When World War II ended and the American Deep State welded the national security establishment into place with the National Security Act,

the world entered into a new era, the era of the military industrial complex.

But when the Cold War ended and the clash of civilizations became the new existential threat,

the deep state found an opening for another paradigm shift.

As the all-pervasive threat of terrorism became the carte blanched for total surveillance,

the powers that shouldn't be found the organizing principle of our age would not be military

hardware but data itself. Welcome to the age of the information industrial

complex. This is the Corbett Report.

Of all the things that President Dwight D Eisenhower did during his years in office,

it is for a single phrase from his farewell address that he is best

remember today, the military industrial complex.

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.

It is not difficult to see why these words passed so quickly into the political lexicon.

Think of their explanatory power.

Why did the US use inflated estimates of Russian military capabilities to justify stockpiling

a nuclear arsenal that was more than sufficient to destroy the planet several times over?

The military industrial complex.

Why did America send 50,000 of its own to fight and die in the jungles of Vietnam,

killing untold millions of Vietnamese, not to mention Cambodians,

the military industrial complex?

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