General-turned-president Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the American people of the perfidious influence of what he dubbed “The Military-Industrial Complex” (MIC) in his 1960 farewell address. He’d originally wanted to add “Congressional” to the term, and could just as easily included “Media.”

Even Eisenhower might be shocked by the contemporary influence of the MIC — how entrenched and pervasive it is in all aspects of American life. The sacred sentiment of “one man, one vote” is belied by a profitable war industry that fuels itself through obscene infusions of cash into the policymakers and influencers within and outside government. As a result, war, proxy war, and Cold War gathers an inertia and life of its own — a “self-licking ice cream cone,” as the military executors of the resultant wars would say.

A self-licking ice cream cone.”
— Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s