Ike was right

On January 17, 1961, three days before he left office, President Dwight Eisenhower warned:

"...we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex... 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."

If there is a supreme being, and I believe there is, Ike is looking down on the current state of affairs in this country, shaking his head, and saying "I told you so."

The ineptitude of our Department of Defense seems to get more and more appalling by the year. The defense budget is over half of a trillion dollars per year, and yet, the department can't account for over a trillion dollars in allocated money. It's just unbelievable.

Amazingly enough, the DoD asks for more.

Seeing Donald Rumsfeld again is a buzz kill - his obfuscations and intentionally vague answers are about what I'd expect.

It's startling that we sell so much of our defense technology to other countries when it comes back to bite us in the rear end so much. Iraq and Osama bin Laden are two of the more glaring examples (and errors) of this often ill-advised policy.

The irony isn't lost on me that we funded and armed Hussein in the 1980s during Iraq's war with Iran (and turned a blind eye to his chemical weapons use and mass slaughter to tens of thousands). We also armed Osama bin Laden to the teeth in the 1980s in his fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

I'd like to say that some day our political leaders will learn, but they haven't shown any indication that they are about to change.