{"id":74651,"date":"2016-06-06T12:00:41","date_gmt":"2016-06-06T11:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=74651"},"modified":"2016-06-06T13:22:52","modified_gmt":"2016-06-06T12:22:52","slug":"who-says-nothing-is-made-in-the-usa-anymore-america-excels-in-business-of-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/06\/who-says-nothing-is-made-in-the-usa-anymore-america-excels-in-business-of-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Says Nothing Is Made in the USA Anymore? America Excels in Business of Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Next Time Someone Says Nothing Is Made in the USA Anymore, Show Them This<\/em><\/p>\n

\"made-in-usa-2<\/a><\/p>\n

2 Jun 2016 – <\/em>Certainly not the well-heeled denizens of the State Department\u2019s diplomatic corps. And they should know. That\u2019s because they\u2019re stationed on the frontlines of the ongoing battle to preserve Uncle Sam\u2019s dominant market share of the global weapons trade. Luckily for the Military-Industrial Complex, it turns out that \u201cMade In the USA\u201d inspires a lot of brand loyalty, even if actual<\/em> loyalty is often a harder sell (paging Saudi Arabia<\/a>). To wit, not only was America the world\u2019s leading arms dealer in 2014 with $36.2 billion<\/a> in sales, but it topped that 35% surge in sales over 2013 with yet another profitable spike to $46.6 billion<\/a> in 2015.<\/p>\n

As Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) determined in its recent report<\/a> on the global arms trade, the United States maintains a commanding \u201c33% share of total arms exports\u201d and is the world\u2019s top seller for five years running. And its customer base includes \u201cat least\u201d 96 countries, which is nearly half of the world\u2019s nations<\/a>. A robust 40% of those exports<\/a> end up in the Middle East. Perhaps that\u2019s why the State Department is so darn bullish on the prospects of Uncle Sam\u2019s booming business of selling things that go \u201cboom!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"President<\/a>

President Barack Obama uncomfortably accepting the Nobel Peace Prize from Committee Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, 2009. (White House photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

That\u2019s the takeaway from a recent report<\/a> in Defense<\/em> News<\/em><\/a> highlighting the marketing push by \u201cCommercial Officers\u201d stationed at the US embassy in Jordan. They worked the crowd at the kingdom\u2019s eleventh bi-annual Special Operations Forces Exhibition and Conference<\/a> (SOFEX). \u00a0Like many of the nearly 100 military-themed \u201ctrade shows\u201d<\/a> held around the world this year alone<\/em><\/strong>, SOFEX offered the profiteers of doom an opportunity to display their merchandise and to cut deals with bellicose browsers ready to pull the trigger on a deadly impulse buy. Some of the bigger, \u201cglitzy<\/a>\u201d trade shows \u2014 like the International Defence Exposition and Conference<\/a> (IDEX) held yearly in Abu Dhabi \u2014 are full-on one-stop-shopping destinations for the up-and-coming military power on the move, the newly-minted pro-Western junta eager to armor-up, and the forward-thinking \u201cCoalition Partner<\/a>\u201d looking for the latest in \u201ckinetic warfare<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

If nothing else, trade shows offer defense contractors a chance to give out \u201cpromotional tchotchkes<\/a>\u201d to potential future customers who might be swayed to double-back by a branded camouflage carryall<\/a> or a Digi Camo Military Bert Stress Reliever<\/a>. No doubt it\u2019s a tedious affair, but the presenters toiling behind the displays are not alone on the battlefield of commerce. That certainly was the case at SOFEX, where the U.S. Embassy<\/a> deployed Senior Commercial Officer Geoffrey Bogart and Regional Safety and Security chief Cherine Maher to act as sale-force multipliers for America\u2019s military moneymakers. As Jen Judson<\/a> detailed, Bogart and Maher tracked down sales leads throughout a region gripped by chaos since America wantonly destroyed a bystander nation under false pretenses (a.k.a. Iraq). Here are Judson\u2019s highlights<\/a> from Bogart and Maher\u2019s magical misery tour of the profitable market forces currently shaping America\u2019s recently reshaped Middle East:<\/p>\n

\"made-in-usa-3<\/a><\/p>\n

JORDAN:<\/strong> \u201cWe are very high on the safety and security market in Jordan,\u201d Geoffrey Bogart, a commercial officer at the US Embassy said. Bogart said there is an abundance of market prospects for US companies to do business in Jordan, including in border security, cyber security, command and control centers, telecommunications equipment, military vehicles, artillery, tactical equipment, bomb and metal detectors, and closed circuit television (CCTV) and access control<\/em>.<\/p>\n

EGYPT:<\/strong> \u201cEgypt is facing a lot of challenges especially in terms of border control and whether it\u2019s from the West or the East or the North or the South, so the main project that is going on is border and perimeter control,\u201d Maher said, which means the country really wants bomb detection, jammers and improvised explosive device diffusers.<\/em><\/p>\n

LIBYA:<\/strong> The current instability in Libya has led to challenges for US firms, according to Maher; however, US companies\u2019 products are in high demand there. \u201cThe trick is how to enter the market, who to sell to, and making sure of export license,\u201d she said, adding some products that had been permitted to be sold to Libya now have restrictions.<\/em><\/p>\n

TUNISIA:<\/strong> There is continuous growth in Tunisia\u2019s defense market, Maher said. Tunisia plussed up its security forces budget in 2016 due to growing terrorist threats in the region. The country wants to build up its force capacity to deter regional threats, strengthen defensive capabilities and support counterterrorism operations.<\/em><\/p>\n

