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More than once during this campaign Obama has spoken of the need “to end the mindset that got us into war”. Not that some Americans are thick (far from it - all Americans are amazingly brilliant by natural selection), but I don’t think everyone follows what he’s saying. That it is imperative that we stop allowing the military industrial complex to drive our foreign policy.
If we lose 50,000 Americans in Iraq, that will do nothing to change the mindset of the Fred Hiatt’s, Joe Lieberman’s, Jonah Goldberg’s, Charles Krauthammer’s, etc., of the world. They still will have lost nothing, and their need to live vicariously through war will remain insatiated.
It’s a crucial point that Obama is making. To change the horrific direction that this country has been headed in for the past several decades, which was exacerbated by the collapse of the Soviet Union which ended our need for a ridiculously bloated military.
Maybe Obama doesn’t want to expound on the issue due to the forces that ensure that US presidents not deviate from the Glorious Never-Ending-War mindset. But it’s an essential argument that needs to be repeated and understood so that this country doesn't collapse because of a being endlessly forced into war after war after war to justify our insanely disproportionate military spending.
Dwight Eisenhower said it much better than I have. And Obama should reiterate his words – citing them as the words of a “great Republican president” – and educate Americans on what “ending the mindset that got us into this war” truly means
