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The Profits Side of the War in Ukraine

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The Profits Side of the War in Ukraine

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Submitted by Eric Zuesse

The war business is extremely profitable, because governments are willing to spend anything in order to win. In a country such as Russia, where all of the weapons-manufacturing firms are 50%+ owned by (controlled by, and serve) the Government itself, profits are not the main objective, national-defense is; but, in a fully (or nearly fully) capitalist country, such as the U.S. and its allies, the people who control the decisions are actually private investors, and profits are their main (or only) objective; and, so, the controlling investors in ‘defense’ firms hire agents (including politicians) in order to control each of their main markets, which are their own country and the countries that those investors are allied with. Also, in order for their weapons to be able to be used, target-nations are needed, whom those armaments-investors (and their news-media) declare to be their nations’ “enemies” and consequently to be lands that their weapons should be targeted against (if “enemy”) or to defend (if “ally”). Both “allies” and “enemies” are needed, in order for these investors to have a thriving armaments industry; and both “allies” and “enemies” are needed in order for those companies to have markets (their own nation, and its “allies”) and to have targets (the “enemies”). The key here is that in order to maximize the profits of armaments-firms’ investors, they need to control their own Government, because that Government will determine which other nations are also markets (“us”), and which other nations are instead targets (“them,” or “enemies”). These investors therefore need to control, above all, their own Government, in order for them to succeed, to be, themselves, “winners” at the investing-game. These investors also tend to control their nation’s ‘news’media, because those businesses validate the Government’s “allies” and “enemies”; and thereby validate its invasions (so as to pump their weapons-sales). And this is the way that capitalism functions; and it is the way that imperialism (which is a natural adjunct to capitalism, because capitalism serves investors above all — not workers, nor consumers, but specifically investors) has always functioned, in order to produce wars (which serve only the wealthiest).

Perhaps the world’s largest and most effective marketing organization for U.S.-and-allied armaments manufacturers is NATO, but many others (perhaps not so well known) also exist, and sometimes provide more candid information to the public.

Here are relevant highlights from an interview with Ukraine’s Government, at a major recent international trade-show by U.S.-and-allied weapons manufacturers, as published by the trade magazine for America’s armaments-industry, National Defense, whose publisher is the National Defense Industrial Association:

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https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2022/6/15/ukraine-to-us-defense-industry-we-need-long-range-precision-weapons
https://archive.ph/Hwrwq

“BREAKING: Ukraine to U.S. Defense Industry: We Need Long-Range, Precision Weapons (UPDATED)”
by Stew Magnuson, 15 June 2022
The war-torn nation desperately needs artillery and artillery rounds, but what can truly give it the upper hand over its Russian invaders are long-range precision weapons such as armed Predator drones, loitering munitions and the multiple launch rocket system.
Denys Sharapov, Ukraine’s deputy minister of the defense in charge of procurement, support for weapons and equipment, and Brig. Gen. Volodymyr Karpenko, land forces command logistics commander, spoke with National Defense Editor in Chief Stew Magnuson and other reporters through an interpreter in the Ukraine Ministry of Defense’s booth at the Eurosatory conference in Paris on June 15. …
At Eurosatory this week, you’re meeting a lot of defense companies. What are your expectations since they normally sell through their own countries? What’s the purpose of talking with companies and not countries?
Sharapov: So those are parallel processes. There are constant government negotiations on all levels, diplomatic levels, military levels, ministry-to-ministry — both ministers of foreign affairs, ministers of defense — I believe this is not only an ongoing dialogue, but this is unprecedented dialogue.

It doesn’t matter whether we work with private enterprises or government enterprises, any weapon transfer is made upon the decision of the government. So that’s why we are really hoping for the support of those governments. …

Our readers are about 1,800 corporate members of the defense industrial base in the United States. What message do you have for them? And what do you need from them urgently?

Sharapov: The [Ministry of Defense] is concentrating currently on fulfilling all the needs of the armed forces. You asked a question about needs. First, you have to understand that the frontline is 2,500 kilometers long. The frontline where there is active combat in more than 1,000 kilometers long. That’s like from Kyiv to Berlin. … As of today, all the people in all of our armed forces and within the defense and security sector is up to one million people. And we have to support them all. We have to supply them with small arms, with personal protection gear and with the means of communication. …

We have received a large number of weapon systems, but unfortunately with such a massively expendable resource, it only covers 10 to 15 percent of our needs. We need artillery, we need artillery rounds, infantry fighting vehicles, combat vehicles, tanks. We really need air-defense systems and the multiple launch rocket system.

