If you believe that we are in this war due to Weapons of Mass Destruction… you need to watch this film. If you believe we are in this war to free Iraq and promote Democracy…you need to watch this film. If you believe we are in Iraq due to 9/11/01…you need to get slapped back to reality, oh yeah and watch this film.

I’ve seen many films where a prophesy was issued to individuals, families, villains, and yes the human race. But this cold warning from a United States President is chilling.

I take some poignant words from Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address to the Nation, January 17, 1961:

We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. [...]

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

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 Statehouse, 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 military-industrial 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.

Those words ring loud within my ears. Like the quote from Sir Frances Bacon, “Knowledge is Power.” and for Eishenhower to see into our future and warn us before hand is honorable. I just wish we could remember what happened only last year. Sorry Mr. President we let you down. I’m sure you couldn’t of seen how many channels of TV would keep us preoccupied. Or the video games that suck every ounce of motivation to do something with our time. We let you down.