BLOG POST #8

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What Happened to The Voices of Those Against War?

So picture this, you're looking through a news article or watching a TV new's report about the newest military operation the United Sates government is doing somewhere in the globe. The reports are fairly positive about what's going on talking about the benefits, why they are doing it, the potential end result and you're slowly nodding your head silently agreeing with what's being said. Okay now what if you start seeing on the news say a war the United States gets involved in. Some people would be all for it and others wouldn't. So answer me this...

Why is it that looking back all I can recall is hearing opinions on why a particular war is a good thing to be involved in and hardly any voices that strongly oppose this said war?

Notice how we only seem to hear about strong pro-war voices and barely any strong antiwar voices in the mainstream media. Why is that? There are two very good websites that stand out to me that promote very strong antiwar voices. They are ANTIWAR.COM  and American Conservative. Up till now I had never even heard of these sites let alone knew they existed. So why does one need to seek out obscure websites in order to hear this different opinion on war? Well I believe there are two factors that play into this...

Military Break Down

Graph showing U.S. defense spending compared to other countries
The United States has historically allocated a bigger portion of its economy to defense than any other country with advanced economies. For the year 2020, the U.S. has spent $725 billion on national defense indicating that it is a key part of our budget. So, $690 billon of that money was spent by the Department of Defense on military activities alone. I think that one of the reasons we don't hear that much about antiwar voices is because our country is essentially built for war. Out of all of our resources, weapons, vehicles, and soldiers we are ready at any moments notice to go to war if we have too. I also think that with this strong sense of prioritizing the military it can be said that it would be in our benefit to go to war since we may outgun, outpower, and even outman the enemy. We definitely have the resources to carry out military operations. We also have hundreds of U.S. military bases overseas so we have a foot in the ground in other countries. I mean we have the numbers so is it really that far fetched that opposing voices are not heard about since they go against what may be a secret agenda.

2020 list of U.S. military services...

  • Active Duty Soldiers: 1,417,370
  • Firearms: 4.5 million
  • Fighter Jets: 3,318
  • Ships: 430
  • Aircraft Carriers: 20
  • Helicopters: 9,348
  • Submarines: 66
  • Military Bases: around 5,000 total (around 600 overseas)

War is Profitable 

I think a main part of why we never hear about antiwar voices is because it goes against the bigger agenda. The bigger agenda being that any type of war or conflict brings money and profit. You may not know this but the United States actually makes more money on war than any other country. Surprisingly enough, the U.S. is home to the world's ten largest defense contractors. American companies also account for 57% of the total arms sales by the world's 100 largest defense contractors. With this information, it's easy to see why war is favored. I mean there are always people who benefit from the escalation of a conflict. In this case, it's CEO's of major United States military contractors. This can be seen with the aftermath of the assassination of a top Iranian military official back in January. As soon as word got out, military contracting companie's shares prices spiked. In other words, war makes money for a lot of different people. This is definitely assentive enough for antiwar voices to be quieted so they don't corrupt or ruin the main agenda which is making money.

Top U.S. companies profiting from war...

  • Lockheed Martin Corporation- Made $44.9 billion in arms and defense contracts (makes a wide range of military aircraft, including the F-16, F-22, and F-35 fighter jets, as well as sonar technologies, ships, missile defense systems, and missiles used by the Navy)
  • Boeing- Made $26.9 billion in arms sales (makes aircrafts such as the 737, 747, 767, 777, and 787 families)
  • Raytheon- Made $25.3 billion (makes missile defense and long-range precision weapons)
  • Northrop Grumman Corporation- Made $22.4 billion (specializes in aerospace systems, innovation systems, mission systems, and technology services)
  • General Dynamics Corporation- Made $19.5 billion (makes armaments including missiles, warships, submarines, and rockets to all branches of the U.S. military)

Graph shows U.S. military contractors profiting the most than any other military contractors in other countries off of war and conflict





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