James Madison, the father of the US Constitution, stated:

"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad."

We are all aware that George Washington issued a warning in his farewell address against entangling alliances with other nations and cautioned us explicitly to pursue the opposite of war as our fundamental foreign policy.

If possible, Thomas Jefferson was even more opposed to war as an instrument of effective policy. Among the many times he spoke on this subject he stated:

"I love peace, and am anxious that we should give the world still another useful lesson, by showing to them other modes of punishing injuries than by war, which is as much a punishment to the punisher as to the sufferer."

"War has been avoided from a due sense of the miseries, and the demoralization it produces, and of the superior blessings of a state of peace and friendship with all mankind."

"Having seen the people of all other nations bowed down to the earth under the wars and prodigalities of their rulers, I have cherished their opposites, peace, economy, and riddance of public debt, believing that these were the high road to public as well as private prosperity and happiness."

"I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind."

"War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses."

The founders were intimately aware of the corrupting influence of power and the endless examples in history of rulers taking their nation to war for improper reasons. These reasons included personal glory, revenge against insult or simply a conquest of other lands for the natural resources that said lands possessed. It is a truism that the people fight the wars while the leaders reap the political benefits of conquest.

The concern for the corrupting influence of power was later warned against by Dwight Eisenhower who stated in his farewell address:

"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."

Eisenhower's warning was from one who had personal knowledge of the culture of war given his position as the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, the first supreme commander of NATO and our 34^th President.

Today, America has become a nation dominated by a "military industrial complex." The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, February 20, 2008 reports:

• U.S. military spending accounts for 48 percent, or almost half of the world's total military spending.
• U.S. military spending is more than the next 46 highest spending countries in the world combined.

In an article entitled The Billions For "Defense" Jeopardize Our Safety, Center For Defense Information, March 9, 2000 reported:

The lion's share of this money is not spent by the Pentagon on protecting American citizens. It goes to supporting U.S. military activities, including interventions, throughout the world. Were this budget and the organization it finances called the "Military Department," then attitudes might be quite different. Americans are willing to pay for defense, but they would probably be much less willing to spend billions of dollars if the money were labeled "Foreign Military Operations.

Given where we obviously are today is there any possibility that America could return to the peace loving nation longed for by the founders? The venerable Benjamin Franklin was once quoted as saying: "He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity shall revolutionize the world." The originator of that primitive Christianity Jesus of Nazareth (also known as the Prince of Peace) once said: "Put up again thy sword into its place: for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword." Matthew 26:52.