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Perpetual War – Perpetual Profit

Without Prejudice



by Michael Wood

Julian Assange in a video interview stated:  “The goal is not to completely take over Afghanistan, the goal is to use Afghanistan to wash money out of the tax bases of the United States and European countries through Afghanistan and back into the hands of the transnationalist corporations, that is the goal i.e. the goal is to have an endless war not a successful war.”

Obviously Afghanistan as a war was running out of credibility after twenty years and it had to be replaced and so the process of stirring up Ukraine began and so US forces left Afghanistan on the 30th of  August 2021 and lo and behold, Ukraine ordered its forces to full scale attack on Donbas on the 21st of February 2022 and Russia moved in to support those two states on the 24th of February 2022. By the 6th of March 2022, in less than a week, the United States and NATO pushed more than 17,000 antitank weapons, including Javelin missiles, over the borders of Poland and Romania, so they could make the trip by land to Ukraine.

Isn’t that a neat fit?  Just six months and war starts up again and the Americans are sending semi obsolete arms and ammunition to the Ukraine, and signing up the US defence industry to replace them.  Its lovely – business as usual – let’s see how long we can keep this one going.  Hence the ongoing drip of money and munitions, just enough to keep it running.

America has had wars going on pretty well every year for the last 75 years, and of course the great American defence corporations Lockheed Martin Corporation, Raytheon Technologies Corporation, The Boeing Co., General Dynamics Corporation, and Northrop Grumman Corporation all scurry down to the bank …….. oh yes …. and their joint largest single investor  … the shadowy BlackRock Corporation which controls it all.  Oh and BlackRock has just signed a deal with the Ukrainian government to rebuild infrastructure when the war stops …. win-win.

Most recent Western Main Stream Media reports on the supply of 155mm artillery shells by the Republic Of Korea to the US fail to specify the name of the manufacturer as well as the unit cost. The article from Army Recognition, from 31st of May 2022, gives the main supplier as Poongsan Corporation; and a 13th of  April 2023 article in the Washington Post also refers to Poongsan near the end. The Army Recognition article reports that the Canadian government paid $77 million last year for 20,000 rounds of 155mm artillery shells; they were bought from the US on behalf of Ukraine, and 100,000 additional units supplied by Poongsan were to replenish Canadian stocks. Using this deal as a rough measure, $77 million for 20,000 shells works out to $3,850 per unit. According to reports, the US purchased 100,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition from the Republic Of Korea last year, most likely from Poongsan. An additional 500,000 units “loaned” or “supplied” to the US this year would mean up to 600,000 units in sales for Poongsan. At roughly $3,850 per unit, that works out to $2,310,000,000. Poongsan has among its top shareholders: the shadowy Vanguard and BlackRock corporations, as well as Texas-based Dimensional Fund Advisors and San Francisco-based Charles Schwab Investment Management. In other words, whether it is US, ROK or Canadian taxpayers footing the bill, US-based Big Capital corporations make the profits ….. from US taxpayers. The incentives to continue the Ukraine War are only too obvious, given that it is such a profitable racket.

The American military budget for the fiscal year of the Trump administration was $886 billion, up from $767 billion in 2016. This massive amount is the second largest item in the country’s budget after social security. It is four times more than China’s military budget of $216 billion, and 10 times bigger than Russia’s budget of just $84.5 billion. In total, the United States spends more on “defence” than the next nine countries combined.

Who profits most from this vast expenditure on the trappings of warfare? Obviously it’s the big arms companies. It’s difficult to find out how much of the colossal U.S. military budget each of them receives. The latest figures I could find (undoubtedly not up to date) were $36 billion for Lochhead Martin, $27.6 billion for Boeing, 26.9 billion for BAE Systems, $22.5 billion for Raytheon, and $21.6 billion for General Dynamics. But there are dozens of other arms producers that are also awarded contracts. Together, they probably receive and profit from at least half, more likely two-thirds, of that huge $886 billion war bonanza.

These corporations depend on the United States being continually at war against some country somewhere – and against terrorists everywhere. The weapons of war they produce are made to be used, not stockpiled.

