Ike Was Right

[kentuck]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-scheer/ike-was-right_b_37251.html

<snip>
The public, seeing through the tissue of Bush administration lies told to justify an invasion that never had anything to do with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 or weapons of mass destruction, now has begun a national questioning: Why are we still in Iraq? The answers posted most widely on the Internet by critics of the war suggest its continuation as a naked imperial grab for the world's second-largest petroleum source, but that is wrong.

It's not primarily about the oil; it's much more about the military-industrial complex, the label employed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower 45 years ago when he warned of the dangers of "a permanent arms industry of vast proportions."

<snip>
The big prize here for Bush's foreign policy is not the acquisition of natural resources or the enhancement of U.S. security, but rather the lining of the pockets of the defense contractors, the merchants of death who mine our treasury. But because the arms industry is coddled by political parties and the mass media, their antics go largely unnoticed. Our politicians and pundits argue endlessly about a couple of billion dollars that may be spent on improving education or ending poverty, but they casually waste that amount in a few days in Iraq.

As Eisenhower warned: "We should take nothing for granted, only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. ... We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow."

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Dwight Eisenhower: Flaming Liberal

http://blueworksbetter.com/EisenhowerFlamingLiberal

[KKKarl is an idiot]

2. ..

They normally argue over millions not billions.

When ever defense spending is questioned the first shock words are used "we should always support the troops", then it is: "we need to defend ourselves against the terrorists", then onto "we will never forget 9/11". This kind of rhetoric is used to ensure the profits of the defense contractors keep flowing.