The bargain was struck. In exchange for the trillions military contractors and pharmaceutical top bananas, investors, and board members pocket in taxpayer dollars, Americans would be able to rest safe in their beds without fear of things that go bump in the night and pass their days confident that they had overpaid for the least effective healthcare in the world.
How did that bargain work out for the people? In this first of a two-part series, we explore how defense industry CEOs are getting away with murder literally. In part 2 we take on the pharmaceutical mafia. In either case, the American taxpayer is stuck with the bill, and it’s a huge one. For defense looters, 9/11 was the spark that ignited a tsunami of spending and the industry knew it —“The purse is now open…Any member of Congress who doesn’t vote for the funds we need to defend this country will be looking for a new job after November” [Harry Stonecipher, VP Boeing 2001]. The spending hasn’t slowed down in two decades.
Here’s something that may give you a few sleepless nights. Last year (FY2020), the Pentagon dished out $420 billion to military contractors, one-half of its total budget. How they spent it is anyone’s guess since the Pentagon has never passed an audit. In 2018, 1,200 auditors spent $400 million trying to penetrate the vast maze of Pentagon accounting. They finally retired in defeat unable to offer any opinion other than that the Pentagon’s accounting methodology was too “illogical to penetrate.”
What is clear is that military contractors are wallowing in taxpayer-funded riches. Although the U.S. has left Afghanistan, U.S. illegal and ridiculously expensive drones will continue to drop their obscene load of hellfire and death on that unfortunate land. To add insult to injury, on September 21, President Biden gave a speech at the United Nations and uncorked this doozy — “I stand here today, for the first time in 20 years, with the United States not at war.” Is it conceivable that he “forgot” the six wars the U.S. is still conducting in Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Somalia and Niger? Perhaps the money-grubbing admirals and generals at the Pentagon haven’t told him? They may have also “forgotten” to mention their counter-terror operations in 85 countries.
Want to know the real enablers of the vast sums of taxpayer money handed over to defense contractors? Congress. Occasionally a truth-teller emerges out of this gaggle of bought and paid for bag men (and women)— “Our troops are not coming home. We need to be honest about that. They are merely moving to other bases in the same region to conduct the same counter-terrorism missions, including in Afghanistan.” [Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-New Jersey]
Unfortunately, the good guys who occasionally come out of their hidey holes to speak truth to power are a rarity on Capitol Hill. The silence is not surprising considering that the weapons industry has spent $2.5 billion on lobbying over the last two decades [Open Secrets] employing over 600 lobbyists (three-quarters used to work for the feds). As an example of how Congress, elected under the rubric of doing the peoples’ business, is doing everyone’s business but the peoples. Consider what happened to Biden’s FY2022 Defense Budget. The administration proposed $753 billion, already an exorbitant giveaway greater than the military budgets of the next thirteen countries combined. That still didn’t cut the mustard with defense industry profiteers. To please their masters, the House and Senate Armed Services committees speedily voted to tack on an extra $24 billion.
Then a little wrinkle developed. A couple of representatives, who didn’t get the memo, proposed two amendments: one that would have cut the defense budget 10% and the other 3%. It didn’t take Houdini to predict the results — in short order, the House overwhelmingly voted both amendments down. What happened next is the lamentable result of the vast sums of money needed to get elected in the U.S. Those voting against the amendment pulled in an average cash haul of $60,680 from the defense industry, while those who supported the amendment got a measly $16,497 [Open Secrets]
| “The weapons lobby still has major, bipartisan influence on Congress. If we are to fix our broken foreign policy, and start spending our resources where they are actually needed—on climate action, healthcare, education, and more—we must make it harder for members of Congress to so readily open their doors to the war industry. Any member of Congress serious about the needs of the people should voluntarily divest from the war industry. More importantly, they should be compelled by law to do so.” [Erica Fein, Win Without War] |
Who benefits from war? Almost everyone but the people. The biggest asset firms in the world are in on the scam making huge profits off U.S. killing machines. Twenty percent of Boeing, one of five largest military contractors, is owned by BlackRock, Vanguard, and Newport Trust. BlackRock and Vanguard also own twelve percent of Lockheed Martin, another one of the big five, making them co-conspirators in the deaths of 387,000 (probably an undercount) civilians in U.S. post-9/11 wars and complicit in driving another million out of their homes, villages and in many cases countries. (Watson Institute, Brown University).
| “The share price increase for the major defense contractors throughout Afghanistan and Iraq was over 1200%. When war is that profitable for that many people…you’re going to have more of it. [Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell 2001-2005] |
Another beneficiary of the U.S. unquenchable appetite for war is the mainstream media (MSM). Case in point: Jake Tapper, a well-known host on CNN, apart from his fascination for all things war is his profound concern with the deficit. But on a very selective basis. His how will we pay for it meme is never heard when he’s interviewing `Pentagon generals or admirals. Also unreported on his show — the latest “Cost of War” report from the Watson Institute at Brown University which reveals that since 9/11 the Pentagon has spent $14 trillion with $7 trillion of it going to defense contractors, more than half of it to the “big 5” (Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Marin, Northrup Grumman and General Dynamics). Instead, he points a well-manicured finger at the small percentage of budgetary dollars going to reforms to improve the lives of people — Medicare-for-all, raising the minimum wage, tuition-free public college, cancelling student debt. If there’s one thing the “liberal” media profits from it’s perpetual war which generates big audiences and big bucks particularly among the “USA, USA” crowd.
Think of war as a pension plan for Pentagon big wigs. After their gig playing soldier from afar, serious money rolls in on the heels of a revolving door job as a lobbyist, “consultant,” executive or board member of a defense contractor. The lucky ones get a plum job spouting the company line for TV networks as “paid advisers.” Consider the after-Pentagon sinecures of the six generals and admirals who have been Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since 2000. Five of the six now sit on the boards of major defense contractors. The odd man out is the Chairman of USA Basketball.
The cold warriors who staff the upper reaches of the Biden administration are also pros at the revolving door game. One-third of Biden’s transition team came from the weapons industry. With their advice and counsel, a collection of war mongers emerged to shape the Biden foreign policy agenda. His Secretary of State has spent his career supporting U.S. endless wars. His Defense Secretary is a retired commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), who in retirement made over seven million dollars most of it as a Raytheon board member. The Assistant Secretary of Defense is equally war-addicted. When asked at her confirmation hearing if defense spending could be reduced in light of other spending priorities, her response was a tidy “No”
Is there a chance American taxpayers will ever get a “peace dividend?” With war being so profitable, and war supporters having the President’s ear and Congress raking in an unseemly amount of defense contractor dough and the media and think tanks and university research departments profiting from the loot being passed out, the chances are slim to none. “War is a racket” according to General Smedley Butler eight decades ago. How shameful that in 80 years U.S. leaders still haven’t learned how much their behavior diminishes the American brand around the world.
