There are many versions on why the war in Ukraine started and why it won’t end easily. Among them here is one narrative -not from White House- but from a respected political scientist in the US, Prof John J Meashimer. who says that the US pushed Russia into a conflict in Ukraine. Why? Because more (EU) countries would join NATO – to secure themselves against Russia.
There are many who argue that war is a big business for the big defence giant corporations in the US like Northrup Grumman, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin, etc. The money the US claims will go to Ukraine to fight Russia, Is actually routed to back US companies. Since the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the US and the EU have given Ukraine $113 billion dollars and $91 billion dollars respectively, in the form of military aid and financial assistance.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, recently said the cost of war per day at present is in the tune of $136 million and there’s great tumult in the US Congress and the EU over the further allocation of military aid to an embattled Ukraine, leading Putin to turning up the heat on Ukraine by ordering bigger and bolder air strikes. This has made other European nations – specially those close to Ukraine – nervous. And in turn, US weapons sales overseas rose sharply last year, reaching a record total of $238 billion (£187bn), as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stoked demand.
An eminent member of the Kennedy family -Senator Robert F Kennedy – says that “Russians tried repeatedly to settle their disagreements with the US, on terms that were very very beneficial to the US”, furthermore he says Russia granted the US the one major option…. to keep the big military contractors happy and to add new countries to NATO all the time….to meet weapons specifications for certain companies, who all want to supply more arms to those in the NATO loop. This was $113 billion dollars of arms purchases.
That’s enough to create housing, says Kennedy, for all of the people in the US…and then the US has committed another $ 24 billion in the past two months. And now with the present violence President Biden is asking for another 60 billion dollars to hand over to Ukraine…to rebuild all the things the war has destroyed. But when Mitch McConnell ( an eminent US personality) was asked, `can we really afford to spend another $10 to $ 13 billion in Ukraine? He said don’t worry. it’s going to American defense contractors !’
Its most important to understand that Ukraine has to put a whole of its government’s assets up for sale to multinational corporations including all its agricultural land – the biggest single asset in Europe (which is the bread basket of Europe) and then in December President Biden gave out the contract – for Ukraine’s assets – to US Corporations. Kennedy says that the conflict has (created a divide) which is meant to keep us hating each other. Thus thank you to Republicans and Democrats (the two political groups) fighting each other and has created a divide in the US pitting blacks against white,’ and created divisions across the US on the war in Ukraine and whether it will have an early end.
Retired military officers and strategists who take up lucrative roles in the arms industry, ensure that the bidding of these defence giants is done in the most effective way possible. In May, 2018, the then CEO of Raytheon -a defence giant -Thomas Kennedy, personally visited the office of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Robert Menendez, but was snubbed by Mr Menendez, as Thomas Kennedy was trying to push for the significant sale of precision-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia which could wreak greater havoc on the poorest nation in West Asia, Yemen. Senators and representatives consider the military spending bill to be a ‘jobs’ bill, and rarely vote against weapons systems that are developed in their (constituency) states.
The advocates of the US military industrial complex are deeply embedded into the entire government and semi-government apparatus. Lobbyists carefully manipulate politicians in Capitol Hill. Defence contractors have deep connections to the political elites and generously fund their campaign for office, just like the big defence companies do, who serve as patrons for think tanks and other affiliated institutions that can push the agenda of these weapon sellers. No wonder ‘wars’ are a profitable business for those in the military industrial complex.
