Any time there is a war and countless people in one, two or more nations die for some ideological, religious, ethnic, cultural or nationalistic "reason", two entities benefit: those who supply the weapons and those who supply the loans to buy the weapons.
And when it comes to supplying weapons to the world, in both absolute dollar and relative (as a % of GDP) terms, nobody even comes close to that paragon of democratic values, the United States of America. [10]
[11]
To be sure, back in May we wrote "How You "Boost" GDP: US Sells Over $4 Billion In Weapons To Israel, Iran And Saudi Arabia [12]" when, as the title suggested, we explained how the Great US "democracy" was spreading not only the greatest virtues of democracy to the middle-east, but every possible caliber of weapons to go with it. For a hefty price of course.
But not even we had any idea just how massive the "bumper" 2015 would be for the US military-industrial complex.
As it turns out, with many suggesting the world, already gripped in a global terrorism frenzy courtesy of the CIA-created "Islamic State", is on the verge of World War III (and with a NATO power bringing down a Russian fighter jet for the first time in over 60 years one can see where they get that idea) the result has been an unprecedented surge in demand for modern weapons of all shapes and sizes... made in the US.
Demand so high, in fact, that the US simply can't keep up.
According to Reuters [13], the U.S. government is working hard to ensure quicker processing of U.S. foreign arms sales, which surged 36 percent to $46.6 billion in fiscal 2015 and look set to remain strong in coming years, a top Pentagon official said.
Well of course demand will remain strong: after all that's what the CIA is for - to destabilize the world, to install puppet governments and to assure that the shareholders of Lockheed, Raytheon, Boeing and General Dynamics have year after record year.
Here is why the US loves a "contained" world war:
"Projections are still strong," Vice Admiral Joe Rixey, who heads the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), told Reuters in an interview late on Monday.
He said the agency was trying to sort out the impact of a much stronger-than-expected fourth quarter as it finalized its forecast for arms sales in fiscal 2016, which began Oct. 1.
The fight against Islamic State militants and other armed conflicts around the globe were fueling demand for U.S. missile defense equipment, helicopters and munitions, Rixey said, a shift from 10 years ago when the focus was on fighter jets.
Odd: it is almost as if the US would have had the greatest benefit in creating the Islamic State. Oh wait [14].
And before someone gets offended by the "World War" moniker, it's not ours, it's the Pentagons:
"It's worldwide. The demand signal is coming in Europe, in the Pacific and in Centcom," he said, referring to the U.S. Central Command region, which includes the Middle East and Afghanistan.
It has gotten so bad, the US is too backlogged, and isunable to deliver on time the weapons the world needs to fight the conflicts that the US stirs:
U.S. companies and some foreign countries have expressed growing frustration in recent months about delays in arms sales approvals. They argue that the U.S. government has not expanded its capacity to process arms deals despite a big spike in such transactions.
Jeff Kohler, Boeing Co's (BA.N) vice president for international business development, said earlier this month he and his Gulf customers were "a little frustrated" with delays in getting U.S. approvals for fighter jet sales.
A $3 billion deal for 28 Boeing F/A-18E/F fighter jets for Kuwait, and a separate Qatari deal for F-15 fighters, have been delayed for some time.
What can possibly derail this war machine which literally converts deaths to profits? The answer, it appears, is budgetary cutbacks:
Rixey said DSCA was keeping up with surging arms sales requests largely through process improvements and better training, but he warned that potential cuts in Pentagon headquarters funding could pose a problem.
Clearly we can't have less people getting killed around the globe just because Congress didn't apportion enough blood money to the Pentagon.
Meanwhile, the world is literally arming itself at a rate suggesting world war is around the corner: "DSCA is handling a total of 13,500 cases with a total value of $461 billion. Last year's total was the biggest yet, outside of a spike caused by Saudi fighter jet sales in 2012."
Rixey said his agency was coordinating more closely with the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Commerce Department and other Pentagon agencies and leaders to advocate for U.S. arms sales as a key instrument of U.S. foreign policy.
He said requests from countries that were "well-behaved" and protected U.S. technology were generally processed quickly, but the U.S. government would take its time vetting sales to countries with weaker records on human rights and technology.
It would take its time, but in the end it will always say yes. Because the punchline is that "Rixey said some munitions had also been sold from U.S. military reserves to ensure that they were available to allies quicker."
Because when profits are at stake, who cares about the safety of one's own people? After all, one must keep the global war profit machine running at full speed at every given moment.
Confused? Then watch these two movies.
