The U.S. is also expected to give to Ukraine High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, known as Himars. Those are light multiple rocket launchers with a comparable range to the MLRS. But unlike the MLRS, which moves on tracks, the Himars move on a wheeled chassis… [Emphasis added.]
Dear DrBob2,
The HIMARS you describe were originally built by BAE Systems, but are now produced by Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control in Camden, Arkansas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M142_HIMARS
It doesn’t take much imagination to guess how much cash or “protected free speech” each Congress member or their favorite PAC receives from defense contractors and military technology companies. After I heard that our noble leaders (working “across the aisle”) were pushing another $40 Billion in US taxpayer money for the Russia-Ukraine War, I bought some of the iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA), the largest defense & aerospace ETF, with its 5 top investments in the following:
Raytheon Technologies (RTX), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Boeing (BA), Northrop Grumman (NOC), General Dynamics (GD)
The Center for Strategic & International Studies, a D.C. think tank, serves as an important “revolving door” organization, along with the Pentagon and military suppliers/contractors, for each successive generation of interchangeable public/private leaders and diplomats, “making the world safe for democracy” - courtesy of the deep pockets of the US taxpayer.
https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/search_result.php?priv…
Here’s what the Center for Strategic & International Studies says about the $40 Billion that our Congress, on a bipartisan basis, hurriedly and enthusiastically approved to extend and prolong the Ukrainian war for as long as possible (or at least through the November 2022 midterm elections).
Although some elements of the aid package will be available quickly, many will take years to fully implement. This raises questions about why long-term elements could not have gone through the regular congressional authorization and budget processes.
A key change is that the timeline for this aid package implies the expectation of a long war. Previous aid packages were designed to last a few weeks. No one knew how long the war might go on or whether Ukraine would hold out. Thus, packages were announced on February 25, March 12, March 16, April 5, April 13, April 21, and April 24. This package breaks that pattern. Instead of looking out a few weeks, this package goes to September 30, the end of the fiscal year. [Emphasis added throughout.]
https://www.csis.org/analysis/what-does-40-billion-aid-ukrai…
Just as “war is good for business,” it also is “good for re-election,” forging an almost unbreakable symbiotic relationship that some in the past have warned against. However, a Stanford University professor once wrote a thought-provoking essay published in the Washington Post.
In the long run, wars make us safer and richer
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-the-long-run-wars…
In the above-linked 2014 commentary, Professor Ian Morris argues that global trade requires a global super-policeman, using some of Adam Smith’s own reasoning to justify the commingling of government and business.
[Adam] Smith realized, markets were so big that a new path to the wealth of nations was opening. Taking it, however, was complicated. Markets would work best if governments got out of them, leaving people to truck and barter; but markets would only work at all if governments got into them, enforcing their rules and keeping trade free. The solution, Smith implied, was not a Leviathan but a kind of super-Leviathan that would police global trade.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-the-long-run-wars…
If the Russia-Ukraine War can provide an opportunity for the US and its allies to “modernize” their arsenals with new weapons, dispose of their old weapons by giving them to Ukraine, and improve their capacity for manufacturing new, modern weaponry in great volumes - all while spinning off enough in profits to fund campaign contributions and donations to think thanks and universities - then war is more than hell. War is also heaven for those who can benefit from war, including those of us who engage in business and investing.
</cynicism irony and sarcasm off>