Thinking about Cheney, Haliburton, and Eisenhower's farewell

[pinkpops]

address ....

"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."

His farewell address:
http://www.eisenhower.utexas.edu/farewell.htm

[waterman]

1. Oh yes, that is a classic speech and I only saw it at the beginning of JFK

the Oliver Stone movie. And I gotta tell ya, it about knocked me out of my chair. I think it was possibly the most important speech of this century and it is to this day, largely overlooked. Unfortunately.

[DustMolecule]

2. Kick to the front

...it's important.

[Athame]

3. I had read your quote many times, but not this part of the speech

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we-you and I, and our government-must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

VI

Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.

Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.



the *shrub is not fit to lick Ike's boots.

[rman]

4. many of these old farts seem to agree:

"We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren.."

Thomas Jefferson:
"...the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."