BF2S Forums War Is a Racket

No.  The world was created with its current boarders and such.

Well yeah, it's meant to make money.  It's called the military industrial complex, and it has become one of the main agendas that has run our government ever since the Cold War.

For all practical purposes, it controls our government more than any other group except for maybe the AARP.

That is an overly cynical view.

"War is politics by other means"--Clausewitz

It all boils down to interests, which often have economic factors involved, but not always and not exclusively. War is extremely costly in both treasure and people--far more costly than diplomacy to achieve the same goals. But all parties involved have to agree to diplomacy. War? Not so much.

That would be a no.  Government spends the money, corporations earn the money.

Stingray24 wrote:

That would be a no.  Government spends the money, corporations earn the money.

How about this?  Government spends the money that certain corporations earn, while corporations in the defense industry receive the money that the government spends during wartime.

In the end, the defense corporations are the winners here.  The government spends the money that the rest of us earn on defense industries for warfare.

I love how they call it defense though.  More often than not, we're on the offense.

TheEternalPessimist wrote:

Well the cost of the Iraq war is getting on for some random figure in the Trillions last I heard, can't see them making that back any time soon.

We, as the American people, will never see a payback for what we're spending on Iraq.  The defense companies are living it up though, as are the politicians in our government that own stock in them.

"Up to and including the Spanish-American War, we had a prize system, and soldiers and sailors fought for money. During the Civil War they were paid bonuses, in many instances, before they went into service. The government, or states, paid as high as $1,200 for an enlistment. In the Spanish-American War they gave prize money. When we captured any vessels, the soldiers all got their share -- at least, they were supposed to. Then it was found that we could reduce the cost of wars by taking all the prize money and keeping it, but conscripting [drafting] the soldier anyway. Then soldiers couldn't bargain for their labor, Everyone else could bargain, but the soldier couldn't. "

Half of that wage (just a little more than a riveter in a shipyard or a laborer in a munitions factory safe at home made in a day) was promptly taken from him to support his dependents, so that they would not become a charge upon his community. Then we made him pay what amounted to accident insurance -- something the employer pays for in an enlightened state -- and that cost him $6 a month. He had less than $9 a month left

Last edited by trackstarr (2007-11-25 20:18:32)

yes ... been that way ever since ape man smashed in another's skull with a big bone. No big mystery to that.

Last edited by jsnipy (2007-11-25 20:21:28)

it all depends

The government invaded a country for oil, what the hell do you think?

Well, usmarine, the defence companies do make a lot of money out of wars, if not the government itself.

Dilbert_X wrote:

It's only those few who make profit from war, but certainly not the government.

The government makes no money, those IN the government make a packet.

Oh goody! I can't wait to get my check!

Oh, wait...government employees don't get bonuses. All of our salaries are publicly posted. Try again.

Dilbert_X wrote:

Many or most of the Republicans are connected with defense companies, arms companies and oil companies.
Its in their interests to start and perpetuate wars as long as possible.

And I'm sure no Democrats are connected to any of those companies...or any other companies that have made a profit off of war-time contracts. It's all the Republicans. They are evil.

Hyperbole and supposition with a little conspiracy theory thrown in...nice.

The bottomline here is that 1) the vast majority of those in government get absolutely nothing from war except unpaid overtime; and 2) those who get paid/bribed by lobbyists (ie, all of the legislative branch--both Rep and Dem) still have to turn in earnings reports every year...so why haven't they been busted by government watchdog groups?

You're trying to pin something exclusively on a single party, but that is folly. Oh, and there are some elected leaders who feel that the war has nothing to do with making corporations money and everything to do with fighting terrorism. I would hazard to say that the majority of them feel that way, with only a minority being evil enough to be actively profiteering on the war...and there's probably a nice mix of both parties in that minority group. Greed is politically agnostic.