Ike’s warning about the military industrial complex was a two edged sword. (photo: wikicommon)
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By Steve Weissman, Reader Supported News, 15 August 2013
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned his fellow Americans about the
dangers of the military-industrial complex, he did both good and bad. As
a widely respected military leader, he made it possible for ordinary
citizens to challenge the Pentagon’s growing power in so many aspects of
our economy and foreign policy. But, by focusing on the military, Ike
misdirected our attention away from other, often more important segments
of Big Money’s collaboration with Big Government.
No question, the military chiefs, the manufacturers
who supply and then often hire them, and the members of Congress who
take political contributions from the armaments industry or look to
lucrative careers as lobbyists for them all work together as a standing
lobby for incredibly wasteful Pentagon budgets. The same groups also
support the endless fear-mongering, whether of the old Soviet Union and
Red China, the newly capitalist Russians and Chinese, al Qaeda
terrorists, or whatever other threat appears to justify massive spending
and – as we now see – massive surveillance.
But let’s get real. Most of us could make a good case
that Big Oil exercises far more influence on our imperial foreign policy
than do the Big Brass and their merchants of death. Major oil companies
are top Pentagon suppliers, I know, but selling fuel to the military is
not why they try to control the lion’s share of the world’s oil and
natural gas. Nor do most people have the oil companies in mind when they
talk of the military-industrial complex.
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