The Art (and Money) of War

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A lifetime of war.

We have been involved in war my entire life.

Even with intermittent peace times, we still have tangential involvement in skirmishes that break out all over the world. Sometimes covert, off-the-books involvement, sometimes straight-up “we’re replacing your president now” involvement (see: Panama).

Right now, this very minute, your tax dollars are paying for war somewhere in the world.

Not war that is sanctioned by Congress, mind you (in other words, unsanctioned by the People). Nor is it war fought under our flag. But war nonetheless, and war that you and I are sponsoring. Mortars are being launched, missiles fired, urban battles are being won and lost, civilians are being oppressed (and much worse), with your hard-earned money that you pay in taxes.

How did it get this way?

President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a military man through and through. West Point grad, two world wars, 5 star general, Supreme Allied Commander (which is a very Star Wars sounding title).

Having lead the liberation of Europe, he was a lock for President. He served a fairly peaceful two terms. During his farewell speech, he made this seemingly-odd statement:

What was he trying to tell us?

It seems fairly clear to me: he had been pressured during his presidency by what we now call “The Defense Industry”. Despite withdrawing from Korea, and advocating for peace and non-conflict across the world, he was obviously getting heat from the companies that had grown from zero-to-gigantic during WW2.

It’s understandable that these companies want to continue existing. They were created with a mission and a purpose, but what happens when that mission is accomplished?

Introducing: Institutional Perpetuation

Simply put, “Institutional Perpetuation” is when an organization accomplishes their mission, it simply changes its mission. Organizations want to continue to exist (like people, and like A.I.).

So what happened after Ike left the White House? Seemingly less-backboned presidents took his place, and bent to the will of the pressure. We started getting involved in proxy wars with communist superpowers. Flimsy excuses to send billions of dollars to keep the Defense Industry machine moving, and arm our “allies” (who rarely give us any value back, other than being part of a spite beef with the commies), all in the name of “Democracy”.

(by the way, we’re actually a Democratic Republic, but that’s for another day)

Fast forward to 2025, and we have given more $$$ value in weapons to Ukraine than the entire United States Marine Corps spends in a year.

(I’m not taking a stand against Ukraine here, but that is an astounding fact)

But hey, war is good business. Defense stocks like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing have grown 700% in the past 20 years. Pretty good investment, if you can stomach the consequences. Whatever you do don’t listen to BBC World News or you’ll learn what the real payoff of that investment is. Sometimes it’s Democracy, but it’s always certain death for someone.

As they say, “prepare for war, and hope for peace"…

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