00:00:00
Look, you've seen it before. The US
00:00:02
invades, the US withdraws. I mean,
00:00:04
remember Afghanistan? That war was an
00:00:06
absolute disaster. But it was a jackpot
00:00:10
for US defense contractors. And now,
00:00:12
with the wars in Gaza and Ukraine,
00:00:14
they're making even more. Despite having
00:00:17
hardly any US troops on the ground,
war
00:00:19
profiteeers always win, regardless of
00:00:22
the outcome. Even though America's
00:00:24
global influence is waning, its war
00:00:27
machine keeps growing stronger and
00:00:29
stronger.
Look what is written here.
00:00:32
USA. These are the American weapons
00:00:35
behind me.
In this video, we'll unpack
00:00:38
how American defense giants helped build
00:00:40
the modern military-industrial complex
00:00:42
and why their model is so profitable, no
00:00:45
matter how many lives are lost.
00:00:47
[Music]
00:00:55
The US hasn't won most of the wars it's
00:00:57
fought since 1945. It keeps ending up in
00:00:59
a stalemate or being defeated entirely.
00:01:02
And yet, one group always comes out
00:01:04
ahead. The US defense industry. Given
00:01:07
how much profit is on the line, US
00:01:09
defense companies play a heavy hand in
00:01:11
how these wars and their purpose are
00:01:13
framed.
What we do saves lives. It
00:01:17
protects peace and democracy throughout
00:01:19
the world.
This couldn't be further from
00:01:21
the truth. The United States government
00:01:23
is the leading force of instability,
00:01:26
violence, and environmental destruction.
00:01:28
Abby Martin is an investigative
00:01:30
journalist and the creator of the Empire
00:01:32
Files, an independent media outlet that
00:01:34
dissects the inner workings of US
00:01:36
empire. Her reporting engages with the
00:01:38
hard truth. War is a business and
00:01:41
business is booming. The
00:01:42
military-industrial complex plays the
00:01:45
center role in shaping American foreign
00:01:47
policy. It is the shaper of US foreign
00:01:51
policy. And this business model works.
00:01:53
In 2023, US defense companies made
00:01:56
almost a trillion in sales with a record
00:01:58
$765 billion of that coming directly
00:02:02
from government contracts. Here's one
00:02:04
way that money ends up in their hands.
00:02:06
When the US votes to send military aid
00:02:08
abroad, like to Israel or Ukraine, most
00:02:11
of that money goes to American arms
00:02:13
makers. Whether it gets used to fund new
00:02:15
weapons or restocking those sent from US
00:02:18
reserves, it basically serves as a form
00:02:20
of corporate welfare for defense
00:02:21
contractors. It fuels the conflicts. I
00:02:24
mean, you look at Gaza and Ukraine.
00:02:26
Rathon, Loheed, Martin, Boeing, all of
00:02:28
their stocks exploded. Their profits
00:02:31
were massive in 2023 and 2024. Why?
00:02:36
Because these horrific, catastrophic
00:02:38
wars,
00:02:40
their shareholders had huge returns on
00:02:42
those wars.
It's true. In the year
00:02:44
following Russia's initial invasion of
00:02:46
Ukraine, the stock price for General
00:02:48
Dynamics rose nearly 34%.
00:02:52
One year after the Hamasled attacks on
00:02:54
Israel, Loheed Martin saw an increase of
00:02:56
over 54%.
00:02:58
And of course, the other top contractors
00:03:00
benefited in their own ways, too. These
00:03:02
companies aren't just making money,
00:03:04
they're becoming too powerful to stop.
00:03:06
President Eisenhower famously predicted
00:03:08
this problem back in the 1960s. In fact,
00:03:11
he coined the term military-industrial
00:03:13
complex during his final speech as
00:03:15
president.
We must car guard against the
00:03:19
acquisition of unwarranted influence,
00:03:21
whether sought or unsought by the
00:03:24
military industrial complex.
00:03:27
the potential for the disastrous rise of
00:03:29
misplaced power exists and will persist.
00:03:32
He was right. Today, just five US
00:03:35
companies dominate the entire global
00:03:37
defense industry. Loheed Martin, Rathon,
00:03:40
Boeing, Northrup Grumman, and General
00:03:43
Dynamics.
