Arms Sales

( Tomdispatch.com ) – In his message to the troops prior to the July 4th weekend, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin offered high praise indeed. “We have the greatest fighting force in human history,” he tweeted, connecting that claim to the U.S. having patriots of all colors, creeds, and backgrounds “who bravely volunteer to defend […]

Apartheid

Biden wants Israel and Saudi Arabia to Normalize, but are Riyadh’s Demands for Nuclearization a Deal Breaker?

Middle East Monitor

Dr Adnan Abu Amer AdnanAbuAmer2 ( Middle East Monitor ) – Despite US efforts to get Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalise their relations, the process keeps faltering. Israeli officials speak of a long and important list of demands made by the Kingdom to the Americans. Although a normalisation agreement with Saudi Arabia and […]

Arms Sales

How Contractor CEOs get Rich off Taxpayers

Sam Pizzigati

By Sam Pizzigati | ( Otherwords.org ) – Does anyone have a sweeter deal than military contractor CEOs? The United States spent more last year on defense than the next 10 nations combined. A deal just brokered by the White House and House Republicans increases that amount even further — to $886 billion. Defense contractors […]

Arms Sales

An Iron Curtain Has Descended on America

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Decline. It’s a word that hasn’t been much in the American vocabulary, though, as retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, historian, and TomDispatch regular William Astore suggests today, it certainly should have been. In fact, you could argue that we’re talking about 30-plus years of all-American decline, during much of which, after […]

Arms Sales

The U.S. Still Spends More on Its Military Than Over 144 Nations Combined

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Ashik Siddique | Originally published in National Priorities Project. ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – World military spending has reached a new record high of $2.24 trillion in 2022, according to new data published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). That’s up 3.7% since the previous year, including the steepest increase among […]

Arms Sales

This is not Your Grandfather’s Military-Industrial Complex: Unwarranted Influence

Tomdispatch

By Ben Freeman and William D. Hartung ( Tomdispatch.com ) – The military-industrial complex (MIC) that President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned Americans about more than 60 years ago is still alive and well. In fact, it’s consuming many more tax dollars and feeding far larger weapons producers than when Ike raised the alarm about the […]

Arms Sales

Can Iran and Russia’s Arms Swapping Sustain A Lasting Defense Partnership?

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Michael Scollon ( RFE/RL ) – When Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visited Moscow in early 2022, he had high hopes of leaving with defense deals that would circumvent international sanctions and take advantage of the expiration of a United Nations embargo on arms trading with Tehran. Russian fighter jets, advanced antimissile defense […]

Arms Sales

Congress Has Been Captured by the Arms Industry: And We’re Paying the Price (and What a Price It Is!)

William D. Hartung

( Tomdispatch.com ) – On March 13th, the Pentagon rolled out its proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024. The results were — or at least should have been — stunning, even by the standards of a department that’s used to getting what it wants when it wants it. The new Pentagon budget would come in […]

Arms Sales

Merger Mania in the Military-Industrial Complex: Tackling Pentagon Waste Means Battling the Big Weapons Makers and Asking More of Congress

Tomdispatch

By Julia Gledhill and William D. Hartung | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – It’s early in the new Congress, but lawmakers are already hotly debating spending and debt levels. As they do so, they risk losing track of an important issue hiding in plain sight: massive Pentagon waste. At least in theory, combating such excess […]