Russian Tensions
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The USA presidents are the best arms dealers and weapons salesmen
A sale of 800 millions in weapons is good for the war business and they are all well compensated when they leave the White House
The us congress is a private club of rich people
The members of the Italian mafia are boys scouts and altar boys
Rod, does the armament lobby determine the foreign policy of the USA?
It is also a theory that exempts Russia from any complicity or guilt.
NATO has been expanding eastwards since the break-up of the USSR, what was so threatening with the remote possibility that Ukraine would join? After 2014 and the creation of LPR and DPR why did it take Russia so long to react.
Actually, I am now wondering why there exist two breakaway republics and no move to bring those into one new state?
2014 coup was more about the politics of the EU than NATO, was the US using the EU as a convenient cover?
The media may prefer simple explanations such as Putin, the Mad Man, socialists have to understand the deeper reasons for world events.
Convenient, isn’t it, that Roman Abramovich PR claim he is a victim of war, weeks after an alleged attempt to poison him.
Why the delay and why now?
The source? Bellingcat.
Armaments are not the main cause of wars, they can have bow and arrow and wars between capitalists always exist. It is a world struggle among capitalists for raw materials, the sphere of influence and a market is the most important one. The USA is not the only armaments dealer, China, Russia, Spain, Germany, Iran and Israel are also weapons dealers, and they have their own armaments industry
Arms companies — the merchants of death — have certainly benefitted from the war. There’s an article in today’s Times headed “Defence companies having a good war as shares skyrocket” which begin:
“Defence companies stocks have risen dramatically as the war in Ukraine triggers a ‘massive reinvestment’ in arms, according to industry sources.
Western governments are flooding Ukraine with guns, ammunitions and sophisticated man-portable missile systems, sending share prices for weapons companies up by as much as 72 per cent since the day Russia invaded.”That’s what you’d expect once a war starts. But I don’t think we can say that these companies start wars. They just profit from them. Nor would governments want to favour arms companies in particular as it is governments that have to pay for the arms — out of taxes paid by other sections of the capitalist class.
Governments may have an interest in keeping down expenditure on arms, but they rely on defense officials who are bribed by the arms companies, e.g., by promising them lucrative consulting positions after leaving government. Andrew Cockburn, in his book The Spoils of War, shows how the US government is induced to spend enormous sums of money on weapon systems that have been shown not to work and may not even be wanted by the military.
Bernie Sanders said Biden’s request for an $813.3 billion military budget in the next fiscal year was excessive, noting that the United States already spends more on national security than “the next 11 countries combined.”
Biden’s military spending request for 2023 represents a $31 billion increase over the current level of $782 billion, which is already unprecedented.
Biden’s proposed budget is “substantially more—adjusted for inflation—than spending at the height of the Korean or Vietnam wars, and over $100 billion more than peak spending during the Cold War.”
“The Pentagon’s FY 2023 budget will be a boon to defense contractors,” Hartung continued, “with a proposed $276 billion for weapons procurement and R&D combined, over $30 billion more than the department’s 2022 proposal.”
If approved by Congress, Biden’s latest budget would put the U.S. on track to spend more than $8 trillion on its military over the next decade.
By contrast, Biden is asking Congress for just $44.9 billion in total funding to fight the climate emergency in 2023
Did the Ukraine war influence this colossal investment? Many would doubt it. It was already a trend. But only for the USA. It took the Russian invasion to spur many European nations to increase their defence budgets.
Most Americans fully approve of this huge militarist spending and any suggestion of cutting the defence budget has dire consequences for any political candidate.
American exceptionalism again at work.
Stephen and others, if you haven’t seen the movie Pentagon Wars on the development of the Bradley armoured vehicle, you should
Where are the leftwingers, and famous personalities that supported Joe Biden campaign and his election ?
Are they still talking about anti imperialism and the lesser evil ?
Where is that personality who said in this forum that we were champaign socialists ?
Time and history are proven that we were totally correct.
Where are those famous left-winger personalities that were saying that the main problem was Donald Trump instead of capitalism ?
There are millions of workers in the USA who do not care if Trump is a criminal or an Al Capone, and they are going to vote for him.
He said that he can kill anybody on Park Avenue, and he will not lose a voter.
The legal system will never resolve our problems, our problems arise at the point of production
MS, the left democrat progressives are probably secretly welcoming the war as Biden’s bellicose policy is their only hope for success in the mid-terms.
Although they now have a new tax the billionaire to promote.
I am not talking about that type of left, I am talking about the Marxist Leninists groups. The so-called progressive left of the USA who are members of the Democratic Party or have posts in the state apparatus are just a bunch of right-wingers and capitalist collaborators, the term progressive come from capitalists thinkers
If the arms industry doesn’t dictate foreign policy, they certainly can heavily influence it. At least if we are to believe our own journal:
‘The eastward expansion of NATO, especially when it extends to the ‘near abroad’ and right up to Russia’s borders, is a bitter grievance of Russia’s power elite. That is because it violates the security requirement of a ‘friendly neighbourhood’ deeply embedded in their psyche. It is also because it violates the verbal promises made by Western politicians to Gorbachev that if he allowed Germany to unite and united Germany to remain in NATO then NATO would not expand ‘an inch to the east’. These promises were ‘forgotten’ under pressure from American arms manufacturers, whose sales were flagging due to improved relations with Russia and who sought new markets in Eastern Europe.’
From the article on Ukraine in the SS March issue.
Peace in our time, or peace off?
“A Ukrainian negotiator said the country is seeking international security guarantees for territory that doesn’t include the separatist-controlled areas of Donbas and Crimea.”So, assuming Russia has been seeking partition of Ukraine all along, as well as ensuring no NATO membership (but apparently fine with EU membership) this nightmare could soon be over. Germany would be happy with that deal, if EU can get the grain lands, Russia gets the minerals of Donbas.
Looks like evidence of a serious war crime has emerged. Be interesting to see if the International Criminal Court, aided by UK money and advice, will investigate it. This is not self-evident as the perpetuators appear to be a rightwing nationalist militia incorporated into the Ukrainian army.
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