Well, the United States is the
00:03:45
global arms supplier. The US supplies
00:03:49
almost 50% of all the weapons on the
00:03:51
planet. There is no other country that
00:03:54
parallels the military power and
00:03:57
entrenchment of this kind of
00:03:58
military-industrial complex other than
00:04:00
the US Empire. And that kind of
00:04:03
dominance doesn't just mean influence.
00:04:05
It means they profit from nearly every
00:04:07
major conflict on Earth. And that's no
00:04:10
accident. It's by design. Take NATO for
00:04:13
example. Back in the 1990s, US defense
00:04:16
contractors lobbyed hard to expand NATO.
00:04:19
Not just for security reasons, but also
00:04:21
to open up new markets for their
00:04:22
business. Whenever a new member state
00:04:24
joined NATO, they were required to
00:04:26
modernize their militaries, usually by
00:04:28
buying American weapons. And it worked.
00:04:31
Today, the US supplies about 2/3 of
00:04:33
NATO's weapons. Just take Ukraine for
00:04:35
example. Since the war in Ukraine began,
00:04:38
demand has surged. In 2024 alone, US
00:04:41
military equipment sales to foreign
00:04:43
governments has jumped 29%.
00:04:46
Hitting a record $319 billion. The US
00:04:49
military gives billions of dollars in
00:04:51
military aid to countries like Egypt and
00:04:54
Israel and Ukraine and Uganda. But it
00:04:58
comes with conditions.
This so-called
00:05:00
aid from the US government often
00:05:02
requires countries to spend that money
00:05:04
on US weapons, no matter who the aid is
00:05:06
for. In fact, when US weapons are used
00:05:09
in places like Gaza and the West Bank,
00:05:11
it's usually the US government that's
00:05:13
paying for them.
Seeing the Palestinians
00:05:15
in Gaza
00:05:17
scavenge and dig through the rubble and
00:05:21
finding bombs that are made from Rathon
00:05:23
and Boeing.
00:05:49
It's sick. The blood is on our hands. I
00:05:52
don't know how we can ever recover. I
00:05:53
don't know how humanity can ever recover
00:05:56
from what we've collectively allowed to
00:05:57
happen in Gaza. And for people to say,
00:06:00
"Oh, it's just far away. We have nothing
00:06:02
to do with it." couldn't be further from
00:06:04
the truth. It's a USIsraeli genocide and
00:06:08
it's pushed and propped up by US defense
00:06:12
contractors
00:06:13
and they profit off every bullet and
00:06:16
every bomb that's dropped on those
00:06:18
babies. And that pipeline of profit has
00:06:21
been in place for decades. Since 1948,
00:06:24
the US has sent over $300 billion in
00:06:27
foreign aid to Israel, more than any
00:06:28
other country. Most of that comes in the
00:06:31
form of annual grants that Israel has to
00:06:33
spend on American weapons. For example,
00:06:36
Israel's Iron Dome missile defense
00:06:37
system has been a gold mine for
00:06:39
companies like Rathon that produce its
00:06:41
parts. And when tensions escalate again,
00:06:44
Congress fasttracks more funding to
00:06:46
Israel. And the cycle continues. So this
00:06:48
aid is basically a subsidy to American
00:06:50
defense contractors. Israel's attacks on
00:06:53
Gaza and the US backing that enables
00:06:55
them are continuing with no real end in
00:06:58
sight. And that means an open-ended
00:07:00
stream of profit for the US corporations
00:07:02
that are supplying the Israeli military.
00:07:05
And this isn't a one-off. Gaza is just
00:07:07
the latest example. Since 2001, the US
00:07:10
has spent $14 trillion on war. Nearly
00:07:14
half of that went to private defense
00:07:16
contractors. During this period of time,
00:07:18
Afghanistan became the longest war in US
00:07:20
history and a business model of endless
00:07:23
profit for the defense industry.
00:07:37
But to really understand how these five
00:07:39
defense companies ended up with all the
00:07:41
leverage, we have to go back to the
00:07:43
1990s.
Two years ago, I began planning
00:07:46
cuts in military spending that reflected
00:07:48
the changes of the new era. But now this
00:07:52
year with imperial communism gone, that
00:07:56
process can be accelerated.
