Why We Fight - a movie about the military-industrial complex

We watched this documentary tonight that made me want to cry. It talks about war and the complex reasons why we are at war--complex reasons that have nothing to do with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for individual citizens. The movie takes off on a statement in Eisenhower's last presidental speech/address that warns us of the military-industrial complex. (his speech: http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html). The movie was depressing and although shocking wasn't really beyond what I already believed was going on between corporations and the government. What really struck me was going online to the text of Eisenhower's speech and seeing that he spoke of balance:
Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research -- these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.
But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs -- balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage -- balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.
Then he identified two things that could have devastating effects for us: 1. was the military industrial complex and 2. was time--with this he indicated that we should avoid living only for our own convenience and thus plundering our children's future for our immediate needs.

Amazingly both of these terrible things have come to fruition. What we need to consider now, is can we reverse this or will the United States simply fail? This is not what John Lennon imagined when he said "living for today."

I place my hopes in President Obama, but I fear those of the military industrial complex and all those others who only live for what they can get and don't see the point in seeking a better tomorrow.