VV points to a post at The Nation that is critical of Fred Thompson’s plan to strengthen and expand the U.S. military:

What is unfortunate is that Republicans lack a candidate with the wisdom of a actual military commander like, say, Dwight Eisenhower.

Then, instead of proposing exponential expansions of the Pentagon budget, they would be saying, as Republican Eisenhower did: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”

Actually, what’s unfortunate is that the passage quoted above is one of those that the Left likes to swap back and forth, stripped from context, and without ever linking back to an original source (do a quick Google search if you don’t believe me).

The quote is from an Eisenhower speech known as the Chance for Peace Address, which was delivered in 1953 and was intended to send a message to the Soviet Union, which was gearing up for a cold war with the United States.

It’s clear the author hasn’t given much thought to the way history played out following this speech, or what role Ronald Reagan and his strong defense policies might have played along the way.

It’s also clear the author hasn’t considered the position held by any of those populations aided by such guns, warships and rockets, specifically those across Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Eisenhower did not deliver this speech in the middle of World War II, when those munitions were being used to liberate France, rescue millions of Jews and defeat the armies of fascism on two fronts.

Nor would it have been delivered today, as these same forces are being used to liberate 50 million people and to wage war against Al Qaida and allied terrorist groups on two major fronts in the Middle East.

Unless, of course, it was intended for countries such as Iran, North Korea and China, just as the original encouraged the Soviet Union to stop their aggressive military buildup.

And, finally, it’s clear the author hasn’t familiarized himself with the entire speech, which also includes this warning to the Soviets, that their aggression had:

…instilled in the free nations - and let none doubt this - the unshakable conviction that, as long as there persists a threat to freedom, they must, at any cost, remain armed, strong, and ready for the risk of war.

Hmm, that sounds like Fred Thompson’s plan, doesn’t it?

Of course, we couldn’t have expected much more from the post’s author, John Nichols, who was last heard offering Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton as the future PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.