Selling weapons, selling death

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the world spent 2.113 trillion US dollars on armaments in 2021. Of this almost incomprehensible amount of money, the United States spent almost half the total , $801 billion.

Perhaps one reason for the disproportionately large US arms spending is that in the United States, the arms industry has been privatized, which is not the case in China or Russia. In the US, selling weapons and death is a business. It is a business, on which capitalist investors can make enormous profits, selling weapons and selling death.

Although this article concentrates on the United States, profit-driven weapons manufacturing exists in many other countries, for example in the United Kingdom and France. We can remember the French Exocet missiles, sold to Argentina, which sank British ships during the Falklands War.

Weapons manufacturers control the US government

Giant weapons corporations like Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Raytheon sell to the US government, and it is therefore in their interest to control the government. In fact they do control it. The sums of money involved are so vast that arms manufacturers can tip the scales in elections and elect whom they please. Donors with enormously deep pockets are something that no politician can ignore.

Selling weapons and death abroad

The United States is by far the largest exporter of weapons in the world. The US sell weapons through NATO. It also sells weapons to dictatorships like Saudi Arabia, and these same weapons have produced a humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen. Small arms exported to Africa deepen and prolong local conflicts.

The aggressive foreign policy of the United States is closely related to the profits made by arms manufacturers.

Fueling the fire in Ukraine

To ordinary people, the current war in Ukraine is a tragedy. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has wisely pleaded for a diplomatic solution to the conflict. But to arms manufacturers, the war is a bonanza, a huge chance for profit. The war must not end! Send more and more armaments! Throw more fuel on the fire!

The Devil's Dynamo

An enormous river of money flows in a circle. It flows from the weapons manufacturers to Washington DC, where it buys the votes of politicians. It also buys the news reporting of the major networks and newspapers. As a result, obscenely large “defence” budgets are approved, and money flows back to the arms manufacturers. This circular flow can also be likened to the flow of electrical current in a dynamo, a Devil's Dynamo.

More guns than people

There are more privately owned guns than people in the United States. The latest mass murder of young children at a school in Uvalde, Texas, has led to pleas for the reform of gun laws. However, the entire Republican Party opposes any reform, since that would damage the profits of the arms manufacturers who make a living by selling weapons and selling death.

Here is a list of a few of the most notorious mass shootings in the United States in recent years: