WinnCad Elements Blog: WARS FOR PROFIT

By D. Lindley Young
D.Young@theknoxvillejournal.com

Frank Capa made a series of films to motivate soldiers during WWII entitled "Why We Fight." Then, the reason for World War II seemed clearer since the Japanese attacked the U.S. at Pearl Harbor. Then came Vietnam where the U.S. government lied about the Gulf of Tonkin to get us into that war and the lie was not discovered until 60,000 American troops lie dead and Woodward and Bernstein exposed the lie in the Pentagon Paper. More recently, 9/11 drew us into more war. Some question whether the 9/11 cause for war should not have been expanded and Iraq may have been the wrong target.

America has initiated wars all over the world and small arms are the weapon of choice.

History seems to be consistent when it comes to wars. Most seem to want to advance the interests of the already too rich cats who can credit their wealth to the hood winkle of the American tax payer. For the most part, wars are fought for money, U.S. private business interests, and to control countries by debt.
Tripoli was the first American foreign war and was to protect private merchant ships. In the Marines hymn, a line says we will fight our countries battles “from the Halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli.”

There are wars that are just and necessary for our defense. However, too many are made at taxpayer cost to advance economic interests of private companies, such as the oil companies, the weapons industry, the banking industry, and the cottage private security industry, with such companies as Blackwater and CACI.

Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater, CACI, Lockheed, Northrop Grummen, Exxon, Shell, BP, etc. have their coffers filled from wars, but they are not the country, the tax payers or the government. They are the slave masters that destroy the lives of the public in order to grab vast profits and create generations of debt for the people. Then the disaster capitalists come in to get their share of rebuilding the country we help to destroy through war facilitated by the weapons and finance industries.

The U.S. dominates this international arms market, supplying just under half of all arms exports, roughly two and a half times more than the second and third largest suppliers. U.S. weapons sales help outfit non-democratic regimes, soldiers who commit gross human rights abuses against others and forces in unstable regions on the verge of conflict.

U.S. origin weapons find their way into conflicts the world over. The United States supplied arms or military technology to more than 92 percent of the conflicts under way. The costs to the families and communities afflicted by this violence is immeasurable. But to most arms dealers, the profit accumulated outweighs the lives lost.

Of course, a loss of investment opportunities is not the only way Americans are impacted by the weapons trade. In addition to paying billions of dollars every year to support weapons exports, Americans may also feel the impact of increasing instability overseas. The United States military has had to face troops previously trained by its own military, or supplied with U.S. weaponry in Panama, Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, and now in Afghanistan. Due to the advanced capabilities these militaries have acquired from past U.S. training and sales, the U.S. had to invest more money and manpower in these conflicts than would have otherwise been needed.

Most importantly, small arms are the most common tool used in conflicts, repression, and crime. Having killed millions, they set a trend expected to continue throughout this century. The versatility of these weapons directly correlates with the diverse and potent impact these weapons make on various regions of the world. One of these impacts is that due to their light weight and small size. it is possible for combatants to compel children to become soldiers. Small arms kill hundreds of thousands of people every year, and injuring many more. There are approximately 500 million small arms in circulation around the world.

One reason the defense industry has such influence in our government is because of a strong lobby and federal campaign contributions. Also, parts used in the weapons industry are made in every congressional district in the United States (the B12 Bomber for example) and each congressman faces the loss of jobs in his district if he doesn’t vote for the bill.

It has always been the way of the weapons industry and the finance industry to work together to maximize their profit and to control countries in debt created by wars. There used to be the Kropfs and the Rothchields. The Kropfs would make the weapons for both sides of a conflict convincing each side that the other had bought weapons, and they needed better weapons to keep up with their enemies. At the same time the Rothchields would finance both sides of the war. So the Kropfs made money on the sale of the weapons while the Rothchields held huge debt over countries that would take them generation after generation to repay. Not much has changed.

The World Bank and the International Monitory Fund play a key role in controlling the oil, minerals, agriculture, natural resources, and other sellable goods developed from the land of the people as a condition of loaning them money. The International Monitory Fund makes it clear that if a country wants money it has to privatize its resources and has to adopt their government to which is desirable by the United States. The World Bank may not be as it seems. It, similar to the International Monitory Fund, facilitates the sales of weapons and privatizes a country’s natural resources and creates debt by which to control the country for generations.

The media and think tanks play a big role in whipping up wars. They paint the threat to our country, create boogie mans, and advance the policies of those who want war to sell weapons, destroy countries, practice disaster capitalism, and otherwise exploit the taxpayer with a huge private industry, no-bid cost, plus contracts. Billions of dollars in wasted taxpayer money just flushed down the commode, and into the fat pockets of greedy profiteers who answer to no one.

America must maintain a strong defense. No one questions that. However, this private defense industry should not be given carte blanche to engage in, if not create, wars for profit which result in destruction to countries, debt and the potential for the American companies to take advantage of wars by charging huge profits.

One can learn some politics from the cable channel Animal Planet. In one sequence there was a dead carcass on the ground and a number of different types of vultures circling it. When you first view the scene, it appeared they were all randomly picking at the carcass. However, at a closer look, one would see that they were working together to rip apart the carcass. One would hold down part of the carcass while the other would tear it apart. Even the little vultures would hang around the carcass and were allowed to pick off scraps that were discarded by the others.

The domination of media propaganda, international finance, and weapons sales is very similar. They are picking the carcasses of the countries being destroyed by wars very carefully, and each gets their little piece.

Several Presidents have promised to stop small arms sales, and there is even a discussion now to cut down on some of the larger weapons bought by the United States. So far, no President has been able to fulfill that promise. There should be an outright ban on the sale of small weapons to countries that are involved in approximately 27 different wars around the world. There should also be some kind of limit on the amount of weapons that we feed to the weapons industry, some of which are not even necessary.

There are some Republicans that are beginning to criticize our defense spending, and for good reason. There is a lot of waste, corruption and free lunches in that industry. Let’s hope a closer look is taken, and there are investigations concerning why we continue to claim our military is overstretched in Afghanistan and Iraq, with only 200,000 troops dispersed between the countries. The United States has 2.5 million troops and maintains 750 military bases in 130 countries, averaging 6 military bases per country. Some would say why? How can we be overstretched with 2.5 million military personal?