By Hadiqa Maryam Abbasi
Today, the world is grappling with horrible wars, whether it’s the Russia-Ukraine, the Israel-Palestine war, or any other conflict. Innocent civilians are the ultimate victims of dumb bombs, bunker busters, artillery shells, mortars, and pellet guns. But, who is the winner in these destructive war episodes? The states? The people? No. Then who?
Let’s debunk the beneficiaries of these destructive wars. To unmask the beneficiaries of war, let’s go down in history. On January 17, 1961, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his valedictory address, warned against the unwarranted influence of a military-industrial complex. He foresaw the emergence of a new powerful group called the “Military-Industrial Complex”. So, what is the military-industrial complex? Let’s break it into simple words. It’s the nexus of private dealers, defense officials, politicians, and the media. Eisenhower named it a military-industrial complex, but now it’s better to call it “The Military -Industrial -Politicians-Media Complex”.
Let’s take the example of the US to understand how this nexus works. In the US, the top five defense contractors fund the political campaigns of Congress members. The military-industrial complex helps them to get elected. In return, those members of Congress advocate expanding military budgets and wars. The military-industrial complex invests billions of dollars in the media and politicians who advocate and glorify war and a whopping defense budget.
According to the data,75 percent of the fallen in war come from the working class. They don’t need war, they pay the cost of the war __both the human cost and financial costs __it’s the military-industrial-politician-media complex that benefits from these deadly wars.
Let’s take a look at how the military-industrial complex thrived after the Iran-Iraq, Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Palestine, and Afghan wars. According to the American independent think tank “Security Policy Reforms Institute (SPRI) report of 2021, top beneficiaries from the Afghan war were well-known US defense firms like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman. It doesn’t end up here. Perpetual wars in the Middle East pushed by the US created many resistance groups like ISIS, a new raison det’re to stretch wars and expand military spending.
During the US-sponsored wars in the Middle East, the shares of the top five defense contractors increased between 3–12 times. But it’s not just companies, countries like the US, the UK, and France, who provide weapons to countries in war like Iraq, Ukraine, and Israel to elongate the war also get benefits from the wars. They exploit the conflicts to earn more profits. For 75 percent of the population, war means destruction, loss of lives, families, and much more but, for private dealers and pushers of war, selling weapons is just a business and war serves as a catalyst to boost their business empires.
During the first week of the Israeli-Palestine conflict, Lockheed Martin’s stock rose to 9 percent, which was the highest number since March 2020. Defense contractors not only make their fortunes through wars but also find an opportunity to use battlegrounds as laboratories to test their weapons. As Antony Loewenstein says, “Unless the world community decides that spyware and smart wars are not a way to do business, the occupation will not end”.
For the pushers of wars (those countries who supply weapons to countries in war), the benefits of war are threefold. They sell their weapons and expand their profits, use battlegrounds as testing laboratories, and companies like Kellogg, Brown & Root, and Bechtel Group, earn billions of dollars by undertaking reconstruction tasks in war-torn countries like Iraq and Libya. According to reports, more than 70 American companies and individuals have won up to $8 billion in contracts for work in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a study by the Center for Public Integrity. Those companies who got contracts for reconstruction work from the government donated more money to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush—a little over $500,000—than to any other politician over the last dozen years.
Politicians glorify wars for many reasons. They get money for their campaigns from defense contractors; by glorifying wars, they manipulate the emotions of voters to get more votes and of course, war is a big business and many politicians are into this dirty-business.Similarly, the media also fan the flames to further deteriorate the already worst scenario.
According to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, the New York-based media critique organization, the military industrial complex uses the media outlets to promote militarism. Media coverage is manipulated to show the effectiveness of weapons and to avoid covering civilian casualties–recent coverage of the Israel-Palestine war by the western media outlets is a perfect example. According to the New York Times, “approximately 75 military analysts – many with military industry ties – were being investigated by the Government Accountability Office and other federal organizations for taking part in a years-long campaign to influence them into becoming “surrogates” for the Bush administration’s military policy in the media”. That’s how this network of military -industrial complex works, and that’s how people’s tax money is being spent.
According to the report by the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University published in 2019, the US wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria have cost American taxpayers $6.4 trillion. This money could have been spent on education, health care, and domestic security. From every perspective, innocent civilians are the ones who are the ultimate losers.
According to the Washington Post report, more than 906,000 people, including 387000 civilians, died directly from the post-9/ 11 wars. Another 38 million people have been displaced or made refugees. The US Federal government, meanwhile, has spent over $8 trillion on these wars.
Today, the military-industrial complex is shaping policies. Neither countries, nor people win wars. It’s the” Military -Industrial -Politicians-Media Complex” that’s the ultimate winner.
It’s a fork in the road for people across the globe to understand this nexus, and not elect warmongers, who advocate spending people’s money on wars instead of people’s welfare. Elect those who push the government to spend people’s money on people’s welfare.
Sources:
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202109/1233772.shtml
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/1/11/big-money-behind-war-the-military-industrial-complex
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/wall-street-israel-hamas/
https://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/19/business/iraq-war-contractors/index.html
https://youtu.be/_Mw4KEhgaMg?feature=shared