General: U.S. may consider troops in Libya

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gurneyhalleck1 said:
There you go…“Beware the Military Industrial Complex” Ike told us…boy he wasn’t jokin!
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A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every State house, 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.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

–Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961 Read it all:
h-net.org/~hst306/documents/indust.html
 
I miss those Eisenhoweresque Republicans and the more intellectual William F. Buckley conservatives. All we have now are screamers and extremists a la Beck, Hannity, Savage, Levin, and Rush :rolleyes:
gilliam said:
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every State house, 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.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

–Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961 Read it all:
h-net.org/~hst306/documents/indust.html
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gurneyhalleck1 said:
Obama would be putting the political nail in his coffin sending troops to Libya. Fighting a two-front war draining the United States of American lives (soldiers) and treasure and credibility already, sending in troops to another Muslim country as “liberators” will ensure the far left abandons Obama and the Right wing uses it against him. He’ll look even more hypocritical than he already does. I think he’ll stick with the no-fly zone happy medium…
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We can only hope.
 
gilliam said:
We haven’t had a good commander in chief in the white house since Ike.
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I was a Boy Scout in 1952, and helped get out posters urging folks to vote in the election. It was a different era, and people, even the Democrats, “liked Ike.” 🙂
 
gurneyhalleck1 said:
I believe it was Eisenhower who said “beware the military-industrial complex.” The Tea Partiers missed out on that wise admonishment by a great Republican president!
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I think you’re mistaking Tea Partiers for Neocons. Most tea partiers want fewer military interventions. Ron Paul, though not technically a TP, is the king of isolationism.
 
We had Hordak and Skeletor for prez and VP respectively for 8 years. I’m good with war-mongering for a while…Evil Lynn (Palin) is just more of the same.

P.S. Obama is more like Orco to me…😛
He_Man said:
Cringer’s in the White House. We need King Randor to fix this country.
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OK, guys, name calling isn’t allowed, so I am going to ask you to stop this name substitution game.
 
I appreciate your concern, but I’m actually not. If you listen to Tea Party rhetoric, it mostly sounds more like “the world is safer with Saddam gone, I’m glad we went to Iraq, I’m a patriot!” than “I’m for Ron Paul, let’s stay out of the world’s affairs!” Many Tea Partiers have those “get us out of the U.N.! Let’s do this global police thing alone!” type slogans.

Neocons are the Bushes, Wolfowitzes, Cheneys, Bill Kristol, Rumsfeld, Forbes, Armitage, Bennetts, and Boltons of the world who signed on to PNAC (project for the new american century) and yet all the Tea Partiers like those guys and all those PNAC signatories who want us to play world cop and try to establish democracies in the Middle East (the ultimate chuckle!) are Tea Party fans, too.

I think they sing different songs but end up on the same Sergeant Pepper album…:rolleyes:
He_Man said:
I think you’re mistaking Tea Partiers for Neocons. Most tea partiers want fewer military interventions. Ron Paul, though not technically a TP, is the king of isolationism.
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You’re right. Sorry, Robert. We were just being silly. No insults intended but we will comply. Thanks and God bless…
Robert_Bay said:
OK, guys, name calling isn’t allowed, so I am going to ask you to stop this name substitution game.
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In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
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All conservatives are in agreement that the government is a volcanic eruption of uncontrolled spending. However, I will take issue with the majority of republicans who seem to be under the unwarranted influence of the militaryindustrial complex.

According to this chart, most of the budget is spent on defense as social security and health programs. Budgets that I’ve seen proposed by republicans address cutting security and health programs and not the defense budget. As a catholic I find it disturbing that our elected officials will happily cut spending on health, pay and retirement benefits, and not on weapon systems and wars–both of which ultimately kill people. Federal workers have taken an effective pay cut but not our militaryindustrial complex!?

I support our defense industry and a well funded military but they shouldn’t be exempt from cuts balancing our budget. Only Ron Paul has been vocal about this inconsistency. As far as I can tell, the defense budget is a sacred cow for most of the republican party. The military is a bureaucratic entity to itself which can waste as much money as the Department of Homeland Security or Department of Energy.

http://www.cbpp.org/images/cms//PolicyBasic_WhereOurTaxDollarsGo-f1_rev4-14-10.jpg
 
Great post, PR…

Cutting some funding to some of these new military contracts with a lot of the pork technology we can get away with no using for now, getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan, cutting back on defense to a certain degree, and trying to save and lean up our military without significantly cutting into our soldiers’ pay or benefits, etc. is important. The military is a sacred cow and I’m disappointed to see the GOP stubbornly refuse to touch it while the Democrats cling to abortions and their passion for Planned Parenthood…

No wonder we’re in this mess so deep!
Pork_Roll said:
All conservatives are in agreement that the government is a volcanic eruption of uncontrolled spending. However, I will take issue with the majority of republicans who seem to be under the unwarranted influence of the militaryindustrial complex.

According to this chart, most of the budget is spent on defense as social security and health programs. Budgets that I’ve seen proposed by republicans address cutting security and health programs and not the defense budget. As a catholic I find it disturbing that our elected officials will happily cut spending on health, pay and retirement benefits, and not on weapon systems and wars–both of which ultimately kill people. Federal workers have taken an effective pay cut but not our militaryindustrial complex!?

I support our defense industry and a well funded military but they shouldn’t be exempt from cuts balancing our budget. Only Ron Paul has been vocal about this inconsistency. As far as I can tell, the defense budget is a sacred cow for most of the republican party. The military is a bureaucratic entity to itself which can waste as much money as the Department of Homeland Security or Department of Energy.

http://www.cbpp.org/images/cms//PolicyBasic_WhereOurTaxDollarsGo-f1_rev4-14-10.jpg
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The military is to Republicans what public education is to Democrats, and as a Constitutionalist I’m sick to death of hearing about where we’d be without both of them.
 
Even though I am a teacher (sixth grade) I do feel education is best left up to the States and federalizing it was never a fruitful endeavor. I am not a “strict” constitutionalist, however. I am fine with unions, regulation, and some other things that have made our lives better and richer. But I’ll agree with you that we’ve gone too far adrift.
Seamus_L said:
The military is to Republicans what public education is to Democrats, and as a Constitutionalist I’m sick to death of hearing about where we’d be without both of them.
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