The Raw Power of the Military-Industrial Complex on Display

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-saudi-thaad/lockheed-gets-1-billion-down-payment-for-saudi-thaad-missile-system-idUKKCN1QL28R

This is why the murder of Jamal Khashoggi doesn't matter. The Saudis are not only in an informal alliance with the United States and Israel, they are pursuing US interests in Yemen and vis-à-vis Iran.

This is not to say that there aren't Saudi and American interests upset with the recent turn in Saudi politics under bin Salman. Nevertheless the pressure is great to 'let it ride'.

When billions of dollars are at stake, there's a lot of pressure and influence that come to bear and since there are 101 ways to bribe and payoff people and with plenty of money to spare.... the people who sit atop the Wall Street-Defense industry-political-military nexus... the Military Industrial Complex have a lot of power. They get their way and get rich at the same time.

Wall Street and the political-military machine create the demand for the weapons industry and yet the weapons industry needs markets and pushes Wall Street and the political-military machine to create them... to create the demand.

It's telling that the American 'Left', even the supposed 'socialists' are largely silent about this mechanism. They criticise Wall Street but they don't attack the machine itself. Their critiques are superficial and in many cases a distraction.

And on another level an understanding of this relationship reveals just why it is so difficult to change things. Like most of the seemingly intractable problems that plague American politics, the tendency is to isolate the problems rather than understand them holistically. To stop Wall Street's behaviour you have to deal with multiple problems and issues at once and each of them have their own complexities. Politically speaking it cannot be done because what's required is not reform but revolution and despite the occasional rhetoric of populist politicians, revolutions are not legislated. Unless the whole system can be cast down in toto there's little hope of real change. And of course revolutions can end up being so destructive one will wish for the old system back.

As Christians we cannot be part of the revolution but at the same time we are called upon to bear witness against the system, at the very least by coming out from among it, by not loving the things of the world, by not being taken in by Caesar's coin.

Our witness is destroyed when we 'cash in' on this system. Anyone who has a 401K is invested in it and taking its dividends. While there may be exceptions, the overwhelming majority of mutual funds and pension plans are to some degree invested in the 'defense' industry. It is a key plank of the US financial system.

Many will shake their heads in disgust at such weapons trade and yet... they may be surprised to discover that they're actually profiting from it.