We lost one of the good guys on December 26. Former President Ford was one of those level headed ordinary Americans that seem to be in short supply today in the leadership pipeline. It is ironic that he helped mentor both Rumsfeld and Cheney who with Bush 43 were the architects of our misguided war in Iraq. Of course, we now learn that Ford was sharply critical of the Iraq war and his two friends who helped create the frenzy surrounding the need for the war. Ford was such a nice guy that he didn't want his comments to become public until after his death. Ford represented the Republican Party that I admired and once was a part of. Now that it has been taken over by the religious right, I no longer identify with it.
On a similar note, over the weekend, I watched "Why America's Fights" which is an indictment of the military-industrial complex that another old warrior reminded us of in 1961 when he left office. President Eisenhower was extremely worried about the growing power of American corporations involved in defense contracting and the military, which both pushed for an ever increasing slice of the American government spending pie. I'm sure Ike would be appalled at how much we are spending today on the military, which is more that all other countries combined. As he noted in 1961, every dollar we spend on the military takes away from other vital necessities such as health care, education, roads, social security, and other non-military needs. In 2008, we should be debating how much we really need to spend on the military, at the expense of other needs. We should also be concerned about how easily people like Dick Cheney can move between Halliburton and the Vice Presidency. In 2008, I would settle for another Eisenhower, Ford, Truman, or Roosevelt type politicians. Where are these future leaders? We seem to have a bunch of lightweights in both major political parties today.
