Progressive Critics Say Investors in U.S. Weapon-Makers Only Clear Winners of Afghan War

Progressive Critics Say Investors in U.S. Weapon-Makers Only Clear Winners of Afghan War

By Jessica CORBETT

As the hawks who have been lyingabout the U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan for two decades continueto pitch dreamsin the midst of a Taliban takeoverand American evacuationof Kabul, progressive critics on Tuesday reminded the world who has actually gained from the “endless war.”

“Entrenching U.S. forces in Afghanistan was the military-industrial complex’s business prepare for 20+ years,” declaredthe Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group Public Citizen.

“Hawks and defense specialists co-opted the needs of the Afghan people in order to line their own pockets,” the group included. “Never has it been more important to end war profiteering.”

In a Tuesday early morning tweet, Public Citizen highlighted returns on defense stocks over the past 20 years– as determined in a “jaw-dropping” analysisby The Intercept— and asserted that “the military-industrial complex got precisely what it desired out of this war.”

Defense stocks during the Afghanistan War:

Lockheed Martin: 1,236% return
Northrop Grumman: 1,196% return
Boeing: 975% return
General Dynamics: 625% return
Raytheon: 331% return

The military-industrial complex got precisely what it desired out of this war.

— Public Person (@Public_Citizen) August 17, 2021

The Intercept‘s Jon Schwarz examined returns on stocks of the 5 biggest defense specialists: Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and General Characteristics.

Schwarz discovered that a $10,000 financial investment in stock equally split throughout those 5 business on the day in 2001 that then-President Georg W. Bush signed the permission preceding the U.S. intrusion would be worth $97,295 today, not adjusted for inflation, taxes, or charges.

According to The Intercept:

This is a far greater return than was readily available in the total stock exchange over the exact same duration. $10,000 bought an S&P 500 index fund on September 18, 2001, would now be worth $61,613.

That is, defense stocks exceeded the stock market overall by 58% throughout the Afghanistan War.

“These numbers recommend that it is inaccurate to conclude that the Taliban’s instant takeover of Afghanistan upon the U.S.’s departure indicates that the Afghanistan War was a failure,” Schwarz added. “On the contrary, from the perspective of some of the most effective individuals in the U.S., it may have been an extraordinary success. Especially, the boards of directors of all 5 defense professionals include retired top-level military officers.”

“War profiteering isn’t brand-new,” reporter Dina Sayedahmed saidin response to the reporting, “but seeing the numbers on it is staggering.”

Progressive political commentator and podcast host Krystal Ball used Schwarz’s findings to counter an essential argument that’s been widely used to validate nearly twenty years of war.

“This is what it was really all about individuals,” she tweeted of the defense specialists’ returns. “Anybody who believes we remained in Afghanistan to assist ladies and ladies is a phony or a fool.”

Jack Mirkinson wroteMonday for Discourse Blogthat “it is absolutely heartbreaking to think of what the Taliban may cause on ladies and women, however let us do without this fantasy that the U.S. has actually remained in Afghanistan to support women, or to construct democracy, or to reinforce Afghan institutions, or any of the other lines that are deployed whenever someone has the temerity to recommend that limitless war and occupation is a harmful thing.”

“We did not enter into Afghanistan to support its people, and we did not stay in Afghanistan to support its individuals,” he included. “It is amazing, provided what we know about the beaststhat the U.S. has propped uptime and time once again around the world, that the myth persists that we do anything out of our love for human rights. We entered and we stayed in for the very same reason: theAmerican empire is a force that should stay in perpetual movement.” As Typical Dreams reportedMonday, while the Taliban has retaken control, anti-war advocates have actually argued diplomacy is the only course to long-term peace, with Job South’s Azadeh Shahshahani emphasizing that”the only ones who gained from the U.S. war on Afghanistan were war-profiteering politicians and corporations while many lives were destroyed.”

Responding to Shahshahani’s tweet about who has actually gained from 20 years of bloodshed, Zack Kopplin of the Federal government Accountability Job composed,”Adding war-profiteering generals to the mix too.”commondreams.org