Before Eisenhower commented on the MIC, there was George Washington.

[arcadian]

“Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.” -George Washington

“A standing army is one of the greatest mischief that can possibly happen.” -James Madison

“Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step over the ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a Thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” -Abraham Lincoln

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense: than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.” Martin Luther King Jr.

“…The greatest bulwark of capitalism is militarism.” Emma Goldman

“I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.” Major General Smedley Butler, USMC

“The pioneers of a warless world are the youth that refuse military service.” Albert Einstein

“In the eyes of empire builders men are not men but instruments.” Napoleon Bonaparte