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These are the ones who should be
at the Kabul airport
facing the families, the women –
the board members and the executives
from the arms industry:
Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, General Dynamics;
the largest arms manufacturers in the world – huge corporations.
(China is unknown.)
General Dwight Eisenhower, leader of the Allied forces in WW II, used the phrase, and warned about, the military industrial complex, in his farewell address in 1961.
It has only gotten worse.
Lockheed Martin had $44.9 billion in revenue in 2018, 88% coming from “defence” (government) contracts.
These companies are happy with fear and war.
Years ago there was “news” – more accurately it was propaganda
about the communist threat and the missile gap,
these days it is about Muslims and terrorists.
I wonder what will be the next arms frontier.
(intelligence surveillance and national security?)

It used to be war was good for business.
War has become a business,
a very profitable business.
In the 1991 Gulf War there were approximately 50 soldiers for every private defence contractor on the ground.
In Afghanistan it was approximately one to one.

There needs to be a balance
for security and law and order.
There are real trouble makers (besides the defence industries).
The current defence industries are way out of line
and far too influential in government circles and in the pubic media.

There are many sources of good information; among others:
Project Ploughshares, Waterloo ON
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Sweden.

Ray Hamm
fall 2021