The Deep Costs of Profiting from War
by Ron Todd-Meyer
Since December 8 2023, the United States has vetoed three times a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The United States was the only member that voted against these resolutions, essentially continuing the bloodshed and genocide of the Palestinan people. The question is why and what do these votes say about who the United States is and what does our nation stand for?
The United States is the largest arms merchant on the planet. U.S. based Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics (the last two have plants in Nebraska) are the 5 largest war contractors in the world. According to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft these arms merchants recorded profits of $196 billion in 2022. The arms industries contribute $83 million to Congressional campaigns and employ 820 lobbyists. On October 24, two weeks after Israel began bombing Gaza, Greg Hayes, CEO of Raytheon [RTX] stated “I think across the Raytheon portfolio, you’re going to see a benefit”.
The United States spends more on war than the next 9 nations combined. If the costs of injuries, physical and emotional, inflicted on our soldiers and endured by our veterans are included, the U.S. is spending $1.5 trillion a year for war. Additionally, the U.S. military is the world’s largest institutional producer of [GHG] emissions contributing to a warming climate.
In 1960, Dwight Eisenhower, a 4 star Army General and departing President, warned the nation that empowering the military and the corporations that contract with the Pentagon would lead to a military industrial complex control of Congress. Eventually, the cost of our involvement in wars would deplete the national treasury and threaten our own security. Today the U.S. is funding forever wars. After 20 years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, which were arguably started under false pretenses, the U.S withdrew most of its troops and left both nations in shambles. Soon another war emerged when, claiming that an expanding NATO threatened his rights to rule land he claimed was historically part of Russia, Putin invaded Ukraine, a nation whose people wanted the freedom to chart their own national course. The arms industry thus found another market for their destructive weapons. Now, in addition to Ukraine, the industry is supplying more bombs and missiles to Israel for the destruction of Gaza. Is a conflict between China over Taiwan next on the list?
The National Priorities Project tracks the cost to our country of funding these wars. Since 2001 they have cost over $9 trillion and along with the tax cuts for the wealthy are the largest contributor to the national debt. Meanwhile, Americans who invest in Pentagon corporations are reaping profits from the sale of weapons that are the cause of the death and trauma of innocent civilians caught in the middle of these conflicts.
Militarism is so entrenched in our economic system and psyche that we seem numb and virtually incapable of seeing the suffering of others. Perhaps this disconnect contributes to so much dysfunction and division in our national politics.
There are groups of Palestinians and Israelis who work to live side by side in peace. There are many Americans who work for justice and peace. Recently Gideon Levy, an Israeli journalist wrote an opinion article in the Israeli newspaper Haartz suggesting the only way to stop the bloodshed is for the United States to halt all arms sales to the Netanyahu government of Israel. This work is undermined by those who insist we need to be afraid, to hate the ‘other’ and to profit from the manufacture of bombs and missiles that destroy, kill, and traumatize innocent children.
Note: This piece was originally submitted to a Nebraska news outlet that refused to print it. Along with another article in our paper we will not shy away from the truth and continue to call out our over bloated military budget.
Note: Like another article in this issue this piece was submitted to a Nebraska news outlet who refused to print it. Our media is choosing to ignore how much the US and our corporations profit from the military industrial complex.
Ron Todd-Meyer: lives near Lincoln, a retired farmer, a USMC combat veteran of the American War on Vietnam and member of Nebraskans for Peace and Veterans for Peace, organizations that work for racial and economic justice, mitigate environmental degradation and end militarism.
Since December 8 2023, the United States has vetoed three times a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The United States was the only member that voted against these resolutions, essentially continuing the bloodshed and genocide of the Palestinan people. The question is why and what do these votes say about who the United States is and what does our nation stand for?
The United States is the largest arms merchant on the planet. U.S. based Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics (the last two have plants in Nebraska) are the 5 largest war contractors in the world. According to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft these arms merchants recorded profits of $196 billion in 2022. The arms industries contribute $83 million to Congressional campaigns and employ 820 lobbyists. On October 24, two weeks after Israel began bombing Gaza, Greg Hayes, CEO of Raytheon [RTX] stated “I think across the Raytheon portfolio, you’re going to see a benefit”.
The United States spends more on war than the next 9 nations combined. If the costs of injuries, physical and emotional, inflicted on our soldiers and endured by our veterans are included, the U.S. is spending $1.5 trillion a year for war. Additionally, the U.S. military is the world’s largest institutional producer of [GHG] emissions contributing to a warming climate.
In 1960, Dwight Eisenhower, a 4 star Army General and departing President, warned the nation that empowering the military and the corporations that contract with the Pentagon would lead to a military industrial complex control of Congress. Eventually, the cost of our involvement in wars would deplete the national treasury and threaten our own security. Today the U.S. is funding forever wars. After 20 years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, which were arguably started under false pretenses, the U.S withdrew most of its troops and left both nations in shambles. Soon another war emerged when, claiming that an expanding NATO threatened his rights to rule land he claimed was historically part of Russia, Putin invaded Ukraine, a nation whose people wanted the freedom to chart their own national course. The arms industry thus found another market for their destructive weapons. Now, in addition to Ukraine, the industry is supplying more bombs and missiles to Israel for the destruction of Gaza. Is a conflict between China over Taiwan next on the list?
The National Priorities Project tracks the cost to our country of funding these wars. Since 2001 they have cost over $9 trillion and along with the tax cuts for the wealthy are the largest contributor to the national debt. Meanwhile, Americans who invest in Pentagon corporations are reaping profits from the sale of weapons that are the cause of the death and trauma of innocent civilians caught in the middle of these conflicts.
Militarism is so entrenched in our economic system and psyche that we seem numb and virtually incapable of seeing the suffering of others. Perhaps this disconnect contributes to so much dysfunction and division in our national politics.
There are groups of Palestinians and Israelis who work to live side by side in peace. There are many Americans who work for justice and peace. Recently Gideon Levy, an Israeli journalist wrote an opinion article in the Israeli newspaper Haartz suggesting the only way to stop the bloodshed is for the United States to halt all arms sales to the Netanyahu government of Israel. This work is undermined by those who insist we need to be afraid, to hate the ‘other’ and to profit from the manufacture of bombs and missiles that destroy, kill, and traumatize innocent children.
Note: This piece was originally submitted to a Nebraska news outlet that refused to print it. Along with another article in our paper we will not shy away from the truth and continue to call out our over bloated military budget.
Note: Like another article in this issue this piece was submitted to a Nebraska news outlet who refused to print it. Our media is choosing to ignore how much the US and our corporations profit from the military industrial complex.
Ron Todd-Meyer: lives near Lincoln, a retired farmer, a USMC combat veteran of the American War on Vietnam and member of Nebraskans for Peace and Veterans for Peace, organizations that work for racial and economic justice, mitigate environmental degradation and end militarism.
