Every Gun That Is Made... Every Warship Launched

[walldude]

Every rocket fired, Signifies, in the final sense, a THEFT from those who hunger and are not fed, and those who are cold and not clothed. -Dwight D. Eisenhower


I saw Roger Waters The Wall Live a couple weeks ago. In certain places around town this quote was flashed on sidewalks and the side of buildings as part of a "street art" display.

The show, like the quote is brilliant and moving. If you have a chance to see it I suggest you do.

[jobycom]

1. Every hungry person fed or cold person clothed is a theft from...

What? War? Killing? Suffering? I don't know. I never understood Republican logic. Democratic wisdom makes much more sense.

[Bigmack]

6. Every hungry person fed... etc....

is a theft from the uber-rich. They fucking deserve it. Yacht maintenance is not peanuts, you know. Those private jets are damned expensive.

So what if 21% of US kids live in poverty... so what if 1/4 of our homeless are veterans...

The important thing to remember is: We've got to take care of our rich!

(Deep, dark, "kill the rich and eat them" :sarcasm: intended.)

[Dash87]

22. The rich need to collect more money that they don't need.

Apparently their egos and bank accounts are more important than the suffering and death of a living, breathing, conscious person.

The Republicans, I think, seem to not make any sense because they've become so radicalized in these past years. :)

[deaniac21]

2. Guns in Arkansas feed the poor

http://www.arkansashunters.org/

[walldude]

7. Those are hunters... not guns..

guns are inanimate objects and can't feed anyone. And to take away from the very valid point Eisenhower made to prove that hunters can do good things too is lame. This isn't a second amendment thread, it's a military industrial complex thread. If you want to show the great thing those hunters are doing make a thread about it, don't try to use it to debate a point which there is no valid debate for.

[deaniac21]

16. NASA has done great things with rockets.

[hootinholler]

17. Way to ignore context! n/t

[Individualist]

3. K&R

[nashville_brook]

4. amen.

[struggle4progress]

5. Cross of Iron Speech

... Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms in not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron ... As progress in all these areas strengthens world trust, we could proceed concurrently with the next great work - the reduction of the burden of armaments now weighing upon the world ...

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9743.htm

[walldude]

8. Awesome.. thanks, never saw the whole thing...

[Ghost Dog]

19. Yeah. Wow. That's why we used to love you, in spite of, you know,

America (and your crazy generals).

[ThomasE]

10. Great link

With the 1.19 + Trillion dollars we've spent on an illegal, immoral,& highly unethical war, how many roads, schools, & community-improvement projects could we have gotten.

One of my main gripes is the Nut-Jobs of the religious right. They will follow anyone like lemmings off a cliff, provided they are convinced it's "God's will". I just found this site & a link to info-clearing-house, fantastic stuff. I'll be bach!!!!!! Thanks, Tom

- [e-mail]

[struggle4progress]

Welcome to DU

:toast:

[Enthusiast]

15. Welcome to DU...nt

[bobbolink]

9. K&R

[spin]

11. And yet had Eisenhower not had the armament to win WWII ...

Hitler might have ruled the world. How many Jews might have died in gas chambers if the Allies had not defeated the Axis? What would have happened if Germany had developed the first nuclear weapon?

All wars are tragic, and most are unnecessary. WWII could have been prevented but once Hitler launched his war to create a 1000 year Third Reich, he had to be stopped.

Eisenhower warned against the danger of a military industrial complex and was wise to do so. Still there is a time for war and a time for peace. We just have to be careful that we are not deceived into fighting wars such as Vietnam and the ongoing conflict in Iraq for money and oil.

Our problem is that we often can't trust the people we elect to represent us and to honestly do their duty. They, all too often, are mere puppets of the Big Corporations. They kiss the ass of Big Oil and the military industrial complex in order to prolong their lofty status in the House of Representatives or the Senate.

[NuclearDem]

12. I don't think Eisenhower was speaking out against all war

I think the Commander of the Allied Forces would know better than that. But in the context of the modern world, do we REALLY need the F-35 to fight al-Qaeda? We have military alliances for a reason: to help bear the burden of the cost of war. But yet, we still do it all ourselves.

Your post is spot-on, but I just thought I'd make that point. :)

[spin]

18. I agree ...

which is why I said that he was wise to point out the dangers of the military industrial complex. Unfortunately his message has been largely ignored.

[walldude]

13. True.. all too often there are assholes that need to justify

their little tiny dicks with really big guns. And DEFENSE against them is fine. But when was the last time we "defended" ourselves? WWII. Which is why Eisenhower made this statement. He saw what was coming. Endless war for profit. He was right.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

14. K&R

[laughingliberal]

20. K & R nt

[Bosso 63]

21. Check out the this link about the sheer numbers of aircraft carriers

we have, .

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/carriers.htm