Beware the Military-Industrial Complex

President Dwight Eisenhower gave his farewell address to the nation on January 17, 1961. The speech is now known as the Military-Industrial Complex Speech.

Eisenhower was the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during WWII and was responsible for planning and executing the D-Day invasion. Eisenhower knew the costs of war and he hated it. He said, "I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."

In his farewell address, Eisenhower warned of the military industrial complex. He said, "...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."

The military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned of still exists. Since October 2006, contracts have been granted totaling $172,748,149,370 based on information released by the Department of Defense. And today, in addition to the traditional military contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and General Dynamics; there are also numerous contractors such as KBR in Iraq providing logistical support (i.e., performing mundane tasks done by troops in previous wars). Private contractors employed in the military service industry complex now outnumber our troops in Iraq.

If you think I'm a kook, then answer this question for me - why do we have a military budget that is larger than the next 14 biggest spenders combined? And no, the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not included in that budget. My best guess is that lots of people are making lots of money if America is in a perpetual state of war.