Who benefits from War?

SOURCE: WWW.CNN.COM

Our government has wasted billions of dollars on arms that have only granted undeserving nations enormous amounts of power, while ultimately profiting military companies billions upon billions of dollars. As the world’s largest military spending country, according to Countries that spend the most on weapons our total spending on military expenditures exceeds 618.7 billion dollars which dwarfs the next top 4 military spenders China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and France by over 237.3 billion dollars. None of the wasted money has benefited the American taxpayers, every year these billions of dollars could be doing monumental changes to our country if a mere fourth of the spending were reallocated to a few different government programs. Instead our government leads the world in military exports, supplying the world with one third of all it’s weapons. All enabled by the dollars paid by taxpayers, the real problem is when the money is frivolously spent towards weapons of war which arm and empower regimes that defy our national interests, jeopardize international security, and violate countless human rights laws. Although the biggest winners of this giant arms game are the military companies, which the top 100 companies made a staggering 402 billion in 2013 for the third year in a year, according to Highest Profiting Military Companies.

    The Weapons Companies are some of the highest profiting companies in the world, and the industry of war is one of extraordinary proportions. In 2013 while falling 1.9% from the previous year the total military expenditure was at an astounding 1.75 trillion dollars, while creating thousands of jobs in the process it also pollutes the world with more violence. Combating violence with more violence has not been a successful strategy it has only exacerbated the violence, which I addressed in my previous blog post. An F-35 fighter jet purchased in 2018 from Lockheed Martin and delivered in 2020, for example, would cost roughly $100 million. Purchasing these types of highly expensive weapons of war is not the problem, but giving these highly expensive killing machines to terrorist funding and human rights violating nations is a problem that must be addressed. 

From 2011-2015 our biggest buyer of weapons was Saudi Arabia, who also has the 4th biggest military in the world, is arguably one of the most controversial countries in the world and for them to be our biggest partner. The fact that we don’t have a trade embargo on them is astounding, our partnership shows that we value money, oil, and geopolitical power above international humanity and morals. Saudi Arabia is a regime that holds public be-headings, amputations, lashes, and floggings. In 2013 they executed twice as many people as the U.S, beheading 73 publicly. Women are second class citizens that have very limited rights, and there is a religious police that keeps men and women separated. These police have been accused of even holding the door of a burning schoolhouse shut so the women couldn’t escape the fire due to inappropriate attire, women can also get punished for getting raped. 

They aren’t the only nation that benefits from warfare, but also the Qataris who the US dealt 100 million dollars worth of arms, according to US deals 11 billion dollars worth of arms to Qatar. This is another example of a controversial move by our government’s fiscal policy and giving unworthy nations power and military strength. Qatar has a similar Islamic government rule to Saudi Arabia, according to Qataris funding ISIS former and current US officials funded and financially backed the extreme jihadists that gave birth to ISIS, the officials referred to the money that went to ISIS as “Seed Money”. Also the 3rd highest recipient of arms from the US is Turkey. Who according to Turkey purchasing stolen ISIS oil and ISIS smuggled oil to Turkey allowed for ISIS sold oil into their country so they could purchase this oil for a very low rate, Turkey’s use of ISIS’ oil was condemned by leaders of Russia and Israel.

 Our tax dollars have lead to our government purchasing billions dollars worth of arms which benefit military companies the most money although, the purchasing of these weapons have granted many other nations across the world extreme military power due to the arms dealing our country participates in, which in the long run costs the taxpayers more money due to the benevolence of international policy of nations we armed.

SOURCES: 

Highest Profiting Military Companies

Countries that buy most weapons from The United States

Countries that spend the most on weapons  

The Facts about Saudi Arabia's Human Rights Abuses 

 US deals 11 billion dollars worth of arms to Qatar

Qataris funding ISIS

Turkey purchasing stolen ISIS oil

 ISIS smuggled oil to Turkey