Bush failed to heed Eisenhower’s warning

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http://www.buffalonews.com/149/story/553621.html

Douglas Turner

Updated: 01/19/09 7:17 AM

WASHINGTON — Although history will surely label him as our most misguided chicken hawk, George W. Bush loved dressing up as a “wartime” president.

Welcoming visitors to the Oval Office, Bush would carefully guide their eyes to a bust of Abraham Lincoln, another of Winston Churchill, and a heroic painting of George Washington and then note they were (like him) “all wartime leaders.” snip

On Jan. 17, 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower cautioned America about powerful generals, admirals, lobbyists and defense contractors who padded up and down the hallways of the White House and the Capitol.

Before World War II, Eisenhower noted, we didn’t have a huge standing army and armaments industry in peacetime.

The former five-star general warned of the potential evils of “the military-industrial complex.”