore, to justify its present gluttony. The invisible, ubiquitous, formless, timeless terrorists are all the enemy it needs. And there's always the Yellow Peril. But I bet Russia's MIC could use a make work project right about now - a grand enemy, not a rag tag gang of rebels who won't stay dead. A grand enemy who, unlike the Yellow Peril, would never attack Russia anyway (but who might, and could... unless we get the latest in battlefield technology).
If the Russians are smart though, they will stay at home with their new guns and not actually have to use them - just sell last year's models to their client states so other people can consume the inventory (and be consumed by it).
Eisenhower knew the MIC (military-industrial complex) was an essential evil, hoping it would remain focussed on self defense. Once it starts to look outward, seeking to expand its markets, control over it is essentially lost.
All this chest thumping is just preparing the peasants for more sacrifices.
Z.
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