Ike's famous parting shot has featured in a number of criticisms of US government and policy since.

I do not believe that US policy or society is particularly militaristic and I could, in fact, argue that we haven't had enough of that quality. Even 60 years after Pearl Harbor, we don't know enough to keep our guard up at all times since being The superpower automatically makes you the prime target.

Defense spending and Congress, however, has become rather byzantine. Weapon systems purchased AGAINST the military's request, bases remaining open in order to please powerful legislators, defense contractors and vendors charging hundreds of dollars for a coffee pot designed to perform in multiple G environments (and more survivable than the plane they were installed in!): all of these things do point to some degree of distortion resulting from the MIC. I don't think it has resulted in much militarism, but in too much graft.

Seamus