LEBANON:<\/strong> Lebanon is interested in border security; however, it\u2019s particularly interested in securing public buildings and providing for civilian protection due to ongoing insecurity in some towns and cities near Beirut, Maher said.<\/em><\/p>\n

IRAQ:<\/strong> Maher said Iraq has a particularly \u201cdynamic\u201d market valued in 2014 at about $7.6 billion, which is about 3.44 percent of its GDP. With the ongoing war against the Islamic State group, it is anticipated that Iraq will soon spend around $19 billion, which would make up about 18 to 20 percent of its GDP. Like all the other countries in the region, Iraq is investing heavily in safety and security equipment, and also wants personal protective gear and security systems for residential and commercial buildings, according to Maher.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>

An Iraqi boy covers his face with his hands while weeping as people survey the destruction in a neighborhood following a US airstrike. (photo: Faris DLIMI\/AFP)<\/p><\/div>\n

A \u201cdynamic\u201d market is right \u2026 that is, if you\u2019re General Dynamics. Or Lockheed Martin. Or Boeing. Or any of the big six defense contractors who together took home $90.29 billion of the over $175 billion<\/a> worth of taxpayer dollars doled out last year to the top 100 military contractors. Not coincidentally, seven of the top eight U.S. Government contractors are defense companies, with only health care services provider McKesson<\/a> making it past a phalanx of defense wheelers and dealers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a rarified world greased last year by $127.39 million<\/a> of lobbying largesse and another $32.66 million<\/a> spent so far this year, according to OpenSecrets.org<\/a>. Of course, lobbying offers a great bang for the buck when it comes to stoking sales. A MapLight analysis<\/a> earlier this year found<\/a> that \u201cmajor U.S. government contractors have received $1,171 in taxpayer money for every $1 invested in lobbying and political action committee contributions during the last decade<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that\u2019s some serious ROI!<\/p>\n

Still, nothing quite compares to the breeder reactor effect that comes from using expensive military hardware to destroy regimes in a never-ending global war against a tactic. Regime change touched off civil war in Iraq. That spread to Syria which, in turn, sent over 660,000 refugees<\/a> into Jordan and over one million refugees<\/a> into Lebanon \u2026 all of which explains why Bogart and Maher are so bullish on the sale of security-related products to those two nations and why the entire region is in the midst of a military buying spree.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The U.S. military\u2019s \u201cshock and awe\u201d bombing of Baghdad at the start of the Iraq War, as broadcast on CNN.<\/p><\/div>\n

Then there is the chaotic aftermath of regime change in Libya, which threatens to spill over to two more booming markets \u2014 Tunisia and Egypt. Of course, Egypt had its own U.S.-endorsed internal regime change at the hands of a loyal customer<\/a> and longtime recipient of American \u201caid\u201d\u2014 the Egyptian military. It was really a \u201ccoup,\u201d but U.S. law would\u2019ve prevented selling Egypt\u2019s military junta tear gas canisters marked \u201cMade In USA<\/a>\u201d (among other things) if it was officially a coup d\u2019etat, so the Obama Administration simply didn\u2019t call it a coup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, according to Ms. Maher, Egypt\u2019s military is in the market for yet more military hardware that, according to a new GAO report<\/a> detailed by The Intercept<\/em><\/a>, is not being properly or legally vetted by the State Department. Those purchases are easily funded by the $6.4 billion in U.S. aid since the coup in 2011. And (go figure) Egypt\u2019s wishlist is justified, in part, by the sudden need to ward off interlopers from regime-changed Libya, which, according to the aforementioned Ms. Maher, is still a red-hot market for U.S. arms dealers \u2026 if they can get the export licenses.<\/p>\n

And so the dynamic market churns onward \u2014 with tax dollars paying the salaries of State Department \u201cCommercial Officers\u201d who work for the heavily-subsidized U.S. defense industry as salespeople in overseas markets destabilized by taxpayer-funded wars fought by taxpayer-supported American soldiers armed with weaponry purchased from that self-same defense industry with \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 more tax dollars.<\/p>\n

The \u201cdiplomats\u201d in the State Department act as important go-betweens in the process, helping \u201ccustomers\u201d navigate the military-industrial complexities of end-user certificates, export licenses, and human rights restrictions so they can spend taxpayer-funded U.S. \u201caid\u201d that invariably ends up back in the coffers of Lockheed, Boeing, Raytheon, and so on.<\/p>\n

Once the money makes it back home to the defense industry, those companies invest some of their windfalls into lobbying, into SuperPACS, into both political parties, and directly into campaigns of the Congressional cronies who dutifully rubberstamp the defense budget that enriches the defense industry. So far this year, they\u2019ve poured over $17 million<\/a> into those efforts and, in turn, they\u2019ve provided the fuel to run the \u201cdynamic\u201d perpetual machine in which the State Department is a vital cog.<\/p>\n

And this is why the folks at the State Department know full-well that, in fact, America still actually makes something \u2014 it is the world\u2019s leading manufacturer of war.<\/p>\n

______________________________________<\/p>\n

JP Sottile is a freelance journalist, radio co-host, documentary filmmaker and former broadcast news producer in Washington, D.C. He blogs at Newsvandal.com<\/a> or you can follow him on Twitter, http:\/\/twitter\/newsvandal<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article is free and open source. You have permission to republish it under a <\/em>Creative Commons<\/em><\/a> license with attribution to <\/em>JP Sottile<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>theAntiMedia.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theantimedia.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Next Time Someone Says Nothing Is Made in the USA Anymore, Show Them This – America may lag behind the developed world in many categories, but it is No. 1 in the ‘merchant of death’ business, experiencing a boom in the commerce of boom, especially in areas destabilized by U.S. invasions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglo-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}