War Brokers

A few days ago, US President Joe Biden suggested that the Pentagon's budget for the next year (2023) be about 813 billion dollars, an increase of about 4% over last year's budget, which amounted to about 777 billion dollars. It is the largest historical increase in the budget of the US Department of Defence, knowing that Republicans - not Democrats - are usually the ones who are most interested in increasing the defence budget, as did former US President Donald Trump.

The biggest winners from the wars and conflicts currently taking place - whether in Ukraine or in the Middle East (particularly in Yemen, Libya and Syria) - are the American politicians who are supposed to be responsible for making the crucial political decisions regarding war and peace.

A few weeks before that, the New York Times published a report that the United States had provided nearly 17,000 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, within just one week of the start of the Russian war on it. While other news reports revealed that about 18 members of the US Congress and their wives have shares in the arms companies that manufacture "Stinger" and "Javlin" missiles, especially Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, which are expected to achieve huge profits in billions. Dollars against the backdrop of the current war in Ukraine.

The thread between these news and reports is clear and does not require much intelligence to discover, which is that the biggest winners from the wars and conflicts that are currently taking place - whether in Ukraine or in the Middle East (especially in Yemen, Libya and Syria) - are the American politicians who are supposed to be responsible for taking Fateful political decisions regarding war and peace. Of course, it is in their interest to continue the wars, not stop them, in order to ensure the continuation of profits and the increase in the returns on their bank accounts, and so on.

In his farewell address after his second term in office in 1961, the 34th US President Dwight Eisenhower warned of the danger of what he called the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) to America's policy-making process.

Eisenhower intended to warn of the significant influence of the US "lobby" and arms manufacturers, who largely dominate US domestic and foreign policy-making. Eisenhower, the general who led the United States during World War II, called for an end to the unlimited expansion of American military industries, especially after the end of World War II.

Eisenhower's warning was a cry in the wilderness, which no one listened to, or took seriously. Perhaps he is the only president who has dared to publicly warn of that military octopus that dominates politics in America, and plays an important role in selecting and electing politicians through the huge money spent on their election campaigns, and thus directing their domestic and foreign policies.

Eisenhower's warning has become a reality over the past seven decades, and we see it with every arms deal that is signed, whether between the US Department of Defence and arms manufacturers on the one hand, or between these companies and the United States' foreign allies on the other. Therefore, it is not surprising that America is engaged in dozens of wars and conflicts in various parts of the world, from Vietnam to South Korea, through Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, and now Ukraine. And that the military-industrial complex would prosper, and its men and brokers would benefit from these wars and conflicts. It suffices only to point out that the profits of the "Lockheed Martin" company last year alone amounted to about 65 billion dollars, and the profits of the "Raython" company amounted to weapons.

Sometimes it even came to the US Congress members making huge profits, even at the expense of the lives of their fellow American soldiers, as happened in Iraq and Afghanistan. For example, American arms companies, as well as the private contractors that the United States used in its wars in both countries, have made fantastic profits over the past two decades, especially after the United States spent nearly two trillion dollars on both wars.

A member of the US Congress, Representative Michael Waltz from the 6th District of Florida, came to attack the Biden administration because of its decision to withdraw from Afghanistan last summer, after press reports revealed that Waltz is one of the most financial beneficiaries of the continuation of the war in Afghanistan, as He owned several companies that provided logistics and intelligence services to the US Army there. A report published by The Intercept last August indicated that Waltz companies' shares earned between $5 and $25 million in 2019.

It is also not surprising that most countries in the Middle East are among the most important customers of American and foreign arms companies in general, in light of the huge increase in arms purchases over the past years. For example, Saudi Arabia ranked first in the list of the world's most arms purchasers, followed by India and Egypt, which ranked third, between 2016 and 2020, according to the Stockholm Peace Research Institute report.

Of course, it is not necessary that all these weapons are actually used, as an important part of them falls within the logic of "political deals" that help ensure the provision of political and strategic support to arms importing countries. Therefore, the heads and managers of the international arms companies maintain good and close relations with most politicians, both inside and outside America.

A few days ago, American newspapers and websites published news that the Biden administration had allocated $3.5 billion to provide military aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia, in what is considered the largest military aid package provided by America in recent decades, especially to a non-NATO country. Perhaps the most glaring of their eyes for this amount are the war brokers in America who will achieve fantastic profits, and their profits will rebound and their coffers will be filled with billions of dollars for years, and perhaps for decades to come.