The Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American War MachineFully updated from the original edition. As the retreat from Kabul shows, America goes to war not to bring democracy, or glory, but in the pursuit of profit. In The Spoils of War, leading Washington reporter, Andrew Cockburn, reveals the extent of the rot that stretches from the Pentagon and the White House, to Wall St and Silicon Valley. The American war machine can only be understood in terms of the "private passions" and "interests" of those who control it - principally a passionate interest in money. Thus, as he witheringly reports, Washington expanded NATO to satisfy an arms manufacturer's urgent financial requirements; the U.S. Navy's Pacific fleet deployments were for years dictated by a corrupt contractor who bribed high-ranking officers with cash and prostitutes; senior marine commanders agreed to a troop surge in Afghanistan in 2017 "because it will do us good at budget time." Based on years of wide-ranging research, Cockburn lays bare the ugly reality of the largest military machine in history: squalid, and at the same time terrifyingly dangerous. |
Contents
Tunnel Vision | |
Flying Blind | |
How to Start a Nuclear | |
The MilitaryIndustrial Virus | |
Like a Ball of Fire | |
Game | |
Undelivered Goods | |
The New Red Scare | |
Money Trail | |
Mobbed | |
A Very Perfect Instrument | |
Simple BillionDollar MoneyGrubbing | |
Saving the Whale Again | |
Swap Meet | |
The Malaysian | |
The Ukrainian Gold Rush | |
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The Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American War Machine Andrew Cockburn No preview available - 2023 |
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