”In Vietnam the United States was ứa Ngô Đình Diệm’s “most important ally” until he was assassinated by the CIA. President Zelensky doesn’t want Ukraine to be Vietnam II as a means to sell U.S. weapons.

This is upside down. Ukraine borders Russia. Russia considers Ukraine part of a protective ring of countries dividing Russia from Western Europe. A nuclear armed NATO Ukraine is a direct military threat to Russia:

 “Zelensky’s Ukraine finds itself in the crosshairs of Moscow’s attempts to reassert its influence in what it considers its sphere of influence and prevent the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from moving into the states that once constituted the Soviet Union.” 

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“We’re his most important ally and he’s poking us in the eye and creating daylight between Washington and Kyiv,” said the U.S. official. “It’s self-sabotage more than anything else.”

In Vietnam the United States was ứa Ngô Đình Diệm’s “most important ally” until he was assassinated by the CIA. Zelensky doesn’t want Ukraine to be Vietnam II.

***

Nevertheless, Zelensky’s message has found an audience among some U.S. officials, who emphasize that it’s the Ukrainian leader and his citizens who should have the last word.

“I have listened closely to what President Zelensky has said and he reminds us time and again that there could be a way out of this short of military action,” Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said Sunday on “Meet the Press.”

“I hope there is,” he added. “But it’s his decision to make.”

MORE AT:

The Washington Post

Ukraine’s Zelensky’s message is don’t panic. That’s making the West antsy.

***

The United States vs Iraq War is over. 

The United States vs Afghanistan War is over. 

Defense contractors need a new war to sell weapons. 

“If it sounds like Hayes is using mounting tensions as an advertising opportunity for his company, this may not be far fetched. On a January 25 earnings call (which was noted on Twitter by Nick Cleveland-Stout of the Quincy Institute), Hayes included “tensions in Eastern Europe” among the factors that Raytheon stands to benefit from. He said: “We just have to look to last week where we saw the drone attack in the UAE, which have attacked some of their other facilities. And of course, the tensions in Eastern Europe, the tensions in the South China Sea, all of those things are putting pressure on some of the defense spending over there. So I fully expect we’re going to see some benefit from it.” 

Raytheon isn’t alone in its projections. Among those noting the likely boost to profits is Jim Taiclet, the chairman, president and CEO of Lockheed Martin. In a January 25 earnings call, he told investors, “If you look at the evolving threat level and the approach that some countries are taking, including North Korea, Iran and through some of its proxies in Yemen and elsewhere, and especially Russia today, these days, and China, there’s renewed great power competition that does include national defense and threats to it.”

This “great power competition,” he suggested to investors, bodes more business for the company. Taiclet says, “And the history of the United States is when those environments evolve, that we do not sit by and just watch it happen. So I can’t talk to a number, but I do think, and I’m concerned personally that the threat is advancing, and we need to be able to meet it.”

The statements come from leaders of an industry that exerts tremendous influence in Washington, employing an average of 700 lobbyists per year over the past five years, or more than one lobbyist per member of Congress, according to Brown University’s Costs of War project. 

Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics are also funders of the influential think tank, Center for Strategic and International Studies, which has been encouraging the United States to take immediate action, including militarily, in the event of a Russian invasion.

“Everyone in D.C. knows that weapons manufacturers are helping skew U.S. policy towards militarism, but they usually try to be less obvious,” Erik Sperling, executive director of Just Foreign Policy, an anti-war organization, told In These Times. “They are cashing in on tensions over Ukraine as the U.S. pours weapons into the region.”

General Dynamics, meanwhile, has noted that past tensions have increased demand for the company’s products. On a January 26 earnings call, the company was asked, “The Ukraine and everything going on with Russia has been in the headlines. What does that mean for your international Land Systems business, particularly in Eastern Europe?” 

CEO Phebe Novakovic replied, “Well, for some time now, the Eastern European demand for combat vehicles has been at elevated level.”

MORE AT:

Top Weapons Companies Boast Ukraine-Russia Tensions Are a Boon for Business

In calls with investors, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin boasted that the worsening conflict is helping profits.

January 27, 2022