US arms dealing and economy — rely on American conflict escalation

© 2016 Peter Free

14 July 2016

 

Indulge me

My arguably twisted mind goes on a jaunt from fact to speculation.

 

Consider American arms sales in just 2016 — $40 billion (plus) is a lot of loot

The Pentagon announced that:

 

The U.S. government is on track to approve nearly $40 billion in foreign military sales in the 2016 fiscal year that ends October 1, down from $46.6 billion last year, a top Pentagon official said on Wednesday.

Global demand for U.S. helicopters and other weapons remained strong, [Vice Admiral Joe] Rixey [who heads the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency] said.

Rixey has launched 40 separate initiatives to streamline the foreign arms sales approval process and respond to criticism about delays in handling a sustained high volume of requests.

“We’re having a debate about foreign policy.”

Rixey urged companies to “take the emotion out of it” and be as specific as possible about their concerns.

“We’ve got to make sure that we get better.”

© 2016 Andrea Shalal, U.S. arms sales approvals on track to reach nearly $40 billion, Reuters (13 July 2016) (extracts)

 

Yes indeed!

For Jesus’ sake, let’s all get more efficient at funneling killing machines to those who drool after them.

And for patriotism’s benefit, what’s a little blood spilling and tumult escalation in comparison with such an impressive display of American clout?

 

The moral? — When looking for reasons for the consistency of U.S. strategic stupidity and its unending series of failed wars

 

We need look no further than the flow of money and the personal advancement associated with the Military Industrial Complex’s hypocritical shenanigans.

Pertinent to this, consider Upton Sinclair's wry statement that:

 

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!

© 1935 Upton Sinclair, I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked (reprint, University of California Press, 1994) (at page 109) (according to Wikiquote)

 

As we rats eventually flee the planet that we wrecked, perhaps some of us will still be able to laugh at ourselves.

To this, the Simulation Hypothesis — recently publicized in an interview with Elon Musk — is pertinent. Cultivating dark humor may be the Simulation’s point.

And imagine what that would say about the designers’ psyches. Deliciously contorted, like the trunk of an old fig tree.

If you think I'm off balance, consider the massive craziness that our societies indulge every day.

Hoping that Existence is just a simulation may be the spiritually wise person’s most compassionate choice.