William Rivers Pitt takes on the heart of the problem with this essay on the power and influence of what Eisenhower termed “The Military-Industrial Complex” (actually, his original statement referred to it by it’s more appropriate moniker of “Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex”).

Only the dead, said Plato, have seen the end of war. As true as this may be, it does beg the question: why? Why is there so much conflict in the world? Why are there so many wars? Ethnic and religious tensions have been casus belli since time out of mind, to be sure. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War ruptured a framework that held for almost fifty years, bringing about a series of conflicts that are understandable in hindsight.

There is a simpler answer, however, one that lands right in our back yard here in America. Why so much war? Because war is a profitable enterprise. George W. Bush and his people can hold forth about the wonders of democracy and peace, and can condemn worldwide violence in solemn tones. Until the United States stops being the world’s largest arms dealer, these words from our government absolutely reek of hypocrisy.

As Chalmers Johnson stated in Eugene Jarecki’s film “Why We Fight” in reference to the dramatically increasing profits being reaped by the weapons manufacturers in the last couple years, “When war becomes that profitable, you’re going to see a lot more of it.”

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