Publisher's Synopsis
In his famous farewell address in 1961, President Eisenhower urgently warned Americans to guard against the "disastrous rise of misplaced power" in the leviathan he dubbed the military-industrial complex. As Eugene Jarecki powerfully portrays in this piercing and necessary book, Eisenhower's worst fears have been realized. The complex has grown so large and powerful, with tendrils reaching so wide and deep into our political system, economy, and culture, that it is dramatically undermining our democracy, fueling an excessive militarism and an imperialist impulse that has propelled the United States into a series of horribly misguided military actions---culminating in the Iraq debacle.