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War is not popular among the relatively sane. People die. Nations are destroyed. Ask the man in the street, any street anywhere on the planet, and you’ll get a thumbs down on war. So why is war so popular among the leadership class?
Are our leaders just that much braver than the rest of us? Not bloody likely. The lower classes always end up doing most of the dirty work, and dying in the process. The elite class, along with their sons and daughters, manage to avoid death and injury by never serving in any active duty combat roles. It is so much easier to send someone else’s son to war. That explains the unabashed enthusiasm for war heard from many politicians, but not the tireless dedication to endless war. We have been involved in wars continuously for the past 60 years with little pause.
Saving democracy, protecting freedom, and standing up against evil are the rallying cries we always hear. We have done that, but you have to go back to World War II to find a clear example. And considering we haven’t won a war in the last 60 years you have to wonder, is war about something else?
The short answer is money. The long answer is money as well. The tradition of war as an investment goes back a long way. After all, governments at war are captive and motivated clients willing to borrow at any price. International bankers are equal opportunity lenders who will finance any side of any war at the right price, and usually finance both. But once discovered, that practice gave people a bad taste for bankers.
Today governments finance war by borrowing money they have no hope or plan of paying back. They issue IOUs that bankers can scoop up to safely reap the profits and the money keeps flowing. We are currently paying one trillion dollars each year in interest alone. Not a penny of that goes to the principal. One thousand times one thousand times one million dollars is a lot of cheese. That kind of money makes bankers salivate uncontrollably.
Coincidentally, between the DOD, State Department, and our spook apparatus, we spend one trillion dollars every year on war. Again that’s a lot of cheese. Where exactly does it all go? That is a very good question and one the Pentagon cannot seem to answer. Once again they failed their yearly audit for the seventh straight time. O for seven. Apparently, it is difficult to keep track of that much money, but let us try.
Some of the richest companies in the world manufacture weapons of war led by Lockheed Martin, RTX which is Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and General Dynamics.
According to SIPRI, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the US has 41 of the top 100 companies, including the top five. American companies account for 55+ percent of the total global arms industry output. The US is the premier manufacturer of war.
These companies also make all the peripherals a good warmonger needs to kill people efficiently. Products include weapons, munitions, weapons platforms, communications systems, electronics, and related intelligence equipment. The arms industry also provides defense-related services, such as logistical and operational support including research and development, engineering, production, and the servicing of military material, equipment, and facilities. All on the government’s dime.
Though we can’t manage to keep our roads paved or our bridges repaired, we can build military bases all over the world. Spare no expense. Although the Pentagon won’t admit it, we currently have 750 military facilities in 80 different countries. That is three times the total bases of all other countries combined. According to the Cato Institute the annual maintenance cost of our expansive base network is estimated at $55 billion. Another $25 billion goes to the 290,000 military and civilian deployed personnel.
Having military bases all over the world is costly in more ways than financial. Our overseas military installations are not exactly environmentally friendly. Some islands where we have had installations are toxic and uninhabitable to this day. American bases in foreign lands often raise geopolitical tensions, support undemocratic and unpopular regimes, and serve as a recruiting tool for militant groups opposed to the U.S. presence or the regimes our presence bolsters. Think Osama Bin Laden and 9/11. War begets war.
The most serious price of endless bases has been endless wars. According to a Quincy Institute report, since 2001 the US military has been involved in combat in at least 25 countries worldwide. In places where it is politically unsafe to have our official troops fighting and dying, we hire private mercenaries, a booming business euphemistically known as the security industry. Plausible deniability does not change the fact we are paying for death. And when we are ready to give up, we turn over our bases, our war vehicles, and plenty of weapons to the enemy. After we pulled out of Afghanistan, the Taliban shot right to the top of the list of international arms dealers, courtesy of the USA war machine.
While wars are sometimes fought for religious or cultural reasons, the riches and resources available are always part of the calculation. The Roman Empire expanded far beyond its manageable limits primarily to capture more resources. South Africa had so much gold and so many diamonds that the world was willing to tolerate apartheid for centuries until the mines slowed down. The obsession the world has in the Middle East isn’t about sand or culture or freedom. It’s about oil.
Whenever a war loses its shine and the end must come, it provides another revenue source further downstream. International corporations wait in the wings licking their chops for the opportunity to rape the natural resources that are left in war’s wake. Contracts have already been signed to gain access to resources in Ukraine once the war there ends. Most poor countries without natural resources are ignored until oil, gold, or lithium is discovered. Then everyone wants to help. Help themselves to the riches, is more like it.
Although in recent decades the GOP has led the way with war, the Dems now sound like full- throated banshees. If there is one thing our illustrious leaders can agree on it is war. Money talks and war is the color of greed.
