The Military Industrial Complex (MIC) is made of 10,000+ defense companies that provide contracts for militaries around the world, leading to a highly profitable business, and occupying other nations’ resources and governments.
BOMBING FOR DEMOCRACY...
Since the end of WWII, America has bombed 29 countries to date, representing one-third of the world’s population.
... AND LOSING THE GAME
With all of its power and reach, America has not won a war since World War II (1945). In Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address, he warned about the dangers of the MIC. Nobody listened.
DEFENSE BUDGET
In 2013, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation reported that the US had spent 640 billion USD on its military–more than China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, France, UK, Germany, Japan, and India combined.
The most profitable companies are Lockheed and Martin (224 bln), Boeing (161 bln), Northop Grumman (95 bln), Raytheon (73 bln), BAE Systems (60 bln), and General Dynamics (54 bln). The UN reports that it only costs 30 bln USD to end world hunger.
NationalPriorities.org reports that, of the 3.9 trillion USD in revenue and borrowing for 2015, Former US President Obama’s discretionary spending on military stands at 55% of the total US budget.
MILITARY BASES
The Transnational Institute estimates that the US has over 1,000 military bases in more than 100 countries. Germany, Italy, Japan, and South Korea (losers of World War II and the Korean War) host the most US bases, and other NATO countries have an additional 200 in worldwide locations.
PETRODOLLAR
The petrodollar is the dominance of the USD in purchasing global oil reserves. Due to America’s 17 trillion in debt and the loss of the gold standard in 1971, America has needed to take over worldwide oil reserves to collateralize the USD, strengthening the Federal Reserve, the US’s privately-owned bank that controls its financial system. All US wars after 1971 have been to maintain this dominance.
Libya, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia (soon) and all BRICS nations planned to abandon the USD in order to increase sovereignty. 23 countries (60% of total world GDP) and 11 international agreements will soon replace the USD as the reserve currency by the end of the decade. The US is now bombing or funding terrorists against them in order to prevent this from happening.
DRONES
Drones, a major part of the MIC, violate international law by invading the airspace of sovereign nations, causing more terrorism, and killing persons without trial in court (extrajudicial). Antiwar.com reports that the UN’s “Special rapporteurs on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions” has condemned the CIA-led drone program and highlighted these violations.
