IKE WARNED US ABOUT SENATOR KIRK
As a quintessential member of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex, it comes as no surprise that Illinois Senator Mark Kirk is calling for arming the Libyan rebels seeking to oust forty-one year long strongman Muammar Gaddafi. Entering the US House in January, 2001, Kirk voted for every one of the $1 trillion we've blown on our senseless and self destructive war in Iraq and every one of the $500 billion dollars we've blown on our senseless and self destructive war in Afghanistan. He has been quiet as a church mouse about the nearly 6,000 dead GI's and hundreds of thousands more who have been wounded, injured and mentally damaged requiring several trillion more dollars to care for over several generations. He has also been mute about the three million dead, injured or displaced Iraqis and Afghans by our military invaders.
But ask Kirk about his teaching or military career and you can't shut him up with truth being the first casualty.
As a Cornell undergrad he held a work study job supervising a play group at the Forest Home Chapel nursery school which morphed into a full time teaching career when discussing education.
But it was Kirk's service as an intelligence officer with the Naval Reserve that truly honed his resume padding skills. An award given to his intelligence division became Kirk's award as "Navy Intelligence Officer of the Year" when he testified before a House Committee in 2002. Then Kirk tuned a routine flight over Iraq into a death defying effort dodging anti aircraft fire.
Now Kirk urges arming the Libyan rebels who are essentially a secessionist movement of tribes and sects in Eastern Libya who have never considered their portion of Libya known as Cyrenaica, a part of the western portion known as Tripolitania. No doubt, Kirk, who is on the payroll of two thirds of the aforementioned Complex, is seeking to throw a few more billions at his best buddies in the third segment which produces all those weapons that must be sold and used.
Former Republican President and true war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower waned us about the likes of Kirk in his January 17, 1961, Farewell Address to the American people:
"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 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."
I doubt you'll find any picture of Ike in Kirk's Senate office. But those industrialists that fund his campaign while they pocket fortunes with the military expenditures Kirk so readily and silently funnels their way? If he doesn't have their pictures hanging, he sure knows their faces and their phone numbers.
But ask Kirk about his teaching or military career and you can't shut him up with truth being the first casualty.
As a Cornell undergrad he held a work study job supervising a play group at the Forest Home Chapel nursery school which morphed into a full time teaching career when discussing education.
But it was Kirk's service as an intelligence officer with the Naval Reserve that truly honed his resume padding skills. An award given to his intelligence division became Kirk's award as "Navy Intelligence Officer of the Year" when he testified before a House Committee in 2002. Then Kirk tuned a routine flight over Iraq into a death defying effort dodging anti aircraft fire.
Now Kirk urges arming the Libyan rebels who are essentially a secessionist movement of tribes and sects in Eastern Libya who have never considered their portion of Libya known as Cyrenaica, a part of the western portion known as Tripolitania. No doubt, Kirk, who is on the payroll of two thirds of the aforementioned Complex, is seeking to throw a few more billions at his best buddies in the third segment which produces all those weapons that must be sold and used.
Former Republican President and true war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower waned us about the likes of Kirk in his January 17, 1961, Farewell Address to the American people:
"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 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."
I doubt you'll find any picture of Ike in Kirk's Senate office. But those industrialists that fund his campaign while they pocket fortunes with the military expenditures Kirk so readily and silently funnels their way? If he doesn't have their pictures hanging, he sure knows their faces and their phone numbers.
posted by Walt Zlotow at 9:48 PM
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