William Hartung — How Corporations Won the War on Terror — The Profits of War

The Profits of War. 

The costs and consequences of America’s twenty-first-century wars have by now been well-documented — a staggering $8 trillion in expenditures and more than 380,000 civilian deaths, as calculated by Brown University’s Costs of War project. The question of who has benefited most from such an orgy of military spending has, unfortunately, received far less attention.

Corporations large and small have left the financial feast of that post-9/11 surge in military spending with genuinely staggering sums in hand. After all, Pentagon spending has totaled an almost unimaginable $14 trillion-plus since the start of the Afghan War in 2001, up to one-half of which (catch a breath here) went directly to defense contractors.

Follow the money. And the revolving door at the Pentagon. Endless war is the goose that lays the golden egg.

Tom Dispatch
William Hartung, How Corporations Won the War on Terror

See also

Visual Capitalist
This is How Much NATO Countries Spend on Defense

Avery Koop