Such were the words of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a moderate Republican who previously served in the US Army as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe during World War II. Like Major General Smedley Butler, who served in the armed forces one generation before him, Eisenhower saw the nexus of private profit and military might firsthand. His successive political experience led him to coin his now-famous term for the phenomenon, which in earlier drafts of his farewell address he called the military-industrial-Congressional complex.
The scourge of war profiteering was already well understood in Eisenhower’s day, with journalists having castigated the merchants of death who armed all sides in World War I and the War of the Pacific, but economic developments since the 1940s have accelerated the trend with military contractors and private mercenaries siphoning off billions of dollars in taxpayer funds.
The military-industrial complex now threatens not only public investment but human civilization itself, according to author and professor Dr. Ken Hammond.
The expert in East Asian and Global History joined Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program Tuesday to discuss how the influence of weapons manufacturers has brought the world to the brink of war with Russia and China.
“It’s a money laundering scheme in a number of ways,” said Hammond, responding to news that the Biden administration is preparing to ship $567 million in lethal aid to authorities in Taiwan.
“Stuff that’s laying around in military warehouses – obsolete equipment – they’re going to ship that off to Taiwan as part of the ongoing efforts to poke China in the eye, provoke situations there, create a lot of public consciousness of tension and conflict and fear about the situation between the United States and China.”
“They’re basically giving away these weapons to Taiwan, and then they’re going to turn around and buy new ones to replace those,” he explained.
“So that, too, is a giveaway to the defense industry, the so-called defense industry – the war industry, really. It’s part of an ongoing relationship between the mil
War mongers / the bush and cheney families