Ike Was A Prophet

Well, he said some fairly prophetic things at least; and he coined the phrase military industrial complex and where would we be without that?

Ike gave a speech titled "Chance for Peace" in which he said:

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...This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. 

This from the dude who was the Supreme Allied Commander during WWII.  Not everyone in the military is a warmonger and that's worth remembering.

 

Jill Lepore touched on these issues in a current day context in her piece in the January 28 New Yorker on how much military is enough these days.  She had the Ike quote above and it's well worth sharing.  Her article is available in full and is worth checking out.

I think I might need a biography of the man.