WAR IS BUSINESS

A really informative and disturbing article from WAR IS BUSINESS....showing again the greed of the U.S. military-industrial complex and the control they have on our government no matter what political party is in the White House or has a majority in either chamber of Congress. The business of war disgust me....I hate the fact that so many people are so ignorant and blind that they see nothing wrong with their tax dollars being given away to countries all around the world in the form of guns and tanks and planes and mortars and missiles...but object to the minuscule level of humanitarian foreign aid we send to the world. Just imagine the possibilities for peace and prosperity if we applied the same level of money we waste on the military on educating, feeding, housing, and providing health care here and around the world! Imagine if we subsidized tractors and teachers, renewable energy and health care, mass transit and sustainable housing, conservation and urban renewal, both here in the U.S. and around the world at levels greater than what we subsidize weapons systems and war. When people have a good life they want to live in peace, they have no reason to fight, in fact, they realize they have too much to loose. This may sound like an unattainable dream but I believe if given the choice a vast majority of people would choose to live in peace, and given the opportunities and the means to improve their lives they will turn their backs on war and military waste, fraud and the death and destruction the military-industrial complex offers...the only thing they have to offer to the people of the world. Click the header to go to the NY Times story  and check out the WAR IS BUSINESS website by clicking the link at the end of this post.

The New York Times published on Christmas Eve a story exposing nearly 300 US companies that hold special export licenses allowing them to do “billions of dollars in business with Iran and other countries blacklisted as state sponsors of terrorism.”
The companies include such household names as Pepsi, General Electric and Bank of America. The countries include such international pariahs as Sudan, Burma, North Korea and Zimbabwe.
With a little database work, I filled in one missing facet of the story. At least 83 of the companies listed by the Times as having multiple special export licenses are Department of Defense contractors.

Regardless of whether you agree with the policy of blacklisting, or its particulars, it’s hard to understand why the US government would allow top military contractors to cut deals with declared adversaries. The Times reports that many of the special licenses “were deemed to serve American foreign policy goals”—whatever that means. Other exemptions were inexplicable except perhaps as kickbacks.
There’s another angle to all this double-dealing. Yesterday, I took note of a post by John Quiggin at Crooked Timber. Quiggin argues that wartime profit spikes for “the elite or the capitalist class” are not a key reason behind America’s penchant for doomed foreign occupations and insistence on excessive military budgets. Quiggin oversimplifies the process by which private profits influence military policy, but I’ll let him finish making his case before I pick at it. He continues,

[W]hile some businesses obviously benefit from, and lobby for, war, there are plenty more who would prefer to make money trading with putative enemies like Iran and Iraq.

That sounds good, in theory. A look at the evidence here reveals another story.
The fact is, some major American corporations and military contractors are perfectly able to trade with putative enemies right now—and presumably at enviable margins, given the scarcities imposed by sanctions. Therefore they have no economic incentive to advocate for peace.
It gets uglier. Should an actual shooting war break out, these contractors may stand to gain from a surge in spending by their best customer, the US military—even though they would temporarily lose out on those special trade opportunities.
In short, big military corporations can’t really lose. They don’t have to play by the same rules as ordinary businesses. And it’s increasingly clear that profit-minded military contractors—not rule-bound Pentagon bureaucrats—wear the pants in this incestuous relationship.
Here’s the list of US military contractors holding extra-special export licenses, derived from the Times’ reporting, and the blacklisted countries or organizations with which they’ve done business. The list runs in descending order by the number of export licenses held, from over 200 in the case of Bank of America and GE, down to five at the bottom. Click on any of the names to help our research and gain access to more of the site.

