US politicians financially benefit from foreign conflicts

chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2022-04-08 06:40
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Congressmen under the lobby from weapon manufacturers 

The profit pursuing MIC motivates the US politicians who formulate foreign policies to be in endless search for new enemies abroad, which is why the US violated its promise not to expand NATO.

Since the end of the Cold War, weapon manufacturers have been the most aggressive lobbyists for NATO expansion.

A general view of the US Capitol Building. [Photo/Agencies]

A lobbying operation named the Committee to Expand NATO emerged in the early 1990s and was headed by Bruce Jackson, vice president of Lockheed Martin.

"The way we have handled the end of the Cold War with NATO expansion conducted by a succession of US presidents; establishing the Committee to Expand NATO headed by a Lockheed vice president; encouraging the color revolutions, particularly in Georgia and Ukraine; and demonizing our adversaries, have combined to inflame tensions," Spinney said.

A resident looks for belongings in an apartment building destroyed in Borodyanka, Ukraine, on Tuesday. [VADIM GHIRDA/AP]

"Five presidents and their national security apparatchiks have played a key role by pushing NATO expansion," Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to US Secretary of State Collin Powell said. He added that this has led to the tragic outbreak of the current armed conflict in Ukraine which has brought great profit to arms manufacturers.

The New York Times covered Jackson's lobbying of the Clinton administration to encourage NATO leaders to vote on expanding the alliance to Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic in July 1997.

A study from Brown University showed that weapon makers have spent $2.5 billion on lobbying over the past two decades, employing an average of over 700 lobbyists per year over the past five years.

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