“Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Eisenhower warned about the growth in military spending way back in his farewell address in 1961, in which he popularized the term "military industrial complex."
The problem was just beginning though and it's an on-going threat to our civil liberties as Americans, adds to our ever-growing national debt (we're spending more on defense than most countries combined), and it also puts our armed forces in dangerous situations that are usually none of our business.
Check out more of quotes on the danger of the military-industrial complex at Ammo.com: https://ammo.com/articles/military-industrial-complex-quotes