Bank of America	Cuba, Iran, Kosovo, Sudan, Non-Proliferation, Multiple, Iraq, Burma, Weapons Mass Destruction, Yugoslavia, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers
General Electric	Iran, Sudan, Iraq, Libya, Cuba
Siemens	Iran, Iraq, Sudan
Boston Scientific Corporation	Iran, Iraq
Datascope Corp	Iran
Pfizer Inc	Iran, Sudan, Libya, Cuba, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers
Becton Dickinson and Company	Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Cuba, Libya
Caterpillar Inc.	Iraq, Iran, Taliban, Cuba
Abbott Laboratories	Iran, Sudan, Cuba, Libya, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers
Archer Daniels Midland Company	Iran, Cuba, Libya, Sudan, Iraq
Hologic Inc	Iran
Philips Electronics	Iran, Libya, Sudan
Cargill	Cuba, Sudan, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Yugoslavia, Iraq
Medtronic Inc.	Iran, Sudan, Libya, Iraq
Stryker Corporation	Iran, Sudan, Libya
Wyeth	Iran, Sudan, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers, Libya, Narcotics, Global Terrorism, Iraq
AirSep Cororation	Iran, Libya, Sudan
Coca-Cola Company	Iran, Sudan, Libya, Cuba, Iraq
Medrad Incorporated	Iran, Sudan
Eastman Kodak Company	Iran, Sudan
PepsiCo Inc.	Iran, Sudan, Libya
Carl Zeiss Meditec	Iran, Iraq
Draeger Medical Systems	Iran, Sudan
Bayer Corporation	Iran, Sudan, Kosovo, Cuba, Iraq
Merck	Iran, Sudan, Libya, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers, Iraq
Genzyme Corporation	Iran, Libya, Cuba
St. Jude Medical Inc.	Iran, Iraq
The Boeing Company	Sudan, Multiple, Global Terrorism, Iran, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers, Libya, Belarus, Cuba
Varian Medical Systems	Iran, Sudan
Haemonetics Corporation	Iran, Sudan, Cuba, Iraq
Ohmeda Medical	Libya, Sudan, Iran
Del Monte	Iran, Sudan
Hill-Rom Company	Iran, Iraq
Zoll Medical Corporation	Iran
American Red Cross	Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Multiple, Sudan NGO Registration, Terrorism List
Johnson & Johnson	Iran
Mallinckrodt Pharmaceutical Company	Iran
Valmont Industries Inc	Iraq, Iran
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company	Iran, Libya, Sudan
FMC Technologies	Iraq
Gambro BCT Inc.	Iran, Sudan
Genetics International	Sudan, Iraq
Masimo Corporation	Iran
3M Company	Iran, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers, Sudan
Beckman Coulter	Sudan, Iraq
C.R. Bard Inc	Iran, Sudan, Cuba
Edwards Lifesciences LLC	Iran, Libya, Sudan
ExxonMobil	Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Narcotics, Angola, Taliban, Iran, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers
Nova Biomedical Corporation	Iran, Sudan
Royal Crown Cola Co.	Sudan
ConAgra Foods	Cuba, Libya, Sudan, Iran
Fisher Controls International	Iraq, Libya
Lockheed Martin Corporation	Sudan, Multiple
MCI	Cuba, Iran, Iraq
DynCorp International LLC	Sudan, Iraq, Cuba, Iran
EG & G	Global Terrorism, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers, Liberia, Terrorism
Ingersoll-Rand Company	Iraq, Cuba
Merit Medical Systems Inc.	Iran
Minrad Inc.	Iran, Sudan
Alcon Laboratories	Iran
CHS Inc.	Iran, Libya
Elekta Limited	Iran
General Mills	Iran
Grason-Stadler/Div of Viasys Healthcare	Iran
Lincoln Electric Company	Iraq
Oracle Corporation	Iraq
PAE Government Services Inc	Sudan
Pall Corporation	Iran
Respironics Inc.	Iran
Starkey Laboratories Inc.	Iran
World Fuel Services Corporation	Iraq, Iran, Burma, Sudan
ABB Inc.	Iraq
AGA Medical Corporation	Iran, Sudan
American Equipment Company	Iraq
Aspect Medical Systems	Iran, Sudan NGO Registration
Bechtel	Iraq
Datex Ohmeda Inc.	Iran, Iraq
Motorola	Iraq, Taliban
Ortho Clinical Diagnostics Inc.	Iran
Pharmavite	Iran
Smiths Medical MD Inc.	Iran
William Wrigley Jr. Company	Sudan, Iran
York International Coporation	Iraq

Sources: Department of Defense, New York Times
http://www.warisbusiness.com/2010/12/named-83-pentagon-contractors-who-do-business-with-iran-north-korea-and-other-us-enemies/