profiteers

I was going for kind of a Nascar sponsorship theme with these tanks. Their numbers are obviously the last three presidents that have overseen the never ending wars the U.S. has been in the last 2 decades as well the threats they have made to countries like Iran and Venezuela recently. The logos I chose are all companies that benefit from this.

MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, and the New York Times are on here because of their roles in pushing public support for American military actions and misrepresenting foreign threats. From helping to push the government lie about weapons of mass destruction that lead to the Iraq invasion, constantly pushing fear about impending war with North Korea, justifying a possible attack on Iran, and cheerleading the idea of intervening in Venezuelan politics to name a few. These news networks often feature retired military personnel to provide analysis on military operations without disclosing their conflicts of interests. Many of them are working as defense contractors who have a financial interest in war.

Many of the companies are what we traditionally think of as defense contractors. Their main business is building the things we use to go to war. General Dynamics builds the tank these are modeled on as well as nuclear submarines. Honeywell builds components for military aircraft. GE supplies the military with technology for military vehicles. Lockheed Martin and Raytheon make missiles and missile systems. Northrop Grumman and Boeing produce bombers, drones, and other military aircraft. During Obama’s time in office almost 90% of the people killed in drone strikes were not the intended target. The exact numbers of civilians killed between 2009 - 2016 is estimated to be between 7.27% and 15.47%. In March of 2019 President Trump cancelled the reporting of civilian casualty reports.

Despite protests from their employees, Google does work for the Pentagon. In 2018, Google employees signed a letter protesting the companies involvement in making AI that interprets video to help with targeting of drone strikes. They have more recently had a rocky relationship with the Pentagon over their work that General Joseph Dunford Jr. says is “indirectly benefiting the Chinese military”. They are reportedly trying to repair their reputation and are courting future military contracts.

Amazon isn’t currently working for military because they lost the JEDI cloud computing bid to Microsoft. I included Amazon because they are protesting the decision and because this will most likely not be their last attempt. Like a lot of Google workers, a group of Microsoft workers signed a letter asking their company to cancel its contract because they don’t want the things they build to be used to help murder people. IBM has a long history for working for the military. They are currently doing cloud computing, analytics and AI for the military. During WW2 the Nazis also used IBM technology.

Oil plays a huge part in foreign policy and in America’s military adventures. Halliburton is one of the worlds largest oilfield companies. The company’s close relationship with Vice President Dick Cheney is most likely why they were awarded a huge government contract in the lead up to the Iraq War. The company ended up making billions of dollars from the war. They are also accused of sketchy practices around the world. They aren’t the only oil company I’ve chosen to show . ExxonMobil, BP, and Shell were forced out of Iraq in 1973. After the invasion they were able to move back in and start exploiting Iraqi oil once again.

These are just a few of the companies that are involved with the military and as technology advances more and more companies will develop new tools for war. If you’re interested in learning more there are some links at the bottom. A lot of info can also be found on these companies websites. I encourage you to search more into it. Always be weary of anyone who is trying justify committing violence.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-jedi-war-amazon-oracle-and-ibm-battle-in-mysterious-world-of-military-contracts-2019-01-07

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/mar/29/humanities.highereducation

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/12/2011122813134071641.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/news-networks-use-retired-military-brass-as-war-analysts-without-disclosing-their-defense-industry-ties/2020/01/13/7b507bfe-323c-11ea-91fd-82d4e04a3fac_story.html

https://warontherocks.com/2019/04/trump-cancels-drone-strike-civilian-casualty-report-does-it-matter/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/technology/google-letter-ceo-pentagon-project.html

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2019-google-military-contract-dilemma/