When the
00:07:58
Cold War was ending, the US government
00:08:00
expected its defense budget to shrink.
00:08:02
It decided to encourage the 51 existing
00:08:05
defense contractors to merge, signaling
00:08:07
that only a handful of firms would
00:08:09
survive the new era. So in 1993, the
00:08:12
Pentagon invited top defense executives
00:08:14
to a dinner that would later be dubbed
00:08:16
as the Last Supper. What followed was a
00:08:18
wave of mergers that gave rise to
00:08:20
today's big five. But that consolidation
00:08:23
came at a cost. With so few players left
00:08:25
in the game, these companies now wield
00:08:27
immense power.
The military-industrial
00:08:29
complex doesn't care about winning wars.
00:08:31
The US doesn't care about winning the
00:08:33
Afghanistan war. They just wanted to
00:08:35
keep it going.
And they got what they
00:08:37
wanted. Even after the withdrawal from
00:08:39
Afghanistan, the defense budget didn't
00:08:41
shrink. In fact, it's grown nearly 14%
00:08:44
in the 3 years after the war ended. It's
00:08:47
because the defense contractors always
00:08:49
win. There always needs to be another
00:08:52
threat on the horizon. Communism,
00:08:55
terrorism, environmentalism,
00:08:58
China. There always has to be a threat
00:09:00
to justify these mass expenditures. And
00:09:03
now we're looking at a trillion dollar
00:09:06
budget. Today, the US spends more on
00:09:08
defense than the next nine countries
00:09:11
combined. And every year the US defense
00:09:13
budget expands with very little public
00:09:16
scrutiny. Despite this massive price
00:09:18
tag, the defense department has actually
00:09:20
failed its financial audit 7 years in a
00:09:23
row. That means it hasn't even been able
00:09:25
to prove how most of its funds were
00:09:27
used. But the defense budget is just the
00:09:29
tip of the iceberg. In fact, these
00:09:32
weapons contractors spend so much money
00:09:35
and employ hundreds of lobbyists, 700 or
00:09:39
more per year. That's more than one
00:09:41
lobbyist per every member of Congress.
00:09:44
But it's not just that.
In fact, 80% of
00:09:47
expert witnesses who testify to Congress
00:09:49
are actually paid by arms makers to
00:09:52
lobby on their behalf.
All of this is a
00:09:54
joke. It's all a show. So, we, the
00:09:58
taxpayers, subsidize the defense
00:10:01
industry. The defense industry hires
00:10:03
lobbyists to go and perform on the hill
00:10:06
and pretend like they're independent
00:10:08
experts. And really, it's all just a big
00:10:10
game, isn't it? And the joke's on us.
00:10:12
They lobby Congress to keep wars going.
00:10:15
And then some of them even help run
00:10:16
these wars from inside the Pentagon
00:10:18
itself.
There's a program inside the
00:10:21
military where hundreds of military
00:10:23
officers with very elite positions
00:10:25
actually go into defense contractor
00:10:28
businesses and get internships. They sit
00:10:31
there for months, sometimes more than a
00:10:33
year as active duty government
00:10:36
employees. Then they go back to the
00:10:38
government while still in active duty
00:10:40
military positions. It's a direct
00:10:42
pipeline from the government to the MIC.
00:10:46
Not to mention, former highlevel
00:10:47
military officials who retire often go
00:10:50
on and serve on the boards of the big
00:10:51
five. So yeah, the line between the US
00:10:53
military and for-profit defense
00:10:55
companies is becoming blurriier every
00:10:58
day. But the real cost comes to those
00:11:00
who live where the bombs fall.
It is on
00:11:03
our shoulders. We are the children of
00:11:05
the empire and this is our government.
00:11:07
We are the only ones who can stop this.
00:11:10
It turns out Eisenhower's warning was
00:11:12
all too real. Only an alert and
00:11:15
knowledgeable population can counter the
00:11:17
military-industrial complex's power to
00:11:19
shape US policy. I truly believe that
00:11:22
the more of us wake up with an
00:11:24
internationalist perspective where we
00:11:27
can have solidarity for our brothers and
00:11:29
sisters, no matter where they live, no
00:11:31
matter what geographical barriers that
00:11:34
they're imposed by, we will be
00:11:36
unstoppable.
00:11:42
[Music]