Also, high-precision weapon systems, because we believe that high-precision weapon systems will give us an edge over the enemy, the upper hand in this war.

There is a debate in the United States about whether to send Ukraine armed Predator drones. How important are they to your fight?

Sharapov: The party that will win in this war will be the party that will first start using contemporary high precision equipment and weapon systems. And those drones that you mentioned, they are a part of the modernized, highly accurate, highly precise, modern equipment. …

As of today, we have approximately 30 to 40, sometimes up to 50 percent of losses of equipment as a result of active combat. So, we have lost approximately 50 percent. Approximately 1,300 infantry fighting vehicles have been lost, 400 tanks, 700 artillery systems. …

Equipment that has gone to the rear of the frontline is maintained solely by Ukrainian specialists that have been trained by different foreign companies for that specific purpose. …

Quite unfortunately for us, we have become the biggest consumer of weapons and ammunition in the world. And we’re hoping to receive support from the entire Europe and the entire world. …
At Eurosatory this week, you’re meeting a lot of defense companies. What are your expectations since they normally sell through their own countries? What’s the purpose of talking with companies and not countries? …

We really expect that the governments we’re cooperating with will fully support their weapons factories in support of Ukraine.

My first Eurosatory was 20 years ago. And all those years Ukraine was a seller of weapons. And this is the first exhibition when instead of being a seller of the weapons, we have become the largest consumer. This is the first year of Eurosatory where we are represented not by our industry, but instead by our ministry of defense, who is the consumer, who is the client, the purchaser of all these weapon systems. …

You can trust us with your weapons, your technologies, to use them to best of our abilities. We know how to use them. We know how to fight a war with them.
And it is largely due to the efforts of the Ukrainian armed forces that many foreign brands are currently on the front pages of newspapers. People are naming their children Javelin.

——

A good example of how this works is that Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, which is one of America’s leading marketers of U.S. invasions and wars; and his Amazon Web Services subsidiary supplies the cloud-computing services to the Pentagon, CIA, NSA, and entire Intelligence Community; so, he, himself (as Amazon’s top stockholder), is a major U.S. Government contractor. Subscribers to news-media in America are paying subscription fees in order to be inundated constantly with propaganda to increase the sales by contractors to the U.S. Government. The controlling investors derive part of their wealth (in Bezos’s case, a major part of it) from their Government, and another part of their wealth from selling to the subscribers to (and advertisers in) their publications and news-networks the propaganda that will cause the U.S. public to vote for their preferred political candidates and against the ones that those investors don’t prefer. This makes the entire operation “democratic,” even if the winning candidates of each of the two political Parties — both candidates — back even larger ‘defense’ expenditures by the one government in the world, the U.S. Government, that already spends approximately half of the entire world’s costs for ‘defense’.

The United States Government, and the Governments in Europe, don’t have enough money to protect the health of their people, and to provide the educational systems that they need, and to reduce crime, and to maintain and improve the infrastructure for them, but instead are prioritizing weapons-production, in order to defeat Russia on the battlefield of Ukraine, which borders Russia. That is their top priority. Ukraine has threatened Russia ever since Obama’s coup there in 2014. That was the opening round of World War III. Ukraine is an authentic national-security interest of Russia, because it’s on Russia’s doostep. That’s why Obama grabbed it. But Ukraine isn’t an authentic national-security interest of the United States, nor even of other nations in Europe. None of them were not only on Russia’s border but couped by the U.S. Government in 2014 and thereby transformed from being neutral to being rabidly anti-Russian. Russia struck back on 24 February 2022, which precipitated the current explosive boom for U.S.-and-allied armaments firms and their investors. Those investors are being well served by their Governments. But those nations’ publics are not. Is this democracy? Or is it instead fascism? Will one find reliable, trustworthy, evidence on that matter, in the newsmedia to which one has subscribed? In a time of war, should one seek-out to access, on a regular basis, especially newsmedia from countries that one’s own Government labels as being “enemies”? In a capitalist country, how can a person intelligently seek-out truth regarding international relations? It’s a real problem. Therefore, it is a problem that’s ridiculed (as ‘conspiracy theory’ or such) by all of the mainstream media in those countries. Sometimes, some things are too true to be publishable within the mainstream. That’s especially common in a dictatorship. Anyway, it is the case in U.S.-and-allied countries today.

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Donnchadh

In the UK the public are called the “little people ” and only require the attention of companies/shareholders at national voting time,the two parties at the top Tory & Labour aren’t much different when it comes down to obeying their Masters USA/City . The USA is more open about Big Business running the country but young people are fed up with “no choice ” and starting to speak out.

