Memorial Day 2010: Corporations Profit from Permanent War
Posted: May 25, 2010 Filed under: Imperial Power, World Hegemony | Tags: Military Industrial Complex, Multinational Corporations, US Army 8 Commentsby Bill Quigley
Published: May 24, 2010 – Information Clearing House
US law officially proclaims Memorial Day “as a day of prayer for permanent peace.”
However, the US is much closer to permanent war than permanent peace. Corporations are profiting from wars and lobbying politicians for more. The US, and the rest of the world, cannot afford the rising personal and financial costs of permanent war.
Number One in War
No doubt, the USA is number one in war. This coming year the US will spend 708 billion dollars on war and another $125 billion for Veterans Affairs – over $830 billion. In a distant second place is China which spent about $84 billion on its military in 2008.
The US also leads the world in the sale of lethal weapons to others, selling about one of every three weapons worldwide. The USA’s major clients? South Korea, Israel and United Arab Emirates.
Our country has 5 percent of the world’s population but accounts for more than 40% of the military spending for the whole world.
Harm
Our nation does not respect our soldiers by engaging in permanent war. War is grinding up our children. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost over 5000 US lives and tens of thousands more lives of people in those countries. Over 20% of those in our military who served in these two wars, 320,000 people, have war-related traumatic brain injuries. Suicide rates are up by 26 percent among 18 to 29 year old male veterans in the latest Veterans Administration study. Mental health hospitalizations are now the leading cause of hospital admissions for the military, higher than injuries. On any given night, over 100,000 veterans are homeless and living on our nation’s streets.
Rising Costs of War
Since 2001, the US has spent over $6 trillion (a trillion is a million millions) on war and preparations for war. That is about $20,000 for every woman, man and child in the US. Iraq and Afghanistan alone have cost the US taxpayer over a trillion dollars since 2001.
No End in Sight
Earlier this month, Marine General James Cartwright, the Vice-Chair of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Army Times that the US can expect continuing war “for as far as the eye can see.”
In the name of this perpetual war against terrorism the US still jails hundreds without trial in Guantanamo, holds hundreds more in prisons on bases and in secret detention world-wide, tries to avoid constitutional trials for anyone accused of terrorism, admits it is trying to assassinate an American citizen Muslim cleric in Yemen, and launches deadly drone strikes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen killing civilians and suspects whenever we decide.
Who benefits from permanent war?
One support for permanent war is that there are corporations in the US which openly lobby for more and more money to be invested in war. Why? Because they profit enormously from government contracts.
President Dwight Eisenhower, who believed in a strong military, warned the US about just this in his farewell address to the nation in 1961.
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.”
War is Big Business
War is very big business. People know that private companies are doing much more in war. In January 2010, the Congressional Research Service reported that there are at least 55,000 private armed security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, and maybe many more – as many as 70,000 in Afghanistan alone.
But much bigger money is available to defense contractors. In 2008 alone, the top ten defense contractors received nearly $150 billion in federal contracts. These corporations spent millions to lobby for billions more in federal funds and hired ex-military leaders and ex-officials to help them profit off war.
For example, look at the top three defense contractors, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman. They demonstrate why perpetual war is profitable and part of the reason it continues.
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is the largest military contractor in the world with 140,000 employees, taking in over $40 billion annually, over $35 billion of which comes from the US government. Lockheed Martin boasts that they have increased their dividend payments by more than 10 percent for the seventh consecutive year – perfectly in line with the increase in war spending by the US. Its chairman, Robert Stevens, received over $72 million in compensation over the past three years.
Lockheed’s board of directors includes a former Under Secretary of Defense, a former US Air Force Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, a former Deputy Director of Homeland Security, and a former Supreme Allied Commander of Europe. These board members receive over $200,000 a year in compensation. Its political action committee gave over a million dollars a year to federal candidates in 2009, and is consistently one of the top spending PACs in the US. They appeal to all members of Congress because they strategically have operations in all fifty states. And, since 1998, Lockheed has spent over $125 million to lobby Congress.
Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman is a $33 billion company with 120,000 employees. In 2008, it received nearly $25 billion in federal contracts. Its chairman, Ronald Sugar, received over $54 million in compensation over the past three years.
