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Trump: the military leadership wants to fight wars to create business for military-hardware makers

lpetrich

lpetrich

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 Merchants of death
The term was popular in antiwar circles of both the left and the right, and was used extensively regarding the Senate hearings in 1936 by the Nye Committee. The Senate hearing examined how much influence the manufacturers of armaments had in the American decision to enter World War I. Ninety-three hearings were held, over 200 witnesses were called, and little hard evidence was found. The Nye Committee came to an end when Chairman Nye accused President Woodrow Wilson of withholding information from Congress when he chose to enter World War I. The failure of the committee to find a conspiracy did not change public prejudice against the manufactures of armaments, thus the popular name "merchants of death".
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Guess who has revived that old conspiracy theory?

Barbara Starr on Twitter: "The quote is from President Trump ..." / Twitter
The quote is from President Trump at his q and a session with the press today. Saying top generals and admirals want to fight wars to make contractors happy.

"I'm not saying the military’s in love with me,the soldiers are.The top people in the Pentagon probably aren’t, because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy.
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with response
Bryan Cornish on Twitter: "@barbarastarrcnn My guess is he knows who the sources are for The Atlantic piece and is worried they are going to soon put their name on the record. He's getting the first punch in. It's Trump Classic.
Which has no better taste than New Trump." / Twitter

Ryan Browne on Twitter: "In an unprecedented public attack by a sitting US president on the leadership of the US military ..." / Twitter
In an unprecedented public attack by a sitting US president on the leadership of the US military, President Trump has accused US military leaders of seeking to start wars to boost the profits of defense contractors

POTUS: “I'm not saying the military’s in love with me, the soldiers are, the top people in the Pentagon probably aren’t because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs & make the planes & make everything else stay happy”

Some folks really ought to read what President Eisenhower actually said in his farewell address. While they are both critical of the military industrial complex, nowhere does Eisenhower actually accuse military leaders of engaging in shooting wars to boost profits for firms
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Military arms manufacturers openly donate to political campaigns. It isn't so much a conspiracy on that front. Military brass and defense contractors probably also have revolving door issues as well as the politicians to lobbyist pipelines...

None of this means Trump is right exactly, but I'd prefer we do not replace him with a pro-war Biden....but instead a pro-peace Biden.
 
Speaking as a military contractor, we don't have to fight the wars to profit. We just keep improving the weapons in the arsenal to match improvements in the other guy's arsenal, and upgrade when the industry no longer makes the tech to support the old systems.
So, peace, but a budget to support live ammo practice and regular upgrades, everyone in the military-industrial complex would be happy.
 
Has everyone forgotten how Trump waxed rhetoric dropping the "Mother of all Bombs" in 2017? Or how proud he was selling arms to the Saudis? So much so he wants to do it again? I'm pretty certain Raytheon and Northrop-Grumman get colossal boners everytime Trump mentions Space Force.

Sure there is an incestuous relationship between companies, ex-military leaders and ex-politicians (especially the last group). But Trump is the military industrial complex's best friend in the whole fucking world. Who is he kidding?
 
Ahhhh, how everybody forgets. PNAC, a think tank run by neo-cons wanted war to make the Middle East a democracy under American hegemony. They tried to get Clinton on board with this, but Clinton didn't buy it. Then they managed to get W. Bush on board. General Wesly Clark tells how horrified to learn PNAC wanted seven wars in the Middle East.

It wasn't the military that wanted the wars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY2DKzastu8
General Wesley tells all.

"He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999," said author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz. "It was on his mind. He said to me: 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.' And he said, 'My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.' He said, 'If I have a chance to invade...if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency."
Mickey Herskowitz - Bush biology ghost writer.

Bush bought into this so he could do anything he wanted as a president. PNAC found their man. A little memory jog here. Trump of course knows almost nothing about any of this, like he knows little about anything. It was not the military that wanted war, it was politicians.
 
Wesley Clark had been part of a war game some years earlier considering what it would take to conquer Iraq. the initial fight was doable, but studies concluding holding Iraq after that would take for more forces than we reasonable. We couldn't hold it long. Clark was startled to learn that the PNAC planners had not even heard of this war game exercise, and it's conclusions. These PNAC morons had not vetted their plans with any experienced military experts. The horrible carnage of the Iraq - Iran conflict had made no impression on them.
And of course, it turned into a disaster as predicted. Clark was not shy about pointing this out as the disaster was beginning to develop.
 
Wasn't the moron bragging a few months ago about how he's given these guys more money than anyone in history? Now they're evil for getting all that money?
 
Tom Sawyer said:
Wasn't the moron bragging a few months ago about how he's given these guys more money than anyone in history? Now they're evil for getting all that money?
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He rebuilt the military! It was in tatters, our planes were from the American Revolution, our subs all sunk because they lost their floatyness. He saved America's military.

And apparently all the people he put into charge of the military is conspiring to start wars, so we need to re-elect him so he can put other people in charge of the military post election, so that our military isn't abused to help military contractors. The monsters!

As noted in the OP, yes, the military kind of has a fight fight fight attitude. Of course, when we given Ukraine hundreds of millions of dollars to buy US weapons... military contractors are doing fine. The military industrial complex doesn't need the US in wars, they just need a guy who can help destabilize things so other people need weapons we can supply them with... sometimes using US taxpayer dollars.

But we musn't forget that Trump will save us from this evil incumbent that allowed all of this to happen!
 
But the Piece of Shit is not wrong. His own Secretary of Defense is a Military Industrial complex lobbyist.
And a lot of the shit these generals are saying is nothing more than audition for post-retirement jobs at LM board.
 
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