Good morning folks,
I wonder how many of our politicians and generals heed these famous words of the past president, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Some may but sometimes it seems we are headed toward the agonies of future battlefields as stated by Mr. Eisenhower. I think of all the relatives I have lost on the battlefield, several of whom won this Nation’s highest honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor. I’ve managed to live through several conflicts but don’t speak much of them, as the old time warriors told me not to. There was no honor in that kind of fighting is what they told me. There was honor in the touching of an enemy before killing him, and there was greater honor in keeping the peace, than breaking it.
I honor all those who stand ready to fight for us today, because they had nothing to do with that decision, but still stand ready. That takes courage and trust, not in America’s current leaders, but in our own Neshnabe values. I would join you that are there at the front, but they say I am too old now, so I’ll stand ready to pray for ya all.
Neaseno…..
In today’s excerpt – three days before he departed the White House, Dwight Eisenhower gave a brief speech that has become regarded as one of our nation’s finest. In it he noted that after each war before World War II, America’s military had been significantly downsized if not effectively disbanded. After World War II, this policy changed, and for the first time America had a vast army in place during a time of peace. While reminding citizens that there would always be crises in the world, Eisenhower nonetheless expressed concern that this large military might exercise undue influence on U.S. policy, and further reminded the country that the military should be subject to the guidance of its citizenry. Though he had faced Adolf Hitler, he voiced a profound preference for “the conference table” as opposed to “the certain agony of the battlefield,” and for “trust and respect” in preference to “fear and hate.” He lived out this preference as President by resisting involvement in wars in Egypt and beyond. He further expressed a concern about deficits, counseling that Americans “must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow.” Here are brief passages from this speech:
“Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research — these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.
“But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs — balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage — balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.
“The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well, in the face of stress and threat. But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise. …
“A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
“Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
“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 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 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.. …
“Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society’s future, we — you and I, and our government — must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.
“Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
“Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.”
Author: Dwight David Eisenhower
Title: Farewell Address
Date: January 17, 1961
Neaseno 