Military Industrial Complex

[Vander]

It's nice to be reminded every now and then that war is profitable.

Major defense contractors Raytheon, Oshkosh, and Lockheed Martin assured investors at a Credit Suisse conference in West Palm Beach this week that they stand to gain from the escalating conflicts in the Middle East.

Lockheed Martin Executive Vice President Bruce Tanner told the conference his company will see “indirect benefits” from the war in Syria, citing the Turkish military’s recent decision to shoot down a Russian warplane.

The incident, Tanner said, heightens the risk for U.S. military operations in the region, providing “an intangible lift because of the dynamics of that environment and our products in theater.” He also stressed that the Russian intervention would highlight the need for Lockheed Martin-made F-22s and the new F-35 jets.

[callmeslick]

saw part of that guidance as a Raytheon stockholder.

[Tunnelcat]

saw part of that guidance as a Raytheon stockholder.

Why support such a company by holding their stock slick? Sell the damned stock and find another company that doesn't make it's profits off of killing. That's what our nation has to come to grips with, the monstrous evil that was created after WWII and that Eisenhower warned us about. Americans need to realize that making war for profit will lead to our eventual destruction, because in order to make that profit, we must make eternal war and to make eternal war, we must pay for it with our own hard earned money and the blood of our children. Privatized profit for the wealthy few, prosecuted by the poorer masses with their lives and livelihoods.

We also must be prepared to someday lose one of those wars, because there's always a loser and we're too arrogant to even believe we can lose. Plus, are we as a people even willing to pay the exorbitant price to keep eternal war going on into infinity? Especially the "war" we're getting into now with Muslims radicals, which is pretty much a Holy War between religions and civilizations and one that Western Civilization is responsible for creating. I'm guessing that one side won't back down until there's a loser because we're fighting an ideology, not a state. You can't destroy entire ideology only by killing those who adhere to it. In fact, all this killing and chest thumping on our part is feeding that ideology and making it an even bigger monster. We're doing nothing but throwing fuel on the fire and I can see a few CEO's counting their future profits with glee.

I even heard Donald Trump declare on the CBS morning news show today that he himself would essentially go after and rape and pillage the wives of those terrorist pilots who flew those planes into the World Trade Center on 9/11, who I guess are still alive somewhere. If that's not stupid, inflammatory hyperbole to get votes from the vengeful xenophobes who adore him, I don't know what is, and this man is probably going to be our president from the looks of things.

[callmeslick]

I intend to sell it but that block is part of the estate stock that has to be probated. I will likely sell it at a high in about 6 months and use the cash to make payouts to folks stipulated in the will and invest the rest after the election cycle is done(I never like to do much tinkering during a US Presidential election year).

[Spidey]

The term military industrial complex is actually a kind of misnomer, because very few corporations only produce war materials. Most all if not all of these companies like Raytheon also produce things like MRIs and dialysis machines, and a host of other varied products, and a hell of a lot of them in the medical industry.

It’s a cruel irony…kill and cure.

So if you plan to divest in companies that profit from war, good luck on that empty portfolio, because even food companies profit from war.

Not to mention divesting from virtually the last of the made in America companies that support a large sector of the middle class, but we have all of those social safety nets for that problem…right?

“GE brings good things to life” not only can they sell you the tools of mass destruction, but they can also sell you a super efficient cost effective jet engine to deliver them with.

[Tunnelcat]

The term military industrial complex is actually a kind of misnomer, because very few corporations only produce war materials. Most all if not all of these companies like Raytheon also produce things like MRIs and dialysis machines, and a host of other varied products, and a hell of a lot of them in the medical industry.

It’s a cruel irony…kill and cure.

So if you plan to divest in companies that profit from war, good luck on that empty portfolio, because even food companies profit from war.

Not to mention divesting from virtually the last of the made in America companies that support a large sector of the middle class, but we have all of those social safety nets for that problem…right?

“GE brings good things to life” not only can they sell you the tools of mass destruction, but they can also sell you a super efficient cost effective jet engine to deliver them with.

Well, you've got Boeing, Northrup, Raytheon, Lockheed, McDonald Douglas, Cummins, Colt, Beretta, Fairchild Republic, BAE Systems Land and Armaments, DRS Technologies, L3 Communications, AgustaWestland, US Motor Works, Goodrich and Columbia Group, and that's just a sample from a list of both national and international companies. That's not including all the subcontracting quite a few other American and foreign companies do for just parts and subparts of weapons and other military gear. Since the Korean War, we've created a killing monster for profit and it's sucking on a big portion of our national debt. That's why Americans should care.