Go read

Holden finds a nut in the New York Times that is important in showing just how rigged the lead up to the Iraq War was -- and the depths to which the Bush Administration will go.

In addition, at this moment I am listening to Air America (I miss Maron) but the film maker behind "Why We Fight" (Eugene Jarecki) a documentary I have to see is talking about Eisenhower's farewell address. It is important I think in a way to read Holden's post while remembering the words of Eisenhower.

Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties...

...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 recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet 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.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together...

...Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war – as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years – I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.

Though he was a Republican, though he was a dissapointment (though hardly terrible) on Civil Rights, though he may have been more aggressive in stomping McCarthy -- Eisenhower was also a great American, amongst the greatest.

All of his nightmares have come true.