Northrop’s Board includes a former Admiral of the Navy, a former 20 year member of Congress, a former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a former commissioner of the Security and Exchange Commission and a former U.S. Naval officer. The members of its board of directors received over $200,000 each in 2009. Its Pac is listed as making over $700,000 in federal campaign donations in 2009. Since 1998, it has spent over $147 million lobbying Congress.
Boeing
Boeing has 150,000 employees and took in over $23 billion in federal contracts in 2008. With revenues of $68 billion in 2009, its chair, James McNerney, was paid over $51 million over the past three years. Its board members are paid well over $200,000 a year. Boeing’s directors include a former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, a former White House chief of staff, a former vice chair of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a former U.S. Ambassador and U.S. Trade Representative. It hosts the 10th largest political action committee, giving away more than one million dollars to federal candidates in 2009. Since 1998, it has spent $125 million lobbying Congress.
Time to Terminate the Permanent War
These corporations take billions from the government and profit from our perpetual state of war. They recycle some of that money back into lobbying the same people who gave it to them, and hire ex-military and government officials to help smooth the process. Their leaders make tens of millions off this work.
The trillions of dollars that it costs to wage permanent war are taxing the US economy. Yet where are the voices in Congress, Democrat or Republican, that talk seriously of dramatically reducing our military spending? President Obama and the Democrats are effectively continuing the permanent war policies of the Bush years. It is past time for change.
Remember this Memorial Day that, while thousands have been laid in their graves and hundreds of thousands wounded, private military contractors are prospering and profiting as the business of war booms.
The US should not only remember its dead but work to reverse the profitable permanent war that promises to add more names to the dead and disabled in this country and around the world.
Bill is Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights and a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. Quigley77@gmail.com
Source: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25528.htm
Related:
US Military Spending vs. The World, 2008
The Project for the New American Century
DOCUMENTARY – The New American Century
“War without Borders”: Obama’s “Long War”
“Why we fight”: The Nature of Modern Imperialism
The Pentagon Budget: Largest Ever and Growing
Global Warfare USA: The World is the Pentagon’s Oyster
An Imperial Strategy for a New World Order: The Origins of World War III
Pentagon Plans For Global Military Supremacy
DOCUMENTARY – Arsenal of Hypocrisy
NWO Observer 
The permanent war is being terminated, it’s called bankruptcy. The thing is, they lobby for military weapons contracts and make all this crap but the bottom line is; there is really no well trained standing army. As we have seen from the videos coming back from Iraq, the ‘troops’ are fresh out of jail or youth detention centers (sorry, to all the good ones out there) and go around killing kids and old men, THIS IS NOT A DISSAPLINED PROFESSIONAL ARMY, it is gangs of thugs.
The Chinese spend less of their money on stuff but have massive well trained, ready to go forces. The Chinese Women’s Army is almost the size of the entire population of the US. They are certainly planning to invade the US and just waiting for a time of good fortune, say if the Russians finally drop a few nukes on the East coast, or say if Mossad drops a few stolen Russian nukes on more great city landmarks, the Chinese are ready to go!
This ‘war on terror’ is a load of horse crap. Where are the people protesting it? Is this Stalin Russia? The Colateral Commission scumbags are doing whatever they want. Are we in chains yet that we can’t even protest another and another immoral war on groups of tribesmen that have done nothing to us to warrent their slaughter? The apathy and helplessness is deplorable just like when the whole country watched Waco go down and did……..NOTHING.
Mr. Quigley is right on his way of presenting the message was clear to the point and should inform any one that cares to read and study.
Study is one quest that when you think you have arrived —often times you find out you have not.
Motives for folks doing anything is still a great puzzler for me. Annie brings that to print about every time, when in desperation she declares wake up America, don’t set on your duff get busy to saving our Nation. I share those same motivations as Annie trying my best to reveal the TRUTH that should inspire others to act.
Maybe the crowd is too small and many when I read their messages seem not savvy enough to take time to get it. Bitching and griping is one thing but quite another is coming up with a cure. Cures seem to me to be the only sane way for we few that do get it to be able to inspire others to come along.
Just today I got a message finally from a man who has his heart dead set right to get our nation turned around. Yet the cure he suggested in my books is not doable. And that for me is where the burs under my saddle rub me raw. For long ago I derived at a cure that proved to be working very well, but then I was shut down by Google and the site CARE2 and persecuted because of the message. But that was not the first time for me and I was not effected being shut down.
