President Dwight Eisenhower warned us of the Military Industrial Complex back in the 1950s. In the hands of a conservative, pro business, paranoid administration, the temptation to support the arms business and military interests will overrule good sense and social needs. We Americans and the world suffer.

Defense spending is often increased to pay defense contractors who lobby government to buy their products. We're told that it's good for the economy. They're in bed with the military. Most spending on weapons is a waste - they aren't used and must eventually be destroyed.

Why don't we make intelligence gathering and national security a tattletale action? By this, I mean that all intelligence findings would be made public; there would be no secrets and no need to worry about keeping them. Nations would compete to expose others secrets. Let's expose what all governments and organizations do and live in a really open society where there is no need of privacy, but under laws that protect individual rights and are only implemented if you've violated another's rights, and by that I mean murder, assault, stealing/robbery, fraud, libel, therefore, you need not fear reprisal from government and there would be no reason to have secrets from anyone. Only then could we be safe.

The fiasco of security in the wake of the WTC attack. Paranoia and law and order mentality rules. It gives those who want to curtail freedoms a rationale to do so.

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