A lot of people know of President Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell address to the United States just before leaving office in January 1961. That’s the one where he warned people about the dangers of letting the military-industrial complex have too much power. If you’ve never seen it, it definitely worth watching especially in this time when the military-industrial complex is so explicitly personified by the likes of Dick Cheney. The whole speech is available on Google Video and is definitely worth watching. The relevant portions of the speech are also shown in the film Why We Fight which is also on Google video. It’s definitely worth watching to see how the military industrial complex has corrupted American democracy.