For in my heart and mind I know my work is not for me but unto my Lord and King Jesus Christ, and my work is to defend HIM and HIS creation of mankind, and to point out the Predator Beast that is HIS archrivals and mine too. Some call them the anti-Christ but in fact that bunch is anti-god, they worship self so I call them elite-deitist.
And that bunch of despots has been around for a long time.
The last couple of day’s maybe weeks now I have been buried into the Deep Horizon mysteries and finally I got it — Just today after much study prayer worry and all the rest the clear picture began to emerge. I will say that many good folks will find offense of my words and linking the old warlords bankers crookmasters into the web of deceit that many in Washington DC just smile and look the other way with a hand out.
Dwight
Mr. Quigley is right on his way of presenting the message was clear to the point and should inform any one that cares to read and study.
Study is one quest that when you think you have arrived —often times you find out you have not.
Motives for folks doing anything is still a great puzzler for me. Annie brings that to print about every time, when in desperation she declares wake up America, don’t set on your duff get busy to saving our Nation. I share those same motivations as Annie trying my best to reveal the TRUTH that should inspire others to act.
Maybe the crowd is too small and many when I read their messages seem not savvy enough to take time to get it. Bitching and griping is one thing but quite another is coming up with a cure. Cures seem to me to be the only sane way for we few that do get it to be able to inspire others to come along.
Just today I got a message finally from a man who has his heart dead set right to get our nation turned around. Yet the cure he suggested in my books is not doable. And that for me is where the burs under my saddle rub me raw. For long ago I derived at a cure that proved to be working very well, but then I was shut down by Google and the site CARE2 and persecuted because of the message. But that was not the first time for me and I was not affected being shut down.
For in my heart and mind I know my work is not for me but unto my Lord and King Jesus Christ, and my work is to defend HIM and HIS creation of mankind, and to point out the Predator Beast that is HIS archrivals and mine too. Some call them the anti-Christ but in fact that bunch is anti-god, they worship self so I call them elite-deitist.
And that bunch of despots has been around for a long time.
The last couple of day’s maybe weeks now I have been buried into the Deep Horizon mysteries and finally I got it — Just today after much study prayer worry and all the rest the clear picture began to emerge. I will say that many good folks will find offense of my words and linking the old warlords bankers crookmasters into the web of deceit that many in Washington DC just smile and look the other way with a hand out.
Dwight
Let us connect the dots? BP EXXONMOBIL NWO
By Dwight Baker
May 25, 2010
Dbaker007@stx.rr.com
Eagles Eye View Aiming at Issues for We the People Advocates
Before we begin please do not look for any saints to emerge for they are not any to be found. The crooked and perverse past haunts most in oil and gas particularly the first ones in the oil and gas energy industry.
The saga of the exploding burning down and sinking Tranocean drill ship over the well being drilled for BP called the Deep Horizon has for me and maybe you had an evil agenda and stench of death about it.
We must go to the root of the problem if we intend to begin to try to connect some dots.
The Prospect known as the Deep Horizon was owned 75% by BP and 25% by ExxonMobil in the industry BP generated the prospect and became operators and ExxonMobil put up their share of the drilling and cost to complete and cost to bring on production.
Now who is BP a spin off of British Petroleum NO it is just a re-branding?
http://www.helium.com/items/1825303-what-is-british-petroleum-bp
British Petroleum has been around a long time. A study of their history is needed by those who do not know.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP
Exxon was once a part of Standard oil then became Exxon, same is true of Mobil but was a stand-alone entity marketing arm for Standard —-until Exxon and Mobil structured a deal once again to become one.
Mobil Oil—– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobil
Exxon —–http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExxonMobil
So Standard Oil or today ExxonMobil was and is the brain child of John D. Rockefeller
Likewise British Petroleum was the brainchild of the Rothschilds along with the blessings of the Queen of England.
Rockefeller and Rothschilds are cousins, both families originated from Georgia
We think about war in terms of missiles and tanks and bombs. But a far superior form of war is to disguise it as a natural disaster like Katrina or an accident like the BP oil spill.
This way we are not even aware of it, and cannot take countermeasures.
