Saving America

We Must Become Alert and Knowledgeable Citizens Again, Willing to Act Against Militarism and War

BILL ASTORE

NOV 11, 2026

Yesterday, I took part in a panel discussion with fellow members of EMN, the Eisenhower Media Network. We discussed how Americans can take back their country from the “warriors” and warmongers whose goal it is to dominate the world while impoverishing regular Americans. That “domination” comes at an enormous economic price, but as America loses plenty of treasure, we also export bloodbaths globally while hurting our own troops.

I prepared the essay below as an op-ed for publication before the event, but we were unsuccessful in getting newspapers to publish it. It’s disturbing to note how antiwar views in America are blocked or censored or dismissed as unrealistic or even as un-American. Eisenhower (Ike) would not be happy.

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In his farewell address to the nation, President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1961 warned Americans of an emerging threat, which he termed the military-industrial complex. A large and powerful standing military, reinforced by those industrial interests that supplied and amplified it, posed a unique and insidious threat to liberty and freedom. This complex, abetted as it was by Congress, was growing in influence, Ike noted. Only alert and knowledgeable citizens, acting in concert to prevent war and restrain that complex, could preserve democracy and safeguard the U.S. Constitution.

In the 65 years since Ike’s prescient and magisterial address, U.S. citizens in the main have failed to corral and control that complex, a situation today that grows ever more dangerous as self-styled Secretary of War Pete Hegseth promotes a violent “no mercy” warrior ethos while flouting the rule of law. Having run for a second term against new wars and the military-industrial complex, President Donald Trump has instead embraced both, waging a disastrous and unconstitutional war against Iran while greatly expanding Pentagon spending to the colossal sum of $1.5 trillion in 2027. Meanwhile, the Pentagon, richly rewarded with our taxpayer money, has yet to pass a financial audit and continues to fund weapons systems like the Sentinel Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) that are prodigal in cost, escalatory in effect, and obsolete in design.

The Eisenhower Media Network (EMN) takes its mission from Ike’s address in 1961. We seek to alert and inform our fellow citizens of the many dangers to our country from forever wars and unbridled military spending. As Ike famously declared in 1953, spending excessively on war and weapons will end with human civilization crucifying itself on a cross of iron. Clearly, too many Americans today in leadership positions are worshipping the false idol of war.

This November 10^th, which marks the eve of the armistice that finally stilled the guns on the Western Front of World War I in 1918, EMN is presenting a seminar to challenge and change America’s current state of constant warfare and wildly inflated Pentagon budgets. A group of retired military officers and former intelligence analysts will give their best answers to the tough questions that continue to challenge U.S. citizens (and indeed the world) today. Most fundamentally, we agree with Abraham Lincoln that being right, being true to our highest constitutional ideals, is the most telling measure of our nation’s might.

Topics addressed will include how to prevent genocide and keep its virulent cancer from metastasizing globally; how to restore the rule of law and work to end war crimes, whether in Gaza, Iran, or elsewhere; how to lower Pentagon spending while increasing U.S. national security; how to develop a saner and safer nuclear posture that makes global Armageddon far less likely; and finally how to return America to a path of peace in which our fellow citizens are respected not for the size of their guns or the violence of their threats but for the depth of their wisdom and the breadth of their generosity.

Having served in World War II, having seen brave troops die under his command, having liberated Nazi concentration camps and witnessed the horrendous crimes against humanity they represented, President Eisenhower avowed that he hated war in all its waste and brutality. We hate war because it gives free rein to humanity’s worst passions and deadliest sins—it must always be resisted by people of probity, reserved as a last resort to stop those who elevate force and killing above all else.

America, we know, has done great things before. We are a land of doers. Of believers. We can do great things again. But war and violence, greed and ambition, sing a siren song that is intoxicating to those who want to enlarge and engorge American empire while satiating their own gross appetites. We can, and must, do better as citizens to resist them while restoring our democracy and revitalizing our communal commitment to liberty and justice for all.

Please join EMN and a panel of experts on November 10^th in becoming more alert and knowledgeable citizens. Be willing to act to safeguard and advance our most cherished beliefs and traditions.

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This Veterans Day, let us vow to put an end to war and the glorification of the same. There is nothing glorious about extreme violence and mass death.