WAR is a racket.
“WAR is a racket by Smedley Butler” is a must read for anyone trying to see beyond what is being played out on our screens, the rallying of public support, the false flags, the accompanying emotional propaganda and the binary of “us against them” narrative.
It is a fascinating read detailing General Smedley Butler’s speech where he describes his role as a soldier to be nothing more than a servant and a puppet for big-business interests. He presents his arguments against war in a clear and precise way – more relevant now than ever.
Excerpt from the book;
War is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
The fortune from war and conflict are made by international corporations and defense contractors (Military Industrial Complex- MIC) who gain from stoking both sides into a protracted conflict as it ensures sales and profits as revenue. Even going as far as to bankrupt countries in debt.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), total global military expenditure rose to $1981 billion in 2020, an increase of 2.6% in real terms from 2019. This 2.6% increase came the same year when global gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 4.4% due to the economic impacts of the plandemic and its nonsensical lockdowns.
Let us be clear on one thing, many countries have ramped up military spending in the past year alone, maybe they know something we don’t? I would have expected them to increase spending on maybe, health & wellness?
Using data collated from Frohlich & Lieberman (2015), they list how some big European and North American defense corporations have been able to position themselves among the top arms dealers in the world while highlighting that the major competition is mainly between the big 2; Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The same paper states that while US companies dominate the arms industry by a wide margin, there are still other arms-producing companies that specialize in this arms sales. In their analysis posted on 247wallst.com, it states that 39 out of 100 top companies are based in the United States, and they account for more than 58% based on the total arms sales.
Some of these companies are:
Thales
Finmeccanica
Airbus Group
General Dynamics (NYSE: GD)
Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC)
Raytheon (NYSE: RTX)
BAE Systems
Boeing (NYSE: BA)
Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT)
Now, using this data into todays context, we can see funding and contracts for war and armed conflict;
The Pentagon’s Space Development Agency announced nearly $1.8 billion in contracts to three companies for a next-generation military communications network. A pair of aerospace giants – Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman – and private venture York Space will each build 42 satellites for the SDA’s Transport Layer Tranche 1.
European Union will finance the purchase and delivery of $500 million worth weapons to Ukraine, marking the first time in the bloc's history that it will send arms to a country under attack.
U.S. President Joe Biden has authorized the State Department to send another $350 million in weapons, including Javelin anti-tank weapons, to help Ukrainian forces.
The Netherlands will supply air defense rockets and anti-tank systems to Ukraine. The Dutch agreed to a Ukrainian request to rapidly ship 200 Stinger air defense rockets and 50 "Panzerfaust 3" anti-tank weapons with 400 rockets.
Belgium will support the Ukrainian forces with 2,000 machine guns and 3,800 tons of fuel.
Germany will supply Ukraine with defensive anti-tank weapons, surface-to-air missiles and ammunition.
AMMO, Inc., a US-based ammunition and components manufacturer, announced it had acknowledged Zelensky's call and has pledged to donate one million rounds of ammunition to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Isn’t it clear that the MIC and arm dealers would want this conflict to escalate further? Its a marketing opportunity for some and profit for others. It is safe to say that Christmas has come early for military contractors and their fellow arms dealers. This is their dream come true for the plebs to suffer while their bank accounts expand all from this manufactured new “crisis”.
The destruction of human capital, its disruption of trade, labor management, and resource puts a strain on the international market in one way or the other especially that Ukraine and Russia is a major supplier of global wheat (28.5%), both countries also account for 19% of corn exports and 80% of exports of sunflower oil.
This kind of war if protracted, is likely to trigger a global economic meltdown.
We are already witnessing its effects on oil prices. For example, during the Iraq war in 2003, the prices of oil rose steadily within the three months the war began. The oil rose by a staggering 40% that period and was then sold around $25 from its initial price of $18. At the time of writing, European gas futures hits all time high at $2,267/1,000 cubic meters and Brent Oil Price surpasses $119/barrel for first time since Feb 2013.
Some other effects of war on the international market include capital depletion where infrastructure and systems could be taken out. A number of farms, cities, and factories of participating countries could be destroyed, exacerbating a further slow down the already broken down supply chains as importation and exportation of food and materials are costly and impossible to reconcile.
I am anti war. I hope you are against war. We all will suffer albeit in varying degrees, the consequences of this ongoing conflict. We can only do our best to voice our opposition to it, whether it be on the Russian side or NATO/Ukraine side.
Hopefully, the respective sides can come to an agreement for peace.
See you tomorrow!
- Ope