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Tuesday, September 14th, 2021

Up to Half of the $14 Trillion Spent by Pentagon Since 9/11 Has Gone to War Profiteers

Author:     Jake Johnson
Source:     Common Dreams
Publication Date:     13 September 2021
 Link: Up to Half of the $14 Trillion Spent by Pentagon Since 9/11 Has Gone to War Profiteers
Stephan:   The American spending on the military-industrial complex, as Eisenhower called it, dwarfs every other military budget in the world. Actually, in size, the next seven national budgets combined. Historically, military spending has been the single largest portion of the Federal budget since World War II. It has resulted in the endless failed wars which have killed millions and drained obscene sums from the American treasury that should have gone elsewhere to foster wellbeing not death. But war is so profitable the corporations that profit from it bought the Congress.
An F-35 test aircraft undergoes a flight test over Fort Worth, Texas. Credit: Lockheed Martin/Flickr

Up to half of the estimated $14 trillion that the Pentagon has spent in the two decades since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan has gone to private military contractors, with corporate behemoths such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, and General Dynamics hoovering up much of the money.

“Reducing the profits of war ultimately depends on reducing the resort to war in the first place.”
—William Hartung, Center for International Policy

That’s according to a new paper (pdf) authored by William Hartung—director of the Arms and Security Program at the Center for International Policy—and released Monday by Brown University’s Costs of War Project.

Published just days after the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks and two weeks after the last U.S. military plane departed Afghanistan, the paper documents the extent to which the massive post-9/11 surge in Pentagon spending benefited weapon makers, logistics firms, private security contractors, and other corporate interests.

“The magnitude of Pentagon spending in the wake of the 9/11 attacks was remarkable,” Hartung observes. “The increase in U.S. military spending between Fiscal Year 2002 and Fiscal Year 2003 was more than the entire […]

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3 Comments

  1. Albus Eddie on Tuesday, September 14, 2021 at 5:40 am

    The truth is that one does not need to buy congress, corporations just rent them for votes here and there. If the public knew just how cheap our congress members sell their votes they would be astonished. It is a better return on investment than the stock market.

    • Stephan Schwartz on Tuesday, September 14, 2021 at 7:17 pm

      Rent them, excellent, Albus. I like that better because it is more accurate.

  2. Will on Tuesday, September 14, 2021 at 9:45 am

    As Marine General Smedley Butler said in 1935 “war is a racket” and I haven’t seen anything since that provides counter evidence. The DOD is the biggest monetary sinkhole in the history of civilization constantly looking for more and devious ways to fund more and more weapons systems. DOD has never had an audit, never have they been able to show that the money allocated was spent properly.

    The multinational merchants of death are in cahoots with each other selling to both sides in conflicts and encouraging competition so each nation is driven to have the biggest, fastest, stealthiest, AI driven tech. Where would we be as a planetary species if the resources were directed for the common good instead of mutual destruction. I think over the next twenty years or so climate change will force us out of our childish ways.