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Jay

Gaydar gave up today. Severodonetsk is now completely liberated.

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Elpocho

When people around the world are going to shun their currencies their leverage will simply vanish. They produce nothing unique, they live off others resources, they think because they are USA plus EU can threaten people into submission. good thing they are getting their theet smashed in Ukraine. Every foreign mercenary killed or maimed in Ukraine I gain a day more on earth.

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BanderiteLivesDon'tMatter

“Zelensky vows to retake south, NATO chief warns of long war” look back in 2 years and the fleeting country called Ukraine will have disappeared from the common Map of the planet in less than 50 yrs existence. I have hope that Neither Lithuania, Latvia or Estonia exist at that time either. as far as I can tell, Russia should kick in the rotten door that is europa and fumigate. The only thing Zelensky will be taking is 9 oz of lead when his “generals(LMFAO)” shoot him in the back of the head for being a “Traitor” to ukraine. this delusional little smeckle must be doing HUGE lines to be that delusional in the face of the obvious. 100,000 dead+ 50% material loss backpedaling everywhere I would keep your national anthem playing 24-7 as it may be the last time you hear it.

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Last edited 2 years ago by BanderiteLivesDon'tMatter
Bobo

Halliburton was the big MIC company during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Halliburton owned by Dick Chaney who was then American Vice president. Billions of dollars in us government contracts for military equipment. Same as Nancy Pelosi the bushes Clinton and Obama all have their dirty paws in the cookie jar

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Are the Ukrainian troops winning from the boilers?

A blow was struck at the control point of the operational-strategic grouping of troops “Alexandria” in the Dnipropetrovsk region during a meeting of the command staff. More than 50 generals and officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed. – the end of fascists. ▪Ten 155-mm M777 howitzers and up to 20 armored combat vehicles were destroyed in Mykolaiv

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Last edited 2 years ago by Are the Ukrainian troops winning from the boilers?
BanderiteLivesDon'tMatter

the crack head was in Mykolaiv yesterday :) Russia sends postcards personally

Jasonovich

Capitulation of the Ukraine forces draws even more closer each time they receive a fresh shipment of the inferior US/NATO weaponry, nevertheless US war economy is flourishing and at the same time, the Nazis are dying, the Jew oligarchs are tucked up safe in Tel Aviv and, much of the stolen Ukraine territory to the East is going back to the motherland. My point, the price of US capitalist greed is strategic suicide and if this campaign was to weaken Russia, then I will hit my honk, and say this has been an epic failure, Russia will grow stronger from this and this will be the catalyst that sinks Europe and the US into the dark abyss.

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Peter Jennings

Just a few snippets…

‘You can trust us with your weapons, your technologies, to use them to best of our abilities. We know how to use them.’

‘sometimes up to 50 percent of losses of equipment…’

‘Approximately 1,300 infantry fighting vehicles have been lost, 400 tanks, 700 artillery systems…’

I imagine the losses are way higher. Sharapov seems to have left out the aircraft losses. It also seems the Ukrainian forces are more adept at losing this equipment than using this equipment.

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BanderiteLivesDon'tMatter

Russians With Attitude @RWApodcast · 38m Russian MOD claims that one of yesterday’s Kalibr missile strikes in Dnepropetrovsk oblast hit an AFU command post, killing over 50 officers, including generals

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BanderiteLivesDon'tMatter

Would anyone like some soy sauce for their feet?

Authored by Douglas MacGregor via The American Conservative

After lying for months, the media are preparing the public for Ukraine’s military collapse…

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good4u

Narrative is changing. Ukraine is being slowly pushed under the bus by West. Even the trolls are changing their narrative: “Russia is conquering destroyed cities that no one wants and they will have to pay for re-built, etc.”

Jay

50 dead generals a day, keeps the fascists away.

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Tommy Jensen

“Winning By Loosing” the WBL strategy, a new concept by our US Military Academy. By continuing sending new old weapons to Ukraine and let Russia spend money and personal on shooting them down and blowing them up. Russia will over time get exhausted and their national bank account will get lower and lower until it is complete empty, and Kremlin has to beg for our usury loans………………………LOL. Thats how we are winning by loosing………………………..LOL.

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Martin Rapavý

Kramer: “Declassified materials show unmistakably that no such pledge was made.”

Bertrand Arthur William Russell: “Declassified observations show unmistakably that no such cosmic teapot revolves the Earth.”

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