President Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican and a war hero, saw the insanity of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex (his phrase) and tried to warn us January 17, 1961. Half a century later, we continue to piss money away on war and fight each other over the crumbs. Madness. Hat tip to NewMexiKen.

NewMexiKen | Best line to start the day

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, “The Chance for Peace,” speech given to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Apr. 16, 1953 quoted by Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com

NewMexiKen | Best line to start the day

Military–industrial complex – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the penultimate draft of the address, Eisenhower initially used the term military-industrial-congressional complex, and thus indicated the essential role that the United States Congress plays in the propagation of the military industry. But, it is said, that the president chose to strike the word congressional in order to placate members of the legislative branch of the federal government.

Military–industrial complex – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia