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MIPUGU — The Ogre of War

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was the supreme commander of the Allied Forces that defeated Hitler’s Nazi regime. His masterful grasp of the myriad of details involved was unlimited. In his book Crusade in Europe he speaks of his 1945 visit to a “horror camp near the town of Gotha.” The “indisputable evidence of the Nazi brutality and reckless disregard of every sense of decency,” compelled him to that day send messages to “Washington and London, asking them to send representative groups of editors, and of both national legislatures,” so as to forestall future “cynical doubt,” that it ever had happened. For the same reason, Eisenhower ordered that local town people be shown through this and other concentration camps.

He had led the fight against the mighty German military, and so he knew of the history of the generations-old, colossal Krupp and I. G. Farben Companies, and how the immoral influence of the avaricious warlords had promoted and supported the malevolent ambitions of Adolf Hitler, thus, leading to the absence of all human compassion and mercy for others. His awareness of the Nazi “military-industrial-complex” led naturally to his profound warning at the inauguration of Pres. Jack Kennedy in January 1961. His heartfelt concern was that the intertwining of the powerful US military and US industry would lead to a US “political-military-industrial complex.”

In my view, he could have included the unions, politicians, governments, and universities. To explain my acronym MIPUGU: The arms industries contracts for new, more sophisticated military hardware makes the military happy, protected, effective, and needed; the industry (the corporations) happy with their profits; the politicians happy with their constituents’ full-time employment; the unions (workers) happy with their jobs; the government happy with taxes from both the employees and the corporation profits; and the universities happy to be involved in research and teaching contracts. Ergo: MIPUGO (the war-producing ogre); The Military-Industrial-Political-Union-Government-University complex. The contented status quo produces 6 major happy segments of society. A happy society—except those getting killed, their families, and the occasional person with a moral hang-up about unnecessary killing for money.

Meanwhile, where is our nation headed? Simple history and simple math tell us that the nation’s natural resources and tax dollars of the last 70 years have been lavished on the U.S. military, not enhancing our security, and instead has increased our insecurity because of the resultant excessive taxation, deteriorated infrastructure, degraded and distrustful populace, multi-trillion-dollar debt, and a gloomy future for our children who will be paying that deficit all their lives. Think of the 11 carrier strike groups (when no other nation has more than one), 50 attack submarines, and a fleet of forty F35 fighter planes priced at $132.9 million each. This, while in 2011, the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Forum ranked   the United States as 24th globally in infrastructure, primary education 37th, science education 51st, and life expectancy 32nd.” Think! Terrible numbers!

For more stories of the follies of war, grab a copy of my book, Perspective: The Golden Rule. Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.