The Military Industrial Complex

As US arms sales tripled in 2011 to $66.3 billion, I give you Dwight Eisenhower's farewell speech at the end of his presidency in 1961, warning the country about how the military industrial complex presented a threat to the liberties and freedom of America. Fifty years later, his fears are very realized. The US maintains, by a huge margin, the largest military in the world. It runs a drone strike program in many nations that kills people without trial. It sells weaponry to governments with questionable human and civil rights records. All of these points are made possible by extensive lobbying and influence by the "defense" contractors that make up the military industrial complex.