{"id":50628,"date":"2020-01-20T07:42:08","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T12:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=50628"},"modified":"2020-01-20T07:42:10","modified_gmt":"2020-01-20T12:42:10","slug":"ike-was-right-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=50628","title":{"rendered":"Ike Was Right"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ericmargolis.com\/2020\/01\/ike-was-right\/\">IKE WAS RIGHT<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cIn 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.<br>Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence\u2014economic, political, even spiritual\u2014is felt in every city, every Statehouse, 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.\u201d<\/em><br><strong>General Dwight D Eisenhower<br>Farewell address 1961<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Congress just passed a near trillion dollar military budget at a time when the United States faces no evident state threats at home or abroad. Ike was right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Illustrating Ike\u2019s prescient warning, Brown University\u2019s respected Watson Institute just released a major study which found that the so-called \u2018wars on terror\u2019 in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Pakistan have cost US taxpayers $6.4 trillion since they began in 2001.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The extensive study found that over 800,000 people have died as a result of these military operations, a third of them civilians. An additional 21 million civilians have been displaced by US military operations. According to the Pentagon, these US wars have so far cost each American taxpayer $7,623 \u2013 and that\u2019s a very conservative estimate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most of this money has been quietly added to the US national debt of over $23 trillion. Wars on credit hide the true cost and pain from the public.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As General Eisenhower warned, military spending has engulfed the nation. A trillion annual military budget represents just about half the world\u2019s military expenditures. The Pentagon, which I\u2019ve visited numerous times, is bustling with activity as if the nation was on a permanent war footing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IKE WAS RIGHT \u201cIn 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.Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,6],"tags":[12165,17564,15620],"class_list":["post-50628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-geopolitics","category-liberty","tag-dwight-d-eisenhower","tag-eric-margolis","tag-mic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50628"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50629,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50628\/revisions\/50629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}