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Obama and the military-industrial-scientific complex.

Article Excerpt
Dwight Eisenhower's farewell address as president 48 years ago is famous for his warning of the rise of a "military-industrial complex" in the United States. In fact, the original draft of the speech warned not only of a "military-industrial complex" but of the "military-industrial-scientific complex." Only because of the plea of Eisenhower's science advisor, James Killian, was the word "scientific" eliminated.

The "military-industrial-scientific complex" was the far more accurate description of the complex of vested interests manipulating the US then--and now. Obama has named as his secretary of energy Dr. Steven Chu, a physicist and director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a staunch advocate of nuclear power--typical of the sentiment of those in the national nuclear laboratory system. At his confirmation hearing before the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Dr. Chu declared that nuclear power "is going to be an important part of our energy mix." He also spoke for an $18.5 billion loan guarantee program for new nuclear power plants.

As his science advisor, Obama appointed physicist John Holdren, who in 1970 "started my career working on nuclear fusion" at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he noted in a speech last year. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is where the hydrogen bomb, based on fusion, was developed. But, said Dr. Holdren in his January 17, 2008 talk on "Meeting...

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