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military industrial complex
Arming for Armageddon
The weapons industry storyline will include appeals to 9-11 and patriotism, free markets, job creation and level-playing fields, and global democracy--US style. But the reality behind the phony proclamations is, of course, profits and free-rides. American taxpayers spend upwards of $10 billion a year in subsidies to the US weapons industry. American jobs are, in fact, exported along with the technology to countries like Turkey and Israel through off-sets which means that the importing country can build the systems themselves. US technology and know-how gets given away at no charge or at discounted rates through the Excess Defense Articles program. US foreign policy is regularly altered and human rights ignored to meet the needs of US weapons manufacturers. More chilling though is the observation of a weapons industry executive who mused, "There will come a day when we will have no allegiance to a nation-state. We will be viewed as neutral suppliers to all combatants." That day has arrived. |