Killing children and making profit: The MIC continues

War is a business. And the military-industrial complex (MIC) profits from it. Big profits.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, my area of ​​expertise is the book of Revelation. For the past 25 years, I've been thinking about the nature of the beast in Revelation 13 and what it means for us today. This has been a particularly pressing concern in recent years. The problem is that the more I think about it, the more troubled I become.

War is a business – and a very profitable one.

Is it okay for people to die so that corporations and weapons manufacturers can make a profit? No.

But that's exactly what happens.

A Brown University report states: “Since the war in Afghanistan began, the Pentagon has spent over $14 trillion, with one-third to one-half of the total going to military contractors. More than half of the annual defense budget is now spent on military contractors, and payments to contractors have increased by more than 164% since 2001, from about $140 billion in 2001 to about $370 billion in 2019. A large portion of these contracts have gone to just five major companies: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman.”

William Hartung of the Center for International Policy recently provided a comprehensive analysis of who made how much money over the past two decades in an article for the Watson Institute's Costs of War Project. “Companies large and small were by far the biggest beneficiaries of the post-9/11 surge in military spending. Since the start of the war in Afghanistan, Pentagon spending has totaled over $14 trillion, with one-third to one-half of that going to defense contractors.”

Sahara Sajjadiankhah of the Reynolds Center for Business Journalism reports: “In 2022, Biden secured $816.7 billion for the U.S. Department of Defense. Much of the budget, about $389.5 billion, was spent on military contracts to secure weapons and services from defense contractors, the Defense Department's annual report said.”

The Reynolds Center for Business Journalism reported: “The current military operation in Gaza is a treasure trove for defense contractors, whose revenues increase when the United States turns to them to replenish its supplies.”

These words should not be spoken. Even if the wars are necessary, if the wars are completely justified, if every bomb is necessary to defeat evil and restore justice, no one should benefit from them!

Shouldn't the profits made from the war be set aside for humanitarian aid after the war ends?

Sajjadiankhah added: “Raytheon's total revenue in 2022 was $67.1 billion, and the US accounted for nearly 40% of that total, purchasing $25.4 billion from Raytheon.”

NB: This week's Determinetruth livestream may be one of our most important conversations. On Thursday, August 29, 2024, we will be hosting James McCarty, Professor in the Religion and Conflict Transformation program at Boston University School of Theology, to talk about his book The Business of War.

Sajjadiankhah concludes: “Despite the ethical concerns that naturally arise from making profits from war, the arms industry is still a business, and profit is the primary goal of any business.”

wage war?

With so much at stake, do you think some might find a reason to wage war? Of course they will. Doug Bandow of the Cato Institute confirms: “The famous military-industrial complex was in trouble by mid-1990. The Berlin Wall had fallen. The Warsaw Pact had lost its relevance. The Soviet Union was faltering. Colin Powell was soon brooding over running out of enemies. It looked as though America might finally be able to scale down the massive war machine that had been developed to contain the evil empire, as President Ronald Reagan famously called the USSR. But in August, Saddam Hussein's Iraq invaded Kuwait. The moderator of a defense contractors' conference publicly thanked Hussein. War was back on the national agenda, and the Pentagon could count on increased funding, much of it going to what Dwight Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex.”

A new enemy had been found. A new war was on the horizon.

When the war machine expands its operations overseas

When the US cannot satisfy the greed of the MIC war machine, it tries to bring in foreign clients.

The United States supplied Saudi Arabia with $60 billion worth of weapons during its war in Yemen, which triggered the world's largest humanitarian crisis at the time.

Is it any wonder that the Houthis in Yemen have joined the attack on Israel and virtually brought traffic through the Suez Canal to a standstill?

To understand their anger at the US, it is important to remember that the US proxy war in Yemen created what was then the world's largest humanitarian crisis: The Reynolds Center reports: “17 million Yemenis are struggling with food shortages, according to the World Food Programme, and 21.6 million are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Since 2015, Amnesty International has found remnants of US weapons at sites of destruction in Yemen, including hospitals, homes and mosques.”

As the U.S. military market shrinks, Hartung said firms will look overseas for business. He noted, “Another cause for concern is the postwar push by U.S. contractors to seek more foreign clients. Although the foreign market is less lucrative than the flood of U.S. funding for private contractors related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is growing, and the activities of contractors employed in this way are deeply troubling. For example, one U.S. firm – Tier 1 Group, founded by a former Blackwater employee – trained four of the Saudi agents involved in the murder of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in an operation funded by the Saudi government.”

Could it be that the United States looked the other way when an American citizen was brutally murdered, torn to pieces, and thrown down the drain of the Saudi consulate in Turkey because Saudi Arabia is one of the largest arms buyers?

What happens if the MIC controls Congress?

The US political system requires congressional approval to wage war.

NB: There have been many efforts to get around this recently, but that is beyond the scope of this post.

The MIC is therefore tasked with influencing those in power to find a just reason for war and to ensure that the public is also convinced of this.

Hartung points out that gun manufacturers “have spent $2.5 billion on lobbying over the past two decades.” Since 2001, the industry has spent $285 million on campaign contributions. And as if that weren't enough, gun manufacturers have employed over 700 lobbyists in Washington, DC, over the past five years. That's more than one lobbyist for every member of Congress. The number of lobbyists for diplomacy is far smaller.

Bandow reports: “The American economy was quick to seize its opportunity for profits.

Boeing Vice President Harry Stonecipher warned politicians not to stand between the corporations and the money: “The purse is open … any member of Congress who does not vote for the funds we need to defend this country will have to look for a new job after next November.”

What happens when the MIC controls the White House?

Do you believe there is a conflict of interest if US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is also a board member of the major weapons manufacturer Raytheon?

What if Dick Cheney, the CEO of Halliburton, a leading defense contractor, resigned to become Vice President of the United States? Would this be a conflict of interest? The fact that Halliburton received billions of dollars worth of contracts during Cheney's tenure as Vice President suggests this.

The White House knew this was a problem, as evidenced by the fact that Cheney's biography on the White House website never mentioned that he was CEO of Halliburton while he was in office. One would think that this accomplishment would be featured prominently on Cheney's resume.

The USA is a war machine. And the US Congress and the White House bow to it.

What is worse: that US companies profit from the war or that we believe their goals are just?

But we have made the world a better place!

Really? That's one of the many lies we're told.

We just have to ask ourselves: “How many radical terrorist organizations are there today compared to 25 years ago, whose central goal is the destruction of the West and especially the United States?”

Is the world a better place for the millions who have lost their homes as a result of our war effort? Is it a better place for the hundreds of thousands who have died? For their loved ones?

It is undoubtedly a better place for multiple CEOs

But that's how the beast works.

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