Sometimes, in the fog of whatever is the Mideast war du jour started initially under a "humanitarian intervention" pretext then quickly morphing into yet another counter-Syria campaign to appease various Saudi and Qatari emirs and princes, it is easy to lose sight over just what the purpose of said war is. Luckily, we have the US military industrial complex to remind us, and specifically weapons and ammunition specialists like General Dynamics. So here, for those confused, is a summary of the the first half of the great circle, which uses war, mass killings and civilian casualties, as a cover to deploy what else: US taxpayer money into the pocket of US corporations. Lots of it.
As Reuters reports [5], the U.S. government on Monday said it had approved the sale to Iraq of $600 million in tank ammunition manufactured by General Dynamics Corp saying it would help the Iraqi government establish an integrated ground defense capability.
In short: the Obama administration is about to give its latest puppet government in Iraq some $600 million in US taxpayer funds so said government can further arm itself in its war with a terrorist group that until recently was also being funded, trained and equipped by the US government. The beneficiary: a US company which some say is at the forefront of the US military industrial complex.
With that out of the way, here's more.
The Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency, or DSCA, notified lawmakers that the State Department had approved the sale of 10,000 M831 120m, high-explosive anti-tank munitions, 10,000 M865 120mm kinetic energy warheads and 26,000 other munitions, as well as logistics services.
DSCA said the prime contractor would be General Dynamics, maker of the M1A1 Abrams tank and the requested munitions.
The U.S. military has been conducting air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, and is seeking to strengthen the Iraqi government so it can resist the extremists more effectively.
Reuters also adds that Congress now has 30 days to block the sale, "although such action is rare since arms deals are usually vetted carefully before a congressional notification."
Actually, the reason there is rarely if every blocking of such indirect subsidies to the US Military Industrial Complex is simple, and is the other half of the circle.
It is laid out in the charts and tables below, courtesy of OpenSecrets: [6]
Here is the company's 2014 total lobbying summary:
[7]
[8]
A breakdown of the recipient party of the donation:
[9]
And the full history of General Dynamics handouts to Congress:
[10]
Bottom line: it is clear General Dynamics' recent "donations" to Congress have declined, so it is about time Congress does something serious to appease its generous MIC donors. After all, the holidays are coming fast and without those lobby dollars, how are corrupt US Congressmen supposed to celebrate Christmakkah like corrupt millionaires while their constituency wallows in ever greater poverty?
