A Word to the Wise Not Heeded

On January 17, 1961, outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower made a speech, referred to as the Military-Industrial Complex Speech. Here is an excerpt from that speech:

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 State house, 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.

Well, that warning was not heeded and now America has a government that goes to war because it has an industry for making war. Add to that a former top executive of the major defense contractor profiteer sitting in the seat of the most powerful Vice Presidency in the history of the United States, and you have exactly what President Eisenhower warned against.

But what is the face of the Military-Industrial Complex? By what name does it go by?

Dick Cheney is an easy choice for poster boy for the Military-Industrial Complex. He has been in government service most of his career, except for the period of time that Bill Clinton held the office of President. During that time period Cheney served as the Chairman and CEO of the Halliburton Corporation. The very same corporation that received an unbidded contract from the federal government to provide civilian services to the military for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. That unbidded contract has reaped billions of dollars in revenue for Halliburton.

During that same hiatus from government service, Cheney co-founded the The Project for the New American Century, "a non-profit educational organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American leadership is good both for America and for the world; and that such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle." Look what comes first and what comes last in that list.

So, I declare that the face of the Military-Industrial Complex, will in my mind be embodied as Richard Cheney, Vice President of the United States of America. Our own Manchurian Candidate.