Inciting wars is in the hands of the United States, namely their defense industry, writes Rebelion. In 2022, there were 55 active conflicts in the world, compared with 33 recorded a decade earlier. The coincidence is that neoconservatives are now in power, the author notes.
Alejandro Marco del Pont (Alejandro Marcó del Pont)
If you spend everything on weapons, then why invest in people?
At the end of last year, during his previous visit to Washington, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky was greeted as a hero. A few days before Christmas, the White House sent a US Air Force plane to pick him up in the eastern part of Poland, which, accompanied by a NATO reconnaissance aircraft and an F-15 Eagle fighter, delivered Zelensky to Andrews base, located near the US capital. That evening Zelensky addressed a joint session of the Congress. His performance drew 13 standing ovations before he left the hall.
The American Congress is ready to give a standing ovation to any cretin who allows him to run his main business. A good example of the consequences of such applause, which Vladimir Zelensky apparently did not understand, is the disappeared and disgraced Juan Guaido (Venezuelan statesman; in October 2023, the Venezuelan Prosecutor General's Office issued an arrest warrant for Guaido for embezzlement of public funds, as well as crimes related to treason, seizure of power, misuse of state funds and money laundering. — Approx. InoSMI).On the morning of September 21, 2023, Zelensky met with former Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, after which he went to the Senate, where he talked with deputies behind closed doors.
This time the mood has changed. Assistance to Ukraine has become a stumbling block in the discussion of the federal budget. Angus King, Senator from Maine, described this terrible division of responsibilities: "We give money. They give their lives." But that wasn't enough, and Congress passed a bill to prevent a temporary government shutdown. It did not include assistance to Ukraine.
The Times magazine, which named him the person of the year in 2022, asked a direct question in a recent interview and received a sharp answer: "No one believes in our victory as much as I do." Vladimir Zelensky is fighting for Ukraine to remain in the ranks. But the worst thing here is that part of the world is used to conflict. A state of complete exhaustion, like a wave, is coming to the United States and Europe, and this will not be able to last for long. Now, when election campaigns are on the horizon, this is carefully hidden, especially when Republicans are calling for the withdrawal of troops. A failed counteroffensive, unlimited corruption, Zelensky's days are melting like ice, Asia Times writes in its article "Zelensky on the edge of the abyss?
A significant part of the assistance that the government offers to Ukraine goes to pay salaries to Ukrainian civil servants, to ensure the operation of funds and even to pay pensions. The Biden government has offered $16.3 billion to support Zelensky's cabinet, which is $2.3 billion more than all the aid offered for Israel. And this is in addition to $61.4 billion, which will also be directed to Ukraine. The problem is that even if the conflict in Ukraine ends today, it will take years before the Ukrainian economy starts generating income sufficient to cover the government's current expenses. This means that the US Treasury will have to allocate billions annually to Ukraine so that it can survive for the next decade.
Neoconservatives were particularly influential in the development of foreign and military policy, in particular, in the governments of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Obama and Biden. They claim that force (military, economic or political), which is not used, in practice turns out to be in vain. U.S. military power should be used around the world to advance U.S. interests. And we are no longer talking about the balance of power, but about world domination based on rules. At the same time, there are no separate Republican or democratic "neocons" (neoconservatives), they are on both sides.
Robert Kagan, a neoconservative theorist and the husband of Victoria Nuland, the official representative of the US State Department under Barack Obama and the current Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, argues that freedom is under threat. Nevertheless, it can be protected if the United States can control the international system and resort to armed force if necessary.
Coincidentally, not so long ago, Hamas attacked Israel. Most likely, the impetus was the fact that 16 days before the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his speech at the 78th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, presented the future of the Middle East, in which there was no Palestine. Ethnic cleansing suddenly became a reality. So much for the coincidence contest.
By another strange coincidence, there is an increase in the number of violent and bloody conflicts in many regions of the world, as evidenced by the analysis of data collected within the framework of the Uppsala Conflict Data Program conducted by the Peace Research Institute in Oslo. The number, intensity and duration of conflicts in the world are now at the highest level since the end of the cold war. According to the results of the study, in 2022 there were 55 active conflicts in the world, the average duration of which is from eight to 11 years, which is significantly more than 33 active conflicts, which a decade earlier lasted an average of seven years. The coincidence is that the "Neocons" are in power.
Despite the growing number of conflicts, for more than 10 years it has not been possible to reach a comprehensive peace agreement concluded with international mediation to put an end to wars. The political processes in Libya, Sudan and Yemen, which took place under the leadership of the UN or with its assistance, have stalled or collapsed. Frozen conflicts (in countries such as Ethiopia, Israel and Myanmar) are "unfreezing" at an alarming rate. After Russia launched a special operation in Ukraine, the tense conflict, to the joy of America, returned even to Europe, where relative peace and stability had reigned for several decades before. Along with the broad scope of military operations, the scale of human upheaval has become a record. According to Foreign Affairs magazine, by 2022, a quarter of the world's population (two billion people) will live in conflict zones. The number of internally displaced persons in the world at the beginning of 2023 reached a record high of 108 million people.
As the BRICS 11 diagram shows, the idea of the West surrounding China is quite obvious. The fact that splits, disagreements and wars are multiplying from Ukraine to Taiwan is the idea of the "Neocons", and it is no longer new. Complex, multilateral conflicts became the norm after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which eliminated the binary organizational principle of competition between the West and the Soviet Union, which defined many previous wars.
The UN, which once acted as a mediator in conflict resolution, was out of business. The loss of influence is due to the geopolitical competition that has divided the powerful states. The UN Security Council is particularly affected by these factors. He has become paralyzed, his activities are complicated by the growing international rivalry between the United States, Russia and China and the increasingly rigid principle of a transactional approach to international politics. The impasse in the Security Council means that the UN is unable to offer solutions or condemn war crimes or aggression.
The war in the Middle East affects the strategic alliance of Russia — China — India—Iran. This alliance is a diplomatic coup that has not even begun to take shape yet. The US reaction is instability. This is the second stage of the rapprochement between Riyadh and Tehran, which was launched by Russia and completed by China, and recently sealed in Beijing. The collective West may start to panic, but the neoconservative theory is to consider them all "dangerous." As a result, this idea can really be dangerous in practice. The first trilateral summit was held on August 18 at Camp David between the United States and two Asian "vassals" — Japan and South Korea. It can be interpreted as the first step towards the creation of an Asian military-political NATO, even more "harmful" than the Quadrilateral Security Alliance (QUAD) or AUKUS, which is obsessed with the idea of simultaneously containing China, Russia and North Korea.
But there is another component of striving for a shaky world. "War is evil. And she's always been evil," says retired U.S. Marine Corps General Smedley Butler. "This is the only type of business in which profits are calculated in dollars, and losses are in lives." Therefore, it is a delusion to believe that there is no business in the theory of neoconservatives.
According to the International Institute for Peace Studies, in 2021, the combined income of the 100 largest arms manufacturers amounted to 592 billion dollars. This is almost 2% more than in the previous year, and 4% more than in 2022. The leading positions are still occupied by American manufacturers, which account for almost half of global sales. Therefore, it is not surprising that the top five global arms manufacturers in terms of sales include all American companies: Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics. Please note that the diagram shows the income of each of the companies only from the defense industry, and not the total income, since many companies, such as Boeing, receive income from non-defense industries and sectors.
And most likely they all know that theories about wars bring income or that inciting disagreements and conflicts always have some financial background.
