Today I watched Eugene Jarecki's insightful movie, Why we fight. It explores the reasons why U.S. invaded Iraq after 9/11, and links those reasons to the power of the American military-industrial complex, a phrase coined by Dwight Eisenhower in his exit speech as the U.S. President in 1961.
Eisenhower, a celebrated five-star U.S. military general himself, served two terms as the U.S. President at a time when the Cold War was taking shape post World War II, and was the first to warn us of the threat to democracy as capitalism took control of the U.S. military. U.S. spends three-fourth of a trillion dollars on its military every year - more than the combined military budget of all other nations on the planet. Wars drive huge amounts of profits for the handful of major U.S. corporations (Boeing, Northrup Grumman, etc) which support majority of the country's military needs.
Why we fight is extremely thought-provoking. Strongly recommended.
Eisenhower is my new hero. Below is the video of his 1961 exit speech to the American people.
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