Why We Fight… Eisenhowers’s warning never heeded!
I read a post on a forum I frequent claiming America was the most violent nation in the world. It made me think about Eisenhower’s Military-Industrial Complex Speech and a film called Why We fight. If you’ve never heard of it here is a synopsis:
Why We Fight describes the rise and maintenance of the United States military-industrial complex and its fifty-year involvement with the wars led by the United States to date, especially its 2003 Invasion of Iraq. In every decade since World War II, the American public were told a lie, in order for the Government (incumbent Administration) to take them to war, in order to fuel the military-industrial economy maintaining American political dominance in the world. Interviewed about this matter, are politician John McCain, political scientist and former-CIA analyst Chalmers Johnson, politician Richard Perle, reporter William Kristol, writer Gore Vidal, and public policy expert Joseph Cirincione. Why We Fight documents the consequences of said foreign policy with the stories of a Vietnam War veteran whose son was killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks, and who then asked the military to write the name of his dead son on any bomb to be dropped in Iraq; an that of a twenty-three-year-old New Yorker who enlists in the United States Army because he is poor and in debt, his decision impelled by his mother’s death; and a military explosives scientist who arrived to the U.S. as a refugee girl from Vietnam in 1975.
and here are a few of many people involved and interviewed in the film:
Politicians
Senator John McCain Elected to the United States Senate in 1986, he is a former U.S. Navy pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war.
Civilians
Joseph Cirincione, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace A senior associate and Director of the Non-Proliferation Project, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, D.C., he is a writer, lecturer, and expert commentator on weapons proliferation and national security matters for the news media.
Gwynne Dyer, Military Historian He is a military historian, writer, and journalist who has worked for the Canadian, British, and American militaries. He published books, articles, information papers, and a radio series, about international affairs.
Susan Eisenhower, Grand-daughter of President Eisenhower Journalist, writer, and news expert, she is a senior fellow at, and the Eisenhower Institute’s director of programs. She is serving a third appointment to the Committee on International Security and Arms Control (CISAC) of the National Academy of Sciences.
John Eisenhower, Son of President Eisenhower, Military Historian A military historian member of White House staff during his father’s administration. He is a retired Brigadier General (AUS) and served as U.S. ambassador to Belgium, 1969 and 1971.
Chalmers Johnson, Central Intelligence Agency 1967-1973, Political Scientist With a fifty-year career in foreign policy, he is President of the Japan Policy Research Institute. An academic at the University of California, he has written many articles and books.
Frank “Chuck” Spinney, Retired Military Analyst An Air Force colonel’s son, he is a Lehigh University-schooled mechanical engineer (class of 1967), and worked in the U.S.A.F., in Ohio, before working in the Pentagon’s Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation in 1977. He became a harsh critic of the Pentagon, later known as the “Conscience of the Pentagon”, when he attacked the spiraling spending increase in the report “Defense facts of life”, published in 1982, later known as the “Spinney Report”, which earned a cover on “Time” magazine.
Gore Vidal, Author of Imperial America Writer, playwright, screen writer, novelist, and essayist, he has written books on American foreign policy explaining the American empire.
Military participants
‘Fuji’ and ‘Tooms’ U.S.A.F. stealth aeroplane fighter pilots ‘Fuji’ and ‘Tooms’ dropped the first bombs on Baghdad city, starting the Iraq War in 2003. They saw they were unaware that flawed intelligence guided their bombs, until months later, when they heard of a missed-directed bombing strike and the significant, consequent human collateral damage.
Karen Kwiatkowski A retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel whose duties included working as a Pentagon desk officer, and for the National Security Agency.
James G. Roche, Secretary of the Air Force As the twentieth Secretary of the U.S. Air Force, he is responsible for its efficient functioning, policy formulation and implementation of the orders and instructions decided by the president and the secretary of defense.
Source for above quotes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_We_Fight_(2005_film)
Movie Preview:
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/
Basically the film uses Eisenhowers speech as a warning while trying to explain whats gone wrong within the American government and to show how the military-industrial complex works. The debate would be, do you think bringing back up Eisenhower’s warning is a little too late? Or do you feel that it is irrelevant. Here is the warning from the late-presidents speech:
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction. Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea. 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 militaryindustrial 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.
Leave a Reply