By Yan Yu
Pentagon recently said that the US State Department has approved selling weapons worth probably more than US$1.5 billion to Estonia, Norway and other countries, including about US$950 million worth of air-to-air missiles and related military equipment sold to Norway. The deal was said to help preserve America’s goals and purposes in foreign policy and national security by enhancing the security of NATO members.
Being the initiator and biggest pusher of the Ukraine crisis, the US has been making hay out of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. On the one hand, it continuously poured fuel and handed over knives by sending a large amount of weapons to Ukraine; on the other hand, it kept massaging the public opinions, imposing pressure, and exaggerating external threats to get NATO members to largely increase their defense spending. The roughly US$1.5 billion arms export deal recently approved by US State Department added yet another “green channel” for selling weapons to foreign countries.
Washington’s escorting has helped American arms dealers line their pocket. Right after the Ukraine situation got intense in October 2021, the stock price of American military industrial giants shot up quickly. After the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out in February 2022 and has kept escalating ever since, the US stock market has tumbled in general, but the stock price of military industrial behemoths like Northrop Grumman, Raytheon Company, and Boeing has risen instead.
Raytheon CEO Gregory Hayes said they will continue to provide weapons for Ukraine, and it will be good business for the next few years. Kathy Warden, President of Northrop Grumman Corporation, said in a recent interview with Britain’s Financial Times that the governments of western countries should give clear signals of their arms demand, so arms producers can make investments in advance.
As American media noted, the military industrial giants see the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a “gold mine”, and their constant “statements” are messages directed at the US government, where their friends at Washington are listening attentively, that they want the conflict to keep escalating, so they could make even more profits.
Standing behind the US arms dealers is the American military-industrial complex, an enigmatic and gigantic mega interest group comprising the US government, military, arms makers, Congress, national defense research institutes, think tanks, and the media. For many years, this group has been a “dedicated” war-monger who is eagerly fabricating imaginary enemies and providing weapons in order to make more money. It is because of this group’s prompting that the US has been instigating war and conflicts and starting an arms race around the world, so there would always be demand for weapons and the arms dealers can make a fortune out of death and destruction.
According to the global arms sale report released by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) this year, while the global volume of arms trade dropped 4.6% from the 2012-2016 period to the 2017-2021 period, America’s weapon export rose 14% in the same period, and its share in the world increased from 32% to 39%.
The price of America’s booming weapons business is world peace encountering severe threats and the whole world trapped in a security dilemma, of which the Russia-Ukraine conflict is just a tip of the iceberg. From the Gulf War to the Kosovo War, from the Afghan War to the Iraqi War, the US has made a record of bloody crimes against countless civilians and soldiers. Today, this “war machine” is still rumbling on, creating new turmoil and unrest throughout the world.
Editor's Note: This article is originally published on haiwainet.cn, and is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
