i don’t think we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence , it still a policy !!

Wow! Skip can type! Now if he could only get on top of that grammar thing…

We fight a war to ensure you have the freedom to print your stupid liberal wining about war, people die, we win, the cycle continues. The only difference is that each time it’s new people dying, but the same stupid liberals. Have a bad day stupid.

Closer to home, you can tour belowdecks of a WWII battleship at Battleship Cove in Fall River, MA. They have the USS Massachusetts, a South Dakota-class battleship. She’s smaller than the Wisconsin, but with the same immense 16″ guns. Last time I was there, you could explore quite a bit of the belowdecks area.

I think that Ike (not Turner) spoke to this same issue:

http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

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.

Still, you have some of the lowest tax rates in the western world.

The Iowa was built in response to Japanese aggression (which was arguably prompted by an American blocus, in turn inspired by Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and so on all the way to Commodore Perry).