"War Machine" in the United States

The Russian -Ukraine conflict has lasted for more than 4 months, and there is a pair of "big hands" behind it manipulating the war situation in secret, that is, the military composite, including the US military fire dealers. In the guise of "preventing aggression", the United States has continuously increased military assistance to Ukraine. The essence is to hope that the Russian -Ukraine conflict will continue to facilitate the maximum of the United States and its military industry to obtain strategic and economic benefits to the maximum extent.

The increasingly expanded "war machine"

Military workers are huge interest groups formed by the structural association between the American war machine and the economic system. They mainly include military industrial enterprises, military scientific research institutions, lobbying planning organizations, and government diplomacy and military departments, and relevant members of Congress.

The US military complex originated in World War II. Prior to this, most of the military fires required by the United States relied on civilian industries, and the government itself had only a small amount of military shipyard and weapon manufacturing facilities. At the beginning of World War II, the U.S. government established the war production committee to coordinate the civilian industry and transform it into war production.

After the war, these "war machines" were not demolished. Instead, some arms giants have maintained and expanded the business of the defense department and maintained close contact with the government. The Korean War in the 1950s and the Vietnam War in the 1960s all became important time nodes for military complex to expand significantly.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the US Department of Defense integrated the military fire defense contractor. Later, the United States had five major military industry giants such as Boeing, Loma, and Thor. Although these giants are full of industrial enterprises in the market, they are closely related to US diplomacy and national defense departments.

More than 4,000 military -related lobbying groups have huge influence

As the main actor of the military complex, US military enterprises and lobbying groups related to them have a huge impact on US diplomacy and national defense policies. There are three main influence pathways: lobbying outside the hospital, creating public opinion, and impacting elections.

At present, more than 4,000 military -related lobbying groups are active in American politics, which put pressure on government officials in various ways. For example, participate in legislative, administrative decisions, and related activities of the federal government; invite government officials to participate in private social activities, express their own positions and demands on this platform; provide politicians with many free benefits.

At the same time, military industry enterprises and their lobbying groups are accustomed to using the influence of the authority of the academic community to mobilize the emotions of internal employees and shareholders of the military enterprises, conduct television and network publicity, guide domestic public opinion, and put pressure on the decision -making department.

In addition, in the U.S. president, governor and parliamentary elections at all levels, military industry companies and their lobbying groups will provide strong economic support for their favorite candidates. Military industry companies and their lobbying groups are very good at attracting the attention of the media and administrative departments through packaging to promote the decision -making agenda that promotes the issues that are good for themselves. At the same time, once it is found that certain issues have not developed in the direction of their hope, they will quickly contact MPs of Congress through social capital and ask Congress to supervise and check the relevant behavior of administrative departments through hearing and legislation.

In military issues, military industrial enterprises and related think tanks often have obvious information resources and intelligence advantages, and they can usually master comprehensive information faster and better than the decision -making department. When formulating foreign policies, the government will also regularly hire technical experts for analysis and research, and these technical experts generally have a complex connection with military enterprises and related think tanks.

Blood debt is tired, the source of turmoil

Since World War II, the United States has become the world's largest weapon exporter, and its weapon exports account for more than one -third of the total global weapon exports, which can be described as a big war.

According to data released by the US non -governmental organization's "defending public interests", in the 20 years of the Afghanistan war, the return on the return on stocks of Roma, Nosro Pan Gruman, Boeing, and GM is as high as 1236%, 1196%, 975%, and, and,,,,,,,,,,, are 625%. The "War Cost" research report in Brown University in the United States shows that since the launch of the Afghanistan war in 2001, US military expenditure spending exceeded more than $ 14 trillion, of which 1/3 to half fell into the hands of U.S. military industry companies.

After the outbreak of the Russian -Ukraine conflict this year, the United States not only did not persuade and talk, but also poured oil on fire to provide a large number of weapons for Ukraine. The US government, as a special "salesman" as a military industry, has prompted its stock price to rise sharply. Since the upgrade of the conflict, Loma's stock price has soared 30%between January and March, the stock price of Nosropp Gehman and General Power Company rose by about 20%, and the stock price of Leishen Company rose about 10%.

Some American politicians also made a lot of money. Many members of Congress or their spouse hold the shares of the arms company, especially Thor, and Loma. In the context of the continuous Russia -Ukraine conflict, the two arms vendors are expected to receive a huge profit of billions of dollars.

While the US military composite exports arms output, it has not let go of the domestic market. As we all know, the number of gun shops in the United States is the same as that of pharmacies, and its guns have the number one in the world. The American population accounts for only 5%of the global population, but it has 46%of the world's guns. There are nearly 400 million firearms in the hands of civilians, and there are about 120 guns per 100 people in their hands, which leads to countless injustice in the United States.

Picture source: Visual China

Whenever there is a gun -related case, the problem of "shot control" in the American society will be raised, but the result is always gone. The reason why firearms have been banned more often, in addition to the laws and regulations of the United States and traditional habits, it also has a great relationship with the political and economic benefits of military composite. A report from the National Football Foundation of the United States shows that the size of the US gun and ammunition market has continued to grow in recent years, reaching $ 70.5 billion last year. There are more and more Americans who have chosen guns, and 5.4 million new gunmen were added last year. Various famous military machinery factories in the United States, such as Leiming, Watson, and Cost Smith, will allocate huge funds to NRA (National Rifle Association) to thank NRA for their support for the US military industry.

In order to keep the vested interests, NRA Gan Dang's "pioneer" of anti -control guns. On the one hand, it is publicly promoted to the society that "shooting is a human disaster rather than a gun accident", which affects American voters and consolidate the culture of guns. On the other hand, politicians who oppose the shot -controlling position through political contributions, lobbying, etc. to form a close interest exchange relationship.

It is not difficult to predict that in the future, the military complex will still be tied up with the US government, such as shadows, and in depth, and will set off a round of turmoil and uneasiness globally and in the United States.

Source: "Half Moon Talk Internal Edition" 2022, No. 7

Author: Lang Shunzheng (the author is a special researcher at Yuanwang Think Tank, a researcher at the Chahar Society, a member of the Chinese Command and Control Society) | Editor: Yi Yuan

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