I'm amazed that you know about his warning in his exit speech. It has been proven to be a reality I'm thinking. Powerful corporations pushed for the Vietnam war. Those who make weapons and all manner of supplies needed when at war. Kennedy signed a bill to bring all the troops home and only a few months later was assassinated. They told us a lone shooter, decades later admit there were multiple shooters. The truth was to be reviled after a long period of time just before that date it was extended. Did the military-industrial- complex ******* Kennedy, there was vast amounts of money being made just as Ike warned. Thousands of jobs at stake. We invaded Iraq because of weapons of mass destruction, none found but it did keep the cash flowing to the plants and military. One place after the other. Korea, south America, golf war, then Iraq and Afghanistan. Like he said " They will keep us forever at war".
I agree but, I also believe the speech was also to warn against the co mingling of the military's interests with our national, economic and international political interests. Whoops. Look at us today, a standing military budget that is the biggest part of the US Budget. The politics behind is so strong that even modernization of the military is a bad thing if it means a leaner and meaner military. Remember when Jeb Bush said the Obama administration has “gutted” every weapons system in the U.S. military’s inventory? Trump said the military is a “disaster.” Rubio said that President Barack Obama was more interested in providing money to Planned Parenthood than for the nation’s armed forces.
WTF?!? The government spent literally 1,000 times more on the armed forces than on Planned Parenthood, and Rubio knew that was bullshit. Money spent on weapons modernization was at the same level with the previous administration. The military cuts they were complaining about were approved by Republicans and Democrats, including Rubio! The military budget was being squeezed by the insistence of politicians in both parties that money be spent on bases and equipment that the Pentagon says it doesn’t need, but were in their districts.
That's the domestic side of the military industrial complex we were warned about.
This does not mean to ignore the toppling of governments and regimes in Korea, Iran, Egypt, Cuba, Philippines, Guatemala, Indonesia, Lebanon, Iraq, Congo, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Zaire, Syria, and pretty much the rest of Central and South America through the 1990s.
But, point that out in the wrong company, and you're unAmerican. Point out that there is serious reason certain countries hate us, we supposedly hate America.
I think the real problem is we let the simps and pea brains define patriotism and draw the parameters around what can be discussed.