Fifty years ago, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ex-pressed his fears that the U.S. would be overrun by military enterprise at the expense of schools and hospitals.
Kansans take pride in their native son, affectionately known as “Ike.” The president served two terms, 1953-1961. He was a five-star general during his command in World War II and then was at the helm of NATO.
Fifteen years after the war, Eisenhower no longer saw the need for the United States to retain its overwhelming capacity to dominate the world in terms of war machinery, and said so in his farewell speech.
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense, a theft. The cost of one modern, heavy bomber is this: a modern, brick school in more than 30 cities.”
Eisenhower also feared that an untethered military industrial complex could result in wanton behavior.
“(W)e 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,” he said.
Think Iraq, 2003.
FAST FORWARD 50 years and to another Kansan, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who happens to keep a picture of Eisenhower on his desk in the Pentagon.
What good is it, Gates has posed, to be able to annihilate an adversary 20 times over? To have a battle fleet that is larger than the next 13 navies combined — 11 of which are our partners?
Today, the United States has more than $660 billion in military expenditures, the most of any country in the world. Far behind in second place is China, allocating $100 billion. Picture a pie of world expenditures on armaments. The U.S. sliver would consume 43 percent of that pie compared to the rest of the world.
We have more than 700 U.S. military bases scattered around the globe, with more than 2 million military personnel stationed abroad. Our military presence in the Middle East, especially, has probably done more to alienate our friends and embolden our enemies in this never-ending “war on terror.”
To date, we’ve spent $1.1 trillion on military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The cost for keeping a single soldier on the ground exceeds $500,000 a year.
The United States is in dire financial straits.
At least 39 states, including Kansas, are facing a budget shortfall this year.
Their schools, retirement programs, and social services all face cuts that will mean wider gaps in services for the poor and disabled, and fewer resources in the classroom.
Two Kansans, 50 years apart, both military leaders, have spoken for the need of reduced military might.
The overkill, is killing us.
— Susan Lynn
