LMFAO. 😹 I’ve probably most definitely 💯 fired more weapons than most of these people.
Hell I shot a sawed off shotgun as a child that threw me on the ground.
Still no desire to ever fire another one again. Why? #EndAllWars #End #MilitaryIndustrialComplex
You don’t have to listen to me. Listen to ** any ** of these former presidents below 🔻🔻🔻
Here’s a comprehensive collection of Presidential Warnings about #Militarism #War #Profiteering and the #Military-Industrial Complex — with hashtags for easy reference. From the #Founders through the 20th century.
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⚔️ #GeorgeWashington (Farewell Address, 1796)
“Overgrown #military establishments… under any form of #government , are inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.”
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⚔️ #JamesMadison (Political Writings, early 1800s)
“Of all the enemies to public #liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”
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⚔️ #ThomasJefferson (Letters, 1810s)
“A standing #army is one of the greatest mischiefs that can possibly happen. It is an engine of oppression.”
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⚔️ #JohnQuincyAdams (Independence Day Address, 1821)
“America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and #independence of all. She is the #champion and vindicator only of her own.”
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⚔️ #AbrahamLincoln (Letters & Speeches, 1850s–1860s)
“The money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people… until wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed.”
(Lincoln warned that corporate and financial power tied to war could destroy the Republic.)
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⚔️ #UlyssesGrant (Memoirs & Letters, 1870s)
“Although a soldier by profession, I have never felt any sort of fondness for war, and I have never advocated it, except as a means of peace.”
☮️ FELT !!!!
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⚔️ #TheodoreRoosevelt (Speeches, 1900s)
“The most powerful of all war-makers is the combination of reckless corporations with reckless militarists.”
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⚔️ #WoodrowWilson (Message to Congress, 1917 & later writings)
“The world must be made safe for democracy.”
(Though he led America into #WWI, Wilson later admitted that U.S. entry was influenced by #financial/industrial interests, and he grew disillusioned with militarism.)
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⚔️ #FranklinDRoosevelt (FDR — Address to Congress, 1936)
“We must keep our eyes on the fact that there are those among us who would clip the wings of the #American #eagle in order to feather their own nests. They are the ‘merchants of death’ who profit by war.”
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⚔️ #HarryTruman (Post–WWII Remarks, 1940s–1950s)
“All through history it has been the nations that have kept their defense up that have survived. But it has also been true that armament makers and military men have sometimes urged the building up of defense for the sake of profits or glory.”
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⚔️ #DwightEisenhower (Farewell Address, 1961)
“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.”
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⚔️ #JohnFKennedy (UN Speech, 1961)
“Mankind must put an end to war — or war will put an end to mankind. The arms race can end only in annihilation.”
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⚔️ #JimmyCarter (Nobel Lecture, 2002; also 1970s speeches)
“War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good… We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.”
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🌌 Summary
From Washington’s Farewell Address (1796) to Carter’s Nobel lecture (2002), U.S. presidents consistently warned that:
• Large standing armies and perpetual war threaten liberty.
• Corporate profiteering and war industries endanger democracy.
• The military-industrial complex can seize control over national priorities.
- /////- I’ve no doubt about who I am and my leadership capabilities in war zones. I grew up preparing myself lifelong.
