Who has done more to promote freedom around the world - the MIC or Ike?

this is the best thread ever!

FOR ME TO POOP ON!

 

I voted for Ike on a net gain. MIC may have done more, but they have also done more bad. So I gave the edge to Ike.

 

Here we though Gwayneco had no place for love in his heart, just an obsessive hatred of all things Muslim/Arabs and probably most other foreigners.

Now we found out that he does have room for a true love of militarism and in particular the military industrial complex, or MIC as he lovingingly refers to "her".

 

Please calm down.

I voted for Ike, because the question was who has done more, and Ike was a person, while the MIC is a thing.

 

Damn, Ropcketman, I did not think you were old enough to vote for Ike. I bow to your seniority. I was barely old enough to watch him on TV.

 

I'm not going to vote in this thread or any other thread comparing the MIC with any particular person. The problem is that Eisenhower himself was part fo the MIC and also that the MIC isn't a person or a singular entity. By definition the Military Industrial Complex is a system that ties together heavy industry in service of the military and run through the government. I don't think Ike or anyone sees a problem with that and that wasn't what Ike was worried about.

The issue is whether we as a society control the MIC or whether the MIC as a system controls us. What Ike was warning about was being caught up in the system and perpetuating it for the sake of perpetuating it. For instance he used the argument regarding that instead of having pure science for the sake fo discovery science can only exist for the sake of military. Or another example like in the case of base closings. Lets say a civillian review board decides we need to close a naval base in Newark because there is a naval base in Connecticut that does basically the samething. The counter argument comes back that the base in Newark is vital to the local economy and can't be closed. So the base is left open even if it doesn't serve an immediate need.

No one disagrees that an industrialized military is a bad thing in itself, especially Ike himself who commanded it and did all sort of things like build the Interstate Highway system and space program based on the argument that these things were needed from a military standpoint, but are concerned regarding how much does the systemic interests of the MIC control government and society.

 

Are they not pieces of the same machine? What's more important to you in playing basketball, your brain or your arms?

 

Excellent post as always...

And to answer your question, the MIC controls us, we are forever in bondage to it, NSC-68 made sure of it...