The Bi-Partisanship Of War & Contractor Money

February 14th 2022, 45-year-old Haji Amanullah, was abducted from his front doorstep by a group of heavily armed men. Since this incident, the Taliban commander’s body has yet to be found. Three days later, a note was posted to his door claiming he had been responsible for the deaths of: “innocent and poor people and government officials and had made many mothers cry… now it’s time for his mother to cry. We have killed him.”

Such occurrences are becoming commonplace in the country of Afghanistan. Since the fall of the American backed Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Taliban have taken control of the entire nation. But while their government may have crumbled and abandoned them, some dissidents in the country continue to resist the new regime.

From the neighboring country of Tajikistan, the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan has found sanctuary for the time being. Gaining vital access to communications, food, as well as international correspondence with potential Western allies. Tajikistan cited concerns over the Taliban harboring extremists as their reason for doing so.

Why does any of this matter? Because what we are watching is not too dissimilar to the events taking place in Ukraine. The people of a corrupt nation caught in a firefight between an invading force that used to control them, and patriots who are desperate to never be under that control again.

One evening in late September, Taliban forces entered the Kandahar home of Baz Muhammad. A former National Directorate of Security employee, Baz was taken from his home, and arrested that evening. His relatives later found his executed corpse, left for them as a symbol of what comes to those who disobey the Taliban.

The amnesty that was promised to former members of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has proven to be false. Over 100 former employees have disappeared in Taliban custody, or been outright executed by them. Former colleagues to coalition forces left at the mercy of their invaders.

The corrupt government that was the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan collapsed in just two weeks. One trillion dollars, twenty years of physical involvement on behalf of America as well as other coalition allies. Where did all of that go? Well, as always, it went into the pockets of companies contracted by the Department of Defense to supply goods and services to Afghanistan.

Simply put, it went to the same place it has always gone to. The big companies that donate to our binary political system. Wealthy companies who sustain a never-ending cycle of donating money to the party, to later be awarded massive contracts that then give them more money to donate to the party.

Surely this is a one sided issue. We only need to vote for the side who isn’t taking their money, right? A fine argument if the companies weren’t paying both sides a nearly identical amount. In the 2020 election cycle, Lockheed Martin donated over half a million dollars to the Trump campaign. In the same year, they donated over 590k split between Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden.

Similarly, the aeronautics and defense company Northrop Grumman donated nearly even amounts to both presidential candidates this past election. With Joe Biden seeing 416k in donations. Trump, meanwhile, received 347k from the company.

The company Raytheon technologies is famous for their FIM-92 Stinger. A portable anti-air defense system that operates using infrared homing technology. A weapon mentioned ad nauseum in the media for the past ten years. They donated similar amounts to both presidential candidates as well. 

In mid-March, Congress approved 3.5 billion dollars in defense spending to replenish javelin and stinger missiles that have been donated to Ukraine. While they may not be selling weapons directly to the Ukrainians, that sale is still being made. At the end of the day, the same people who took in 1 trillion dollars in Afghanistan are now taking in every bit of money that they can make from Ukraine.

While people argue that the Trump administration would have avoided the war, they ignore Trump’s persistent sale of weapons to the nation. At the end of February 2018, the administration approved 47 million dollars in javelin missiles and stinger launchers to Ukraine. Those same weapons that are now being replenished in the latest round of congressional funding. Which is, of course, going straight to the pockets of the wealthy defense contractors.

When it is all said and done, they don’t care about any of us. They don’t care about the Ukrainians. They don’t care about the people they left behind in Afghanistan. For the war profiteers, and their already bought politicians, all that matters is how they can transfer your tax dollars into their pockets.

On the other end of the spectrum, you will hear people howling that we have to “Take down the corporations that have corrupted our nation.” Those people ignore the fact that those corporations are only able to behave this way because politicians have allowed themselves to be corrupted.

Biden never had to accept money from these people. Neither did Trump, nor Sanders. For all their preaching about “America First” and that “War is a horror” they took the money all the same. Three different politicians, all with different political philosophies, each could have easily been able to bankroll a campaign without money from defense contractors, but chose not to.

Unfortunately, the sad reality in America is that these people profit from the oppression of others. They appeal to the morality of their fellow man by pointing to atrocities they themselves happily spur on.

Since 2014, the European Union has had an embargo on selling arms to Russia. This was their response to the initial invasion of Ukraine, when Russia annexed Crimea.

Despite this embargo, France continued to sell arms to the Russian Federation, all the way up until 2020. Over 152 million dollars’ worth of military equipment. Making France the largest exporter of arms to Russia in Europe. Meanwhile, the defense contractor Lockheed Martin agreed to supply France with four C130 aircraft in 2016. The contract was worth a reported $51 million. 

American contractors replenish equipment in allied nations. Those allied nations then sell their previous equipment, likely American manufactured as well, to nations that they claim to be tyrannical. Now the children of the common man are expected to die in a conflict that only exists to allow them to sell more weapons in the first place.

Yet we are to believe that the soldiers following these war profiteers are our enemies. Told to rage against the Russian people by harming their economy, and isolating them. People who are lied to by the same powerful war mongers that lie to us at home.

Left wing? Right wing? Everyone is arguing about where their head lies while the bird continues to eat us.