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Imagine this. Washington's 2023 defence budget is 50% of South Korea's 2023 GDP of $1.8 trillion. The American defence budget is 40 % of the global defence budget of $ 2.2 trillion.
The big five: Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics gets as much as $150 billion out of the defence budget.
Think Tanks
The think tanks play major role in perpetuating the American wars. Their function is to produce reports and papers to show the seriousness of crisis and the need for increasing military budget so that the crisis can be tackled by military force.
The following shows how some major think tanks are lavishly funded by war corporations. The data are provided by a Global Research paper. (Amanda Yeo: Six War Managing Think Tank and the Military Contractors that fund them, March 7, 2023)
The Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS)
The CSIS received in 2022 $100,000 or more from following war corporations: Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, SAIC, Bechtel, Cummings, Hitachi, Hanhwa Group, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Mitsubishi Corp., Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Raytheon, Samsung.
The Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
The CNAS received in 2021, $50,000 or more from the following war corporations: Huntington Ingalls Group, Neal Blue, BAE System, Booz Allen, Hamilton Intel Corp, General Dynamics.
Hudson Institute (HI)
The HI got, in 2021, $50,000 or more from the following war corporations: General Atomics, Linden Blue, Neal Blue, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Mitsubishi.
The Atlantic Council (AC)
In 2021, the AC received $50,000 or more from the following war corporations: Airbus, Neal Blue, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and SAIC.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)
The IISS was given, in 2021, $25,000 or more by the following war corporations: BAE System, Boeing, General Atomics, Raytheon, Rolls-Royce, Northrop Grumman.
There was a case where a think tank expressed an "expert opinion" in order to protect the interest of its sponsor (war corporation). It happened on August 12, 2021.
The huge military contractor CACI which had a contract of $907 million for 5 years in Afghanistan was disappointed of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which meant its profit loss.
Its thin tank was the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). The president of ISW, Kimberly Kagan declared that the U.S. withdrawal would make Afghanistan to become the second ground of Jihadism. By the way, retired General Jack Keane is a member of IWS.
Pressure Group
The pressure groups are led by individuals well connected to war corporations, the Pentagon and the congress. The following is the partial list of pressure groups
• The Aerospace Industry Association(AIA): Its CEO is the former vice-president of a company producing rockets. AIA represents more than 340 aerospace and defence corporation
• The National Defence Industry Association (NDIA) has
1,600 members
• The political Action Committee
• The Association of United States Army(AUSA): It produces
Industry Guide for war corporations
• Business Executives for National Security (BENS), It is composed of non-profit 450 business executives who discuss security issues
• The Association of Old Crows (AOC), It is a brotherhood of electronic war veterans and leaders of war. It is supported by war corporations such as AECOM and Raytheon
• The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronomics
(AIAA)
• The National Security Resource Board
• The War Dept Defence Policy Board
Pro-War Media
Most of American media are pro-war. There are several reasons why the media are not critical of the perpetual war, if not being outright pro-war.
First, Being corporate media, they are mainly concerned with making money rather than being concerned with the collective wellbeing of the American society.
The Corporate Media including CNN, MSMBC, Fox News attach program priority to the rating. They have no opinion about the awfully destructive consequences of the perpetual war. Even if they have some useful opinion they do not dare to express them. When they express some opinion, they are usually the opinion of the elite class.
Second, it has been the long tradition in the U.S. that the media do not criticize the government.
Third, the government censor the media, especially, the off-line media.
Fourth, the numbers of media are directly related to the war industry. For example, in the Defence News, T. Michael Mosely, retired 4-star Air Force general wrote in April 2019 that the Air Force was woefully under equipped.
There is a long list of pro-war media mostly armed forces related media.
Fifth, war corporations openly put pressure on the media not to mention the root of war. For example, "General Dynamics wants corporate media never to question the root cause of the war." (Sorensen p: p.72)
Sixth, the Smith Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 allows greater propaganda on corporate media.
To sum up, the demand for war is formed by the coordinated pro-war opinions created by the war corporations, the think tanks, the pressure groups and the media. These opinions are transmitted to the Pentagon, which determine the size of financial and human resources to be allocated to the war.
The remarkable coordination among these individuals and organizations looks like a well prepared symphony orchestra. The think tanks play violin to make sweet sound for the war corporations; the pressure groups play trumpet to make the sound louder; the media play drums to draw attention of the public to the necessity of wars. All these players are conducted by the war corporations.
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