In my philosophy one should not dismiss the words of an intelligent or experienced person because other fools misunderstood them. I think you're right that nai

In my philosophy one should not dismiss the words of an intelligent or experienced person because other fools misunderstood them. I think you're right that naive people adopted Eisenhower's slogan as a banner for their own, sometime quite nutty theories. "Military Industrial COmplex" has such a theatrically sinister sound to it doesn't it? It almost immediately conjures an image of the Death Star. But I'm interested here in the point that this highly credible figure did make, and why, and that it's ever more important today in a world where kinetics and geophysical boundaries mean less than networks of business and financial relations. As a pro-defence person, I sometimes use the example of the Claymore mine to explain this to hawkish, but simplistic thinkers; On one side it has the words "THIS SIDE TOWARDS ENEMY" written in large clear letters. One can only cringe at the misadventures preceding that necessity, but I think the same needs writing on a lot of other technologies. > a defense sector is a crucial part of a Western democracy's economy, More. A defence sector is a crucial part of any nations existence. It is deflating that to a mere "economy" that is problematic. Because a bad defence sector can serve an economy while undermining an existence. That's happens when, through expedient financial alliances with the wrong sorts you end up with the pointy end facing towards your own people and not the enemy.