Most people don’t want war with all its death, destruction, and suffering.There is a small but powerful minority, however, that not only welcomes war but actively promotes it – the war profiteers that come in two breeds.First are the weapons merchants who siphon off billions in taxpayer dollars to build devices that destroy.Then when cities and infrastructure lay in shambles, the “reconstruction” contractors step in to sap billions more in taxpayer dollars – frequently without competitive bid and with no oversight to prevent fraud. War profiteers put their own gain above people’s lives and human rights.
Lockheed Martin tops the list of global military contractors. In 2002, before the Iraq war, it took in $17 billion in prime military contracts.That figure swelled to $27.9 billion in fiscal year 2007.That is just prime contracts and does not include many more billions received from subcontracts to other weapons merchants.However, even that 64% jump in military sales is not the entire picture.
The bottom line for corporations is profit.Profit is reflected in stock earnings.In 2002, Lockheed Martin stock earned $1.17 per share.In 2007 the per-share earnings jumped to $7.10.In five years, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq boosted shareholders’ annual earnings by a factor of six.On top of that, the value of each Lockheed Martin share increased 261% in those five years – from $44.29 in 2002 to $115.77 in 2007.
These profits weren’t just a lucky windfall.They were actively planned and promoted through what is called the “revolving door” syndrome.It works like this: individuals holding a position in government resign or retire and go to work for a corporation that benefits from their government expertise.Or it may start with a corporation and move to government.It does not necessarily stop with one cycle but can continue to revolve.Every time a switch is made the individual gains financially as he or she promotes government or corporate interests.
There were many revolving door players beating the war drums for Lockheed Martin’s interests, but two will suffice for illustration.Those two are Bruce Jackson and Stephen J. Hadley.
As a military intelligence officer in the 1980s, Bruce Jackson worked in the Pentagon with prominent neoconservatives Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, and Dick Cheney.Jackson also was executive director of the Project for a New American Century, the neoconservative think tank that provided the framework for Bush’s national security strategy of preemptive war.He joined Martin Marietta in 1993 as director of strategic planning and corporate development projects which involved the 1995 merger with Lockheed.He stayed on with the newly-named Lockheed Martin and in 1997 became director in charge of finding new international markets.In 1999 he was promoted to vice president for strategy and planning, a position he held until 2002.
Stephen J. Hadley was on the White House National Security Staff from 1974-1977 during the Ford administration.In 1977 he joined the law firm Shea & Gardner which had Lockheed as a client.He took a leave of absence in 1986 to serve as counsel to the Tower Commission investigating arms sales to Iraq; and another in 1989 to serve four years as assistant secretary of defense for international security policy for the Bush Sr. administration.In 2001 Hadley left the law firm to join the George W. Bush administration, first as deputy national security advisor and later as national security advisor.In that position he was the point man in selling Bush’s war on Iraq.
In 1996 Jackson started the nongovernmental US Committee to Expand NATO to provide pressure for bringing some former Soviet bloc countries into NATO.Hadley was also involved.Their success in that effort (while Jackson was working for Lockheed Martin and Hadley was with a firm representing Lockheed Martin) provided leverage in 2003 for getting new NATO members to support and join the “coalition of the willing” in Bush’s war on Iraq – a war which was very profitable for the weapons builder.
In November 2002, Hadley as deputy national security advisor called Jackson – then a vice president at Lockheed Martin – to the White House to help develop a rationale to attack Iraq.He asked Jackson to do for Iraq what he did for NATO in 1996.Jackson came up with the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq whose mission statement was “to promote regional peace, political freedom and international security by replacing the Saddam Hussein regime with a democratic government that respects the rights of the Iraqi people and ceases to threaten the community of nations.” [Richard Cummins, “US: Lockheed Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” Playboy.com, 16 January 2007]This nongovernmental group pressed hard for regime change in Iraq.It spent money from special interest groups – war profiteers? – to lobby congress, feed press releases to the media, and propagandize the public that Saddam was a monster who violates human rights and threatened stability in the Middle East.Jackson also helped start the neoconservative Weekly Standard which advocated force to effect regime change in Iraq.By implying it would make their admission into NATO easier, Jackson persuaded ten former Soviet bloc countries to draft a unified declaration that the tyranny of Saddam Hussein must be confronted now.
Meanwhile Stephen Hadley, “referred to by The New York Times as one of the more significant Lockheed operatives in the Bush White House,” pursued the claim that Iraq was trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction that threatened US and global security. [Richard Cummins, op.cit.]He promoted a story that Iraq tried to buy uranium yellowcake from Nigeria.That story was later proved to be a fake but, nevertheless, Hadley’s “mistake” provided the needed justification to attack Iraq.For that he was promoted to national security advisor.
“Shock and Awe” struck at night on 20 March 2003 when Lockheed Martin Stealth F-117 fighters launched bunker-buster bombs on Baghdad.From that date on, Lockheed Martin profits soared.