It's too late.. We are a Military Industrial Complex....

[RethugAssKicker]

Our major commodity: WAR.

Eisenhower's words were not heeded. America's economy is too intertwined with the
military now. And our international corps are greatly dependent on it to conduct business... And a large segment of our population is pro-military, and status-quo.

Its too late.

[Syncronaut Seven]

1. To late? No. More agressive countermeasures.

What's it worth to you?

[The2ndWheel]

2. It's the reason we have so much

Military might and conquest are what this reality is built on. If our military wasn't this big, some other country(or multiple ones) would be. Our military keeps the global economy going, it allows Europe to focus their tax money on social programs, and is just the next in the line of ever increasing sphere's of influence. Our sphere just happens to be the actual globe. Every empire wanted it, we just happened to be in the right place, at the right time.

You say it's too late. There was never any option.

[jaksavage]

3. yup

It is inevitable that the power race results in one main winner. But instability is inherent in any tower of power and now, in the natural way of things, order will be thrown into chaos.
Just as surely as there is one... one will be undone.

I would consider it vindication, after years of yelling myself hoarse about enviro and social issues, if I witness the towers or power crumbling to the ground. But it will result in much suffering.

[RethugAssKicker]

4. Don't agree... We went too far

As you probably know, we spend more on military expenditures than the whole world combined!!!.... Is this truly necessary?... Is it necessary to ignore social issues, to build more and more weaponary?....

That if we aren't doing it... someone else would.. Well that argument justifies it then? Not to me..

We the people of the world, make our reality... It is not necessarily imposed on us.

[The2ndWheel]

7. Didn't say it justifies it

Just my opinion on how I see it.

People and institutions are different. Nation-states are what justify spending as much as we do on the military. People may not want to, but nations(or corporations, or anything like them) are in the business of growing. The US didn't stop at 13 colonies. It didn't stop at the Mississippi. It didn't stop at the Pacific. And Britain and Spain and France weren't going to stop at the Atlantic. They only way they did stop was when they(like every consolidated center of power has) collapsed, extended beyond their means, or were taken over by a larger expanding empire.

"Is it necessary to ignore social issues"

No, but the only reason we have such social issues is because of conquest, because of how we've set up civilization, because every institution is based on endless growth.

[thingfisher]

8. The MIC has become the driving power of our economy all right.

Our greatest source of foreign sales is from weapons systems. Americans have been led to believe that "defense' spending is needed to keep our democracy strong to the exclusion of all other considerations.

We can't compete with foreign production of goods or services as corporate America seeks to exploit the 3rd world cheap labor, lack of environmental regulation, etc.

The MIC needs war or the continual threat of war in order to have markets for its products, so we will always be faced with some terrible enemy or other in order to justify the industry.

What kind of world do these people in the MIC envision for the future?

[wildbilln864]

11. What kind of world do these people in the MIC envision for the future?

Not sure but by reading the PNAC documents you can get a good idea! Read their document titled
"Rebuilding America's Defenses" here! These are the individuals who are running things now!

[wildbilln864]

12. the quote....

excerpt from President Eisenhower's farewell address to the nation, January 1961
"In the counsels 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."

[wildbilln864]

13. one more appropiate for the subject...

"If the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded."

Noah Webster - (1758-1843) American patriot and scholar, author of the 1806 edition of the dictionary that bears his name, the first dictionary of American English usage.

[thingfisher]

16. 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."

I guess we were not alert and knowledgeable enough, huh?

[wildbilln864]

17. you got that right...

thingfisher!
:)

[dysfunctional press]

5. you just figured that one out...?

better late than never.

[texastoast]

6. We have been--for a very long time

Check out Afterburn, the movie with Laura Dern as Janet Harduvel. And check out Bareford v. USS STARK. Oh, there are stories . . .

[blues90]

9. So what you are saying is

The american worker who just wants to work and make a fair living is actually in direct competion with the military industrial complex ? So then we loose in the end , 1984 .

[Printer70]

10. Not too late; first step - ban military aid

WE all know that foreign aid is unpopular amongst Americans. Military aid is even less popular. The reason we give military aid is, in large part, to benefit US defense contractors. It may be politically popular to do away with it.

[Uncle Joe]

14. It's only too late, when the people give up

If you believe in evolution, at some point societies in general have to change their war like ways, or human kind will become extinct. I believe evolution to be disjointed with fits and starts, not a straight path.

People come to realizations at different times, our challenge is to push for a more enlightened society and world, before the brainwashed ones destroy it.

[stillcool]

15. waiting for next...

whatever that is. This could be the best thing that could happen, and out of it could come a true democracy...but I don't think that will happen until more of the masses give up the spectacle.

[walldude]

18. I don't think even Eisenhower thought it would be this bad.

57% of the budget for "national defense"? It's insane.