American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964, by William Manchester, is an excellent biography of this most interesting man. He was probably the smartest general America ever had, and the most vain.

MacArthur's quote is one of my favorites. Michael Crichton quoted it in one of my favorite books, State of Fear.

mac was right and it is supported by Eisenhower who said to be fearful of the military industrial complex. of course AR was right when she said that Russia was never a threat but our government made them appear to be a threat.

According to the book "The War Lovers," good ol' Mac did not see anything wrong in killing US citizens on US soil. Sounds a lot like Fox commentator Amb. John R. Bolton who (on the Stossel Show) saw nothing wrong with killing tens of thousands of civilians in the War for Southern Independence. Just collateral damage to the rulers.

Hmmm.
Brilliant, seething in self confidence, won't tolerate idiots. Sounds familiar.

Wars are fought for the benefit of politicians, using the children of the citizens as fodder.When Gore went in the service, he went with a personal bodyguard.
Wars have been a way to distract the public when the politicians wanted to accomplish some of their personal goals. How often were the citizens of the US actually in danger if we did not fight a war. The one time the President did know about an attack, Pearl Harbor, he sat on the information.

Eric Hoffer's seminal work "The True Believer - A Study of Mass Movements" makes the point strongly that those aimed at instituting an authoritarian government work to perpetuate an atmosphere of non-stop crisis. Increasing centralized power and control is always presented as the way to end the fearful situation.

It's interesting to look at the fears expressed by our leaders of WWII of our government during that time and then look at our lives today.

They truly warned us and we pooh-poohed them. Now look where we sit.

Truman sacked the general - he couldn't shut him up. This was said in 1957. The Marxists (BO) have had fifty-five years more experience in intimidating people to shut up.