On to Afghanistan

Still listening to: "Won't Get Fooled Again," The Who

In his farewell address to the nation Jan. 17, 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower warned:

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.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Assuming these next words are correctly attributed, I think Benjamin Franklin said it more succinctly:

They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.

The beauty of the military-industrial scam is the way the thought has been mashed so that giving up essential liberty ("temporarily," "until this crisis has passed," mind you) becomes a requirement for security (there's always a crisis at hand, isn't there?) — or, as Mr. Orwell phrased our modern state's philosophy so well:

War is peace.

Freedom is slavery.

Ignorance is strength.