{"id":50903,"date":"2025-01-16T09:52:20","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T17:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=50903"},"modified":"2025-02-12T11:35:48","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T19:35:48","slug":"americas-merchants-of-death-are-making-a-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/16\/americas-merchants-of-death-are-making-a-killing\/","title":{"rendered":"America’s Merchants of Death Are Making a Killing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views<\/a> with the author\u2019s permission.<\/i><\/p>\n

Yesterday, the\u00a0Merchants of Death Tribunal<\/a>\u00a0concluded with a verdict of \u201cguilty<\/a>\u201d for all those U.S. dealers and exporters of weapons globally. Yes, the merchants of death are guilty as sin, even as they account for 40% of the global trade in deadly weaponry. Who says nothing is made in America today? We make plenty of things that go \u201cbang.\u201d<\/p>\n

In our culture today, it\u2019s considered \u201cpatriotic\u201d to make loads of money, especially by selling guns. Just look at the National Rifle Association (NRA) and its enablers in Congress and all the gun companies domestically.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Assault weapons are highly profitable, much more so than pistols, and isn\u2019t it all about making money? Thoughts and prayers to those innocents caught in the crossfire, of course. No worries \u2013 more \u201cgood guys with guns\u201d will save us from the bad guys with guns.<\/p>\n

If we Americans embrace (or, refuse to stop) the sale of firearms, especially dangerous assault weapons, domestically, indeed, if we fetishize it with ideas of potency and manliness, is it any surprise we brag of weapons sales overseas and our dominance of that trade? If we don\u2019t care (or care enough) about the safety of our own children, why should we care about dead kids in Gaza?<\/p>\n

Our culture is violent and sick, and until we reform it, there\u2019s little hope of meaningful change.<\/p>\n

That said, it\u2019s encouraging to hear of a ceasefire in Gaza. Perhaps the Trump administration can achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine as well. The problem is there always seems to be another war or wars looming on the horizon for the U.S., more conflicts that America\u2019s merchants of death can make a killing on.<\/p>\n

That said, it\u2019s encouraging to hear of a ceasefire in Gaza. Perhaps the Trump administration can achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine as well. The problem is there always seems to be another war or wars looming on the horizon for the U.S., more conflicts that America\u2019s merchants of death can make a killing on.
\n\"\"
\nAmerica has the war but not the peace<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s an American Leo Tolstoy out there, he couldn\u2019t write a book on this epoch with the title of\u00a0War and Peace<\/em>. Today\u2019s version for America has a single-word title:\u00a0War<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Peace is rarely if ever mentioned in mainstream political discourse and culture. That\u2019s not surprising. Roughly 60% of U.S. federal discretionary spending goes to the Pentagon, Homeland Security, nuclear weapons, and weapons shipments to places like Israel and Ukraine. President Biden once said: Show me your budget and I\u2019ll tell you what you value. Looks like America values war very highly indeed.<\/p>\n

Until we stop valuing and valorizing war and start embracing peace, the merchants of death will continue to thrive. Sure, they\u2019re guilty, but so are we all if we keep feeding them our money and keep looking to them for \u201csafety\u201d and \u201csecurity.\u201d<\/p>\n

William J. Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF), professor of history, and a senior fellow at the Eisenhower Media Network (EMN), an organization of critical veteran military and national security professionals. His personal substack is Bracing Views<\/a>. His video testimony for the Merchants of Death Tribunal is available\u00a0<\/span>at this link<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author\u2019s permission. Yesterday, the\u00a0Merchants of Death Tribunal\u00a0concluded with a verdict of \u201cguilty\u201d for all those U.S. dealers and exporters of weapons globally. Yes, the merchants of death are guilty as sin, even as they account for 40% of the global trade in deadly weaponry. Who says nothing is made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[758],"class_list":["post-50903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":"The U.S. Version of \u201cWar & Peace\u201d Is Simply \u201cWar\u201d"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50903"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51423,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50903\/revisions\/51423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50903"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=50903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}