We didn't listen. Is it too late?
"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 more than the net income of all United States corporations.
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."
- from President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farwell Address, Jan. 17, 1961 (The whole text can be found here)
I was watching the movie "Why We Fight" last night and I heard these words. I got very depressed. We were warned 46 years ago, we became apathetic and let it happen. The defense industry and the think tanks now make the decisions that run our country. We didn't vote for these people. We can't really call ourselves a democracy any more. We are purely a capitalistic society. Business doesn't do things for the good of the country, they do it for the good of the company. I don't think it matters which party is in power since the decisions guiding us are from outside the government. The defense budget is so ridiculously large right now that it is killing us. It dwarfs the combined budget of the rest of government's Departments (the Departments that actually do something for the American people). The worst part is that this defense money is not going to the soldiers. How can that budget be that huge and our soldiers still not have the supplies they need? Countries that spend huge amounts of money on defense instead of spending it helping their own people always fail. Eventually the people do rise up. That's what brought the Soviet Union down. That's what will ultimately bring us down. Our country must change, the decisions guiding us must be made by the people that we elect not "outside influences" as Eisenhower said. We as a people slept, they took over, can we get our country back?
9:56:40 AM 
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