So it’s not surprising that these corporations keep beating the war drums, keep donating millions of dollars to the election campaigns of warmongering politicians – or even politicians who fear the economic collapse that could result from the closure of the country’s war plants and the consequent loss of a million or more jobs.

However, it does not end there.  War is big business and the rule, if you want to know what is really going on is to “follow the money”.

It is worthwhile remembering that these huge corporations are actually answerable to no one – not even their own shareholders.  They are so big, that they in many cases are larger than some nations in financial terms.  More to the point they never need actually die – the world’s oldest continuously operating company is the Japanese construction company Kongō Gumi which dates from AD 578 – that’s right AD578 – 1,440 years in continuous business.  When it comes to arms manufacturers, Beretta the famous firearms manufacturer has been in business since 1526 – nearly five hundred years.  There is money in arms making.  These companies outlive humans and any morals or policies their humans might have are long lost in survival and wealth making.

Most of the really big companies have their shares owned largely by other big organisations, themselves having their shares owned by other large organisations.  There is therefore no morality involved, they do as they wish.

For instance the British company BAE Systems, the third largest arms company in the world has

as its top shareholders:

Even its smaller shareholders are mostly companies.

Those huge companies love two things:  Big government (the bigger the better) and war.  Why big government?  Because the further removed the government is from the people, the easier it is to lobby, influence and corrupt free from public surveillance.  Why war?   Because there is always a lot of money to be made in war.  Someone, somewhere makes the guns, the ammunition, the petrol, the aircraft, the tanks , the other vehicles, the missiles the electronics.  War is VERY big business and has been for a very long time.

I want you to understand that it is in the interests of these huge corporations for wars to exist.  America has been at war somewhere in the world for 75.  The American corporations, Ford and General motors sold army vehicles and aircraft engines to Germany, Britain and America throughout World War II.  Oh yes, war makes huge profits.

BlackRock and Vanguard are two of the Big Three  American asset management firms. The third, State Street, is owned by BlackRock whose largest shareholder is Vanguard. So the three firms are fully intertwined with common board members.  Interlocking directorates,  connect them to MSM corporate media  and Defence Industry to the state, the Pentagon, defence and arms manufacturers the oil industry and big pharma.   All done through BlackRock’s investments and ability to steer the major firms in these industries.

BlackRock, Inc. is based in New York City and is the world’s largest asset manager, with US$10 trillion in assets under management as of January 2022. BlackRock operates globally with 70 offices in 30 countries, and clients in 100 countries.  Along with Vanguard, which has cross ownership with BlackRock and a further £3 trillion in assets under management, they dominate the American Defence, Media and Pharmaceutical industries.  Defence profits considerably from the war, the continuum of the Korean War, the Vietnam War ttoger with the overarching he overall Cold War, Gulf Wars 1 & 2, Iraq War, interspersed with nice little warsv just about everywhere, then the 20 year Afghanistan War and now the Ukraine War keep the enormous profits flowing in.   Main Stream Media ensures that the public are onside and BlackRock has presence on ALL MSM boards. Big Pharma has multiple high risk laboratories in the Ukraine and BlackRock has presence on ALL the big pharma boards.  The American presidential family owns oil assets in the Ukraine.

BlackRock Financial Markets Advisory and the Ukrainian Ministry of Economy signed a memorandum of understanding in November 2022.  President Zelenskyy and BlackRock CEO Fink agreed to “focus in the near term on coordinating the efforts of all potential investors and participants in the reconstruction of Ukraine, channelling investment into the most relevant and impactful sectors of the Ukrainian economy.”

So, go back to Julian Assange “ ……… the goal is to use (Afghanistan)  war  to wash money out of the tax bases of the United States and European countries through (Afghanistan) war and back into the hands of the transnationalist corporations, that is the goal i.e. the goal is to have an endless war not a successful war”   BlackRock/Vanguard/State Street along with the large gang of American finance houses – all working in unison, keep the war waggon trundling along, and incidentally the corrupt politicians of the rest of the western world just join in….. for the money…..while we, the taxpayers fund the totally unnecessary money-go-round into their pockets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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