This week we spoke a lot about military defenses and documents that really reflected the concerns of basically taking the task to defend the country and our people to a new extreme. I mean in President Eisenhower’s Farwell address he warned against the expansion of the “military-industrial complex” and how it could potentially ruin the great pride of the country. I found his address to be very, very interesting only because this is coming from a man who has had experience in wars and has seen the destruction of it. With his address it made me think of Wilson’s plea to the people and Congress, the portion where he acknowledges that war is some-what a “plan C” or even D to every other option utilized in keeping peace in the country. I find it fascinating that during those times, Presidents really understood the sole purpose of what the military was for. Like, I interpret their use of the military as how a persons’ immune system works, when it’s been bombarded with immune efficient vitamins to help while being attacked by a virus that invades the body and starts posing a serious danger to the well-being of the host.
When a person first gets sick they use all the resources they can to fight it, plenty of rest, drinking lots of liquids, soup, sweating it out and drugging themselves out with terrible tasting medicines. But as I’ve learned after many illnesses, when you really want to knock it out and keep it out, you bring in the big gun vitamin supplements. The military is not only used to fight off any dangers the country faces but to keep danger away by any cost. However, in actually it seems as though the military is being used like a little boy with G.I. Joe toys and cool video games who wants to out toy and video game his rival “friend” across the street. It’s almost as if countries now just want to immediately get into a war to show off how much bigger its weaponries and guns are than the next neighboring country. And with that being written, it just reminds me of the video we watched earlier of Hedges talking about the countries perversion and seduction of war and how it “gives us meaning.” As we’ve developed into a stronger nation we have lost many of our core values and lost sight of our foundation, alongside the legacy of being a somewhat heroic figure in many eyes.
The excitement of being able to use our “new toys” has surpassed the devastation and despair of battle along with the care and priorities of taking care of our people. Billions of dollars have been put into the maintenance of our military forces, more than our education system and making sure Americans have good health and shelter over our heads. There’s no wonder why many people question the causing of 9/11, especially seeing that George W. Bush never asked Congress permission to declare war on Iraq and Afghanistan. As said from Franklin D. Roosevelt, “In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.” Seeing that previous to this war, it had been a long time since our country had the need to use military force. Previous to 9/11 I observed in the news of military technology advancements that many countries were developing and probably just itching to test on things; boys just love to see things go Boom. I think in terms of action towards another country should be highly evaluated and draw to the point where one must rationalize that that is the only course of action that can be made. Made with the knowledge that if they do not fight against this specific violent group or warfare authority it could result in the endangerment of the people.
However, I also believe that with that thought that the people must be able to also rationalize whether we as a country want to put our troops into combat for whatever specific situation of threat arises. Federalist paper gave the people more of a voice in decisions of the state and I feel over the years the opinion of the American people is not asked for until after the fact. No doubt, in the midst of the 9/11 attack did George W. Bush react through emotion and carelessness by many factors. Not only did he not ask Congress but he lead a war that went on for years with an empty definition that still till this day cannot be properly defined. Our systems way of functioning seems to be deteriorating before our eyes as rules and regulations seem to be twisted, misused or simply completely ignored altogether. I would honestly trade anything in the world to resurrect a few Presidents of the past and ask them how they feel about our system of government and military power of todays’ society.