The parallels between the oil spill and Katrina are uncanny. In both cases, the American Gulf coast was attacked, and the Presidential response was deemed tardy and ineffective. In the case of Katrina, the levees were blown up 12 hours after the hurricane had passed.
The “tell” is the failure of the Obama Administration to declare a state of emergency and take immediate action to stop the gusher. It is hard to believe that an Administration facing a national election in six months would sit on its hands while oil poured onto America’s Gulf coast. Last week, Obama was announcing a commission to study the causes while failing to address the blow-out itself.
It is hard to believe that an industry which hosts hundreds of deep sea oil wells has not developed countermeasures for an underwater blow-out. Hard to believe that the richest and most technologically advanced country in the world is helpless in the face of this disaster.
The optics for Obama are terrible. Even the Huffington Post, which is an Murdoch-sponsored Obama cheering section could not hide its exasperation and impatience with the President’s tepid response.
But the Rothschilds treat Presidents like Kleenex – use and throw away. Every President in my lifetime has left office under a cloud of disgrace. The purpose is to demoralize Americans and make them lose faith in their government and democracy.
Who owns BP? The Rothschilds. Who owns Barack Obama? The Rothschilds. How hard would it be to stage this accident and then ensure a failed response?
CONTEXT
The BP oil spill must be seen in the context of an ongoing covert war against America waged by the Illuminati, i.e. the Masonic Jewish central banking cartel led by the Rothschilds.
Concurrent with the BP blow-out, world financial markets are gyrating because European banks again are being bailed out by taxpayers. The loans are to Greece, Portugal etc. but the creditors are the German and French banks owned by the Rothschild etc. whose stocks are soaring again.
Just six month ago, we were in the throes of a man-made swine flue pandemic that required mass inoculation.
Just 12-16 months ago, we were wrestling with the world financial crisis caused by the banks deliberately giving inflated mortgages to insolvent people.
Lest we forget, on Sept. 11 2001, the Illuminati attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and blamed it on “Muslim terrorists.” How stupid do they think we are?
We are under constant attack by Illuminati bankers and their lackeys in government. The two world wars, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, are all forms of Illuminati attack on America.
They also attack our moral and social fabric by promoting sexual “liberation” (promiscuity), feminism, homosexuality, public obscenity, violence, pedophilia and porn in music and in the mass media.
So why do we look at an ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico as if it is occurring in isolation? Will we think the same way about an earthquake in LA?
THE KEY TO OUR EXASPERATION
The explanation can be found in a book that we have been trained Pavlov-style to reject. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is the work of a Jewish Masonic secret society. Caught red-handed, they attempted to confuse the issue of world domination with anti-Semitism. The vast majority of Jews is not aware, let alone in favor of this plot for world government by a small “Jewish” financial elite and their Masonic allies.
In the Protocols, the author, who I suspect was Lionel Rothschild, writes that their goal is: “To wear everyone out by dissensions, animosities, feuds, famine, inoculation of diseases, want, until the Gentiles sees no other way of escape except by appeal to our money and our power.” (Protocol 10)
“We will so wear out and exhaust the Gentiles by all this that they will be compelled to offer us an international authority, which by its position will enable us to absorb without disturbance all the governmental forces of the world and thus form a super-government.” (Protocol 5)
My take — the last dot is making money dot. BP has proved 2.5 billion barrels of oil reserve in the deep Mississippi trench , and that is probably a lie too, I predict it is more like 10 billion. Now multiply $50 per barrel and see how much money that represents.
The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.
John D. Rockefeller
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/john_d_rockefeller_2.html
Now ExxonMobil has a lot of investors, so does BP for many of them right now blood is running in the streets. Rockefeller and Rothschilds have the money to buy up the stock that is too cheap.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Georgia_(country)
http://www.rense.com/general79/tril.htm
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/the_rothschild_bloodline.htm
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/category.asp?id=47
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/index.asp
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=12740
Mr. Quigley might appreciate this line of thought
Tony Hayward CEO BP has changed 180 degrees
Now is he believable?
By Dwight Baker
May 24, 2010
Dbaker007@stx.rr.com
Eagles Eye View Aiming at Issues for We the People Advocates
He said, “BP going to commit ½ billion for research to fix all the Gulfs problems that they caused”. Now who is going to get that money and when and how long is it that going to take?
I find no solace in what the man said, up till know most of his words have been far from the truth.
