posted May 06, 2003 at 8:19 p.m. MDT
I first encountered President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell speech in the 70s, when I was trying to rationalize having trash-canned my military career ... trying to make sense of why Canada was being drawn into the sink-hole of militarism. It chilled me then. It chills me now. Let yourself be chilled, for a moment: Military Industrial Complex [ideotrope.org] "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 huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."