bin Laden "Not to stoke any of the inane conspiracy theories running wild on the Internet, but if Osamawasn’t on the payroll of Lockheed Martin or some other large defense contractor, he deserves to have been. What a boondoggle 9/11 has been for the merchants of war, who this week announced yet another quarter of whopping profits made possible by George Bush’s pretending to fight terrorism by throwing money at outdated Cold War-style weapons systems.
Lockheed Martin, the nation’s top weapons manufacturer, reaped a 22 percent increase in profits, while rivals for the defense buck, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics, increased profits by 62 percent and 22 percent, respectively. Boeing’s profits jumped 61 percent, spiked this quarter by its commercial division, but Boeing’s military division, like the others, has been doing very well indeed since the terrorist attacks. As Newsweek International put in August: “Since 9/11 and the U.S.-led wars that followed, shares in American defense companies have outperformed both the Nasdaq and Standard & Poor’s stock indices by some 40 percent. Prior to the recent cascade of stock prices worldwide, Boeing’s share prices had tripled over the past five years while Raytheon’s had doubled.”
So begins a piece "Cashing in on Terror" by Robert Scheer writing on truthdig.com. Yes, there are profits, and huge ones to boot, to be made from the "war on terror". The staggering figures speak for themselves. Of course, on the flip side there is all the human misery and devastation which has occurred as a result of 9/11. There are the Twin Towers to begin with, and then think Afghanistan and Iraq as just starters.
Lockheed Martin, the nation’s top weapons manufacturer, reaped a 22 percent increase in profits, while rivals for the defense buck, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics, increased profits by 62 percent and 22 percent, respectively. Boeing’s profits jumped 61 percent, spiked this quarter by its commercial division, but Boeing’s military division, like the others, has been doing very well indeed since the terrorist attacks. As Newsweek International put in August: “Since 9/11 and the U.S.-led wars that followed, shares in American defense companies have outperformed both the Nasdaq and Standard & Poor’s stock indices by some 40 percent. Prior to the recent cascade of stock prices worldwide, Boeing’s share prices had tripled over the past five years while Raytheon’s had doubled.”
So begins a piece "Cashing in on Terror" by Robert Scheer writing on truthdig.com. Yes, there are profits, and huge ones to boot, to be made from the "war on terror". The staggering figures speak for themselves. Of course, on the flip side there is all the human misery and devastation which has occurred as a result of 9/11. There are the Twin Towers to begin with, and then think Afghanistan and Iraq as just starters.
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