Ike scores when views applied to Afghan war, climate

    Over the years I have had a number of staunchly conservative friends who questioned my admiration…hero-worship, actually…of Dwight Eisenhower.  I have had occasion to mention him a couple of times since my first column in this space, but recently he has been in the forefront of my thoughts and study, and I discover that I have not been alone.  Surprisingly, Eisenhower’s wise words have value today not just in regard to Afghanistan war policy, but also in the debate on climate change. 

    Robert W. Ball, in a piece in American Thinker, brings up a much-overlooked portion of Eisenhower’s famous farewell address in 1960.  You know the speech…the one warning about the danger of the “military industrial complex”; it is oft quoted, especially by liberal anti-war types.   However, Ball’s article reminds us that in the same speech Ike also spoke about the dangers of a scientific community dependent upon public money for its existence:  “... the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity.

    The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded. ... we must ... be alert to the ... danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific technological elite.”

    One does not have to go to Copenhagen to figure out that the Holy Church of Global Warming is about money, and you and I are going to provide the tithe.  Throw in the damning “climate gate” emails and altered data, and the pieces magically fit together.

     Score one for Ike.

    After leaving the presidency, Eisenhower was consulted and briefed regularly by both JFK and LBJ on the issue of Viet Nam.  Eisenhower advised against an Asian land war, but once involved he urged total commitment to “victory”-a term missing from President Obama’s recent statement of policy-adding the maxim that America “must win”.  We unfortunately now debate what constitutes “success” in such an endeavor, when all soldiers and military historians know the answer:  War is won when the enemy’s will to wage war is broken and he sues for peace. 

     Score two for Ike.

     Historians and people who lived in the 1950s often take note of the prosperity the United States enjoyed through that period.  Eisenhower was a rock against deficit spending, and perhaps his greatest accomplishment as president was standing against those who wanted to allocate more and more for weapons systems and civil defense.  Americans were terrified as the Soviet Union advanced technologically and initiated the space race.  Ike, the consummate military logistics genius, battled with his own military chiefs and resisted overspending.  It was during that battle that Ike remarked, “A bankrupt America is a defenseless America”, a deceptively simple and brilliant statement.

    Score three for the man who never won the Nobel Peace Prize.