Does Money Drive Our Wars?

War.  We do a lot of it.  Why, we are usually sold on the idea that we will be safer if we use our military. We buy off on war because we are afraid something bad will happen to us if we don’t.  It is usually some future bad thing as illustrated by the famous lie by Bush told us about weapons of mass destruction that IRAQ was supposed to use against us someday, somehow.  In our last blog, we talked about how fear drives our action with ISIS.  

Let's look at it from another angle.  So, who do you think profits from all these wars we fight?  We certainly have a dismal record on accomplishing anything by military action.  We have failure after failure in achieving peace anywhere with our military.  Are there any exceptions?

One might alternatively propose that our goal is not peace but to pursue a course of action that sells the most planes, bombs, drones, etc.in any situation. Let's see, Israel has gone through three cycles of bombing the shit out of Gaza, we rebuild it and then give/sell Israel more weapons to do it again.  Well, is it peace we seek or selling weapons?  Does the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) capitalize on our fears?

ISIS was masterfully created by our invasion of Iraq a decade ago followed by our masterful creation of a non-functioning democracy in the same country.  But, the result, we now spend $250 million a week bombing ISIS.  How nice for our military industrial complex (MIC).  (And yet, we commit a paltry $ billion, not weekly, the total fund, to fight Ebola which by some estimates could kill a million people if it is not stopped by January 2015.  So, why doesn’t anyone talk up the fear with Ebola.  No money in it? I digress.) What kind of vehicles is ISIS driving? They are driving U.S. vehicles left behind by Iraq soldiers ... yea, stuff American taxpayers furnished.  How nice for the MIC. Well, is it peace and world stability we seek or selling weapons?

In the Ukraine we slowly back Russia into a "NATO corner" and then wonder why Putin gets nervous. We didn't have anything to do with the new government that got put in after the democratically elected government got kicked out did we? But, somehow, I suspect we will need to sell Ukraine some more military equipment to resist Russia- a slip of the tongue there, American taxpayers will have to buy the Ukrainians some military equipment.  Are those American made tanks being loaded onto rail cars to engage Russia.  Well, is it peace we seek or selling weapons?

Well, what we are doing with fighting ISIS doesn't make sense unless you are the one making the military equipment. Let's see the new F-22, reportedly ready to fly since 2005,  at a half billion each got to debut in bombing runs .  You got to get something out of a $10 billion program.  Apparently the planes accelerate so quickly, the pilots pass out.  A small design flaw.

Have you seen a typical commercial for military equipment ...  

Series of commercials on U.S. Military Equipment. (skip the commercials on non-military stuff.)  

So, if you look at all these wars we fight ... and you wonder why, just think how many trillions our Military Industrial Complex makes every time we start a new war.  And, whenever you hear how dangerous or powerful a new enemy is .. how much a threat they WILL pose one day to our country, or you see a military plan like the one against ISIS that makes no sense ... just remembers who profits whenever you get afraid.