I like Ike!

Half a century ago he gave a warning that went unheeded as America grew accustomed to maintaining -- and using -- a large and increasingly powerful standing military:

January 17, 1961 -- In his farewell address to the nation, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warns the American people to keep a careful eye on what he calls the "military-industrial complex" that has developed in the post-World War II years.

A fiscal conservative, Eisenhower had been concerned about the growing size and cost of the American defense establishment since he became president in 1953. In his last presidential address to the American people, he expressed those concerns in terms that frankly shocked some of his listeners...

He admitted that the Cold War made clear the "imperative need for this development," but he was gravely concerned about "the acquisition of unwarranted influence...by the military-industrial complex." In particular, he asked the American people to guard against the "danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite." 

Today, on the 50th anniversary of these remarks, it would seem his concerns have been well vindicated...