The ½ billion sounds like a scheme dreamed up by some propagandist to get the heat off for just a bit of time.
I believe the only cure short and long term for We the People is to Declare Criminal Corporate War against BP.
Declare Criminal Corporate War BP is the offender.
By Dwight Baker
May 24, 2010
Dbaker007@stx.rr.com
BP is a felon. BP has practiced deception and changed policies and procedures defying the rules of our Federal Government. We the People have had our borders invaded by the oil from the sea floor caused by the Deep Horizon while drilling in the Deep Mississippi trench Gulf of Mexico.
BP as a company comprised of individuals that have lied about the facts. BP has caused a rift of discontent and shown in words and deeds a frail lack of good will in and around the Gulf bordering states affected.
Now what would a good man go about doing as our President today—- knowing all those facts as they are— simple, complete with no other matter hanging out that needs discovery?
Declare Criminal Corporate War against BP, seize all their money that can be found, take in custody to be tired by a Military Tribunal the top 25 BP executives, and then do the same with the BP drilling rig employee’s in charge of operations the day the rig went down. Take in custody the government employee that allowed the vital change in the cementing phase to be changed by BP. Seize all BP software and hardware tools and equipment that comprise assets that are in place and needed to STOP THE OIL AND GAS. Make a call out for All to enlist to aid in the Military effort and then those who will not come as volunteers use the Draft for service in our Special Home Land Security Military Oil and Gas troops. Many needed are employees from companies to do the work of STOPPING THE OIL AND GAS, swear them in and bestow on them ranks in the order of their experience and importance to get the job done NOW.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_tribunal
Declaration of War
By Dwight Baker
May 24, 2010
Dbaker007@stx.rr.com
Eagles Eye View Aiming at Issues for We the People Advocates
Congress has the responsibility to Declare War. In the past several wars Bush did so without Congress approval or consent, he called those acts of violence some thing other.
Now, We the People set adrift without leadership that has yet to come forward in acts strong enough to propose that War be Declared against the multinational Corporate Criminal BP. Maybe this will jog some minds to do so.
We the People have the right and the moral responsibility to demand that our Congress and Senate get off their duff and do the job we elected them to do. Saying, who in America believes all the lies and postponements that have been allowed to be input as Truth by our Executive Branch for the benefit to protect BP?
Our Federal Court systems are a part of British rule, We will never get a fair shake in any Federal Court system, Yet we stand a far better chance in a Military Tribunal.
BP PICTURES OF OIL SPILL
http://in.reuters.com/news/pictures/rpSlideshows?articleId=INRTR2D98W#a=1
Money Stealing—Fear Instilling– War Mongering—the Predator Beasts are at work. The double ‘R’s’ are trying to make their final move. The New World Order!
By Dwight Baker
May 24, 2010
Dbaker007@stx.rr.com
Wall Street crimes galore —Gulf of Mexico maybe lost for centuries, Mexico has no cure for their dissent citizens running amuck in our back yards, selling drugs and killing folks as they please, poor folks are going hungry, many more than thought are homeless, yet Gen. David H. Petraeus wants more money for more wars. For the many that do not know we have troops scattered all over the earth right now. But the Gen. Wants more— go figure. While figuring tries this one on two— how about proof— where is the proof with facts not just supposition. George Bush and his bunch made a fool out of us once no maybe twice let us get this one right, before too late.
Just in New York Times,
http://www.nytimes.com?emc=na
Oh no Top General wants to make more war on a hunch that Iran wants to take us on. Do you see that as a reality? Looks like he has very ambitious plans, maybe he can use one of his credit cards to pay for the way. Or maybe the draft will come about soon and all the women in America will be forced to take all this wars stuff more serious. When the fruit of the womb dies needlessly some wives mothers and grandmothers get real upset.
“The secret directive, signed in September by Gen. David H. Petraeus, authorizes the sending of American Special Operations troops to both friendly and hostile nations in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa to gather intelligence and build ties with local forces. Officials said the order also permits reconnaissance that could pave the way for possible military strikes in Iran if tensions over its nuclear ambitions escalate.” As reported in the New York Times May 24, 2010
Now if Petraeus wants more war we got one just for him— take on BP right in our back yard ruining the entire Gulf Coast and to top it off they are convicted felons. We have the proof all 325 million of us.
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