AI Is A Gateway To The Welfare State
October 6, 2026 |
Keith Giles
In the documentary, “Dirty Wars”, author and investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill makes a comment about America’s schizophrenic foreign policy after learning that our nation’s drone policy has executed hundreds of innocent civilians, and even American citizens, without trial or even a declaration of war.
He notes that America fights the war on terror on one side, and creates terrorists on the other. Almost as if the goal was somehow to maintain a perpetual state of war and terror around the world.
He says, “America is both the arsonist and the fireman.” This comment made me wonder, why would this be so?
The answer is that the war on terror is big business. Just ask corporations like Haliburton, Lockheed, Raytheon, Boeing and dozens more who profited in the billions – and still do – over the endless wars being waged around the world on a daily basis.
How did this happen?
Soon after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, there was a massive surge in legislation to grant unlimited war powers to the Executive Branch in the name of protecting American lives. Only one legislator stood up against that tide and called for a more reasoned and measured response. Her name was Barbara Lee.
On September 14, 2001, Barbara Lee stood alone against a frenzy in both the House and the Senate to offer the President of the United States the ability to wage war on an endless basis, anywhere in the world.
She received death threats, and opposition from both political parties – even from among her own party – for refusing to support such legislation.
If only we had listened to her then.
On May 2, 2012, President Obama and Afghan President Karzai signed an agreement known as “The Enduring Strategic Partnership Agreement”. This document essentially granted permission for the US Military to maintain outposts in their country for an extended period of time, in exchange for billions of dollars in support for the Afghan government.
Sweeping powers of war granted to the President of the United States, along with Corporate manipulation of the American Congress has enabled a handful of US Corporations to rake in billions of dollars in military contracts in order to continually fight an endless war that all parties are financially motivated to perpetuate.
As Smedley D. Butler, a retired United States Marine Corps Major General and two-time Medal of Honor recipient famously said, in his speech and subsequent booklet of the same title: “War is a racket.”
“A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.”
“Take our friends the DuPonts, the powder people — didn’t one of them testify before a Senate committee recently that their powder won the war [World War I]? Or saved the world for democracy? How did they do in the war? They were a patriotic corporation. Well, the average earnings of the DuPonts for the period 1910 to 1914 were $6,000,000 a year. It wasn’t much, but the DuPonts managed to get along on it. Now let’s look at their average yearly profit during the war years, 1914 to 1918. Fifty-eight million dollars a year profit we find! Nearly ten times that of normal times, and the profits of normal times were pretty good. An increase in profits of more than 950 per cent.
“Take one of our little steel companies that patriotically shunted aside the making of rails and girders and bridges to manufacture war materials. Well, their 1910-1914 yearly earnings averaged $6,000,000. Then came the war. And, like loyal citizens, Bethlehem Steel promptly turned to munitions making. Did their profits jump — or did they let Uncle Sam in for a bargain? Well, their 1914-1918 average was $49,000,000 a year!
“Or, let’s take United States Steel. The normal earnings during the five-year period prior to the war were $105,000,000 a year. Not bad. Then along came the war and up went the profits. The average yearly profit for the period 1914-1918 was $240,000,000. Not bad.
“There you have some of the steel and powder earnings. Let’s look at something else. A little copper, perhaps. That always does well in war times. Anaconda, for instance. Average yearly earnings during the pre-war years 1910-1914 of $10,000,000. During the war years 1914-1918 profits leaped to $34,000,000 per year.
“Or Utah Copper. Average of $5,000,000 per year during the 1910-1914 period. Jumped to an average of $21,000,000 yearly profits for the war period.
“Let’s group these five, with three smaller companies. The total yearly average profits of the pre-war period 1910-1914 were $137,480,000. Then along came the war. The average yearly profits for this group skyrocketed to $408,300,000.
“A little increase in profits of approximately 200 per cent.
“Does war pay? It paid them. But they aren’t the only ones.”
Near the end of his commentary, Butler outlines three steps to smash the war racket:
While he may be right about these steps, the facts are that America might already be too far down the road to ever turn back.
US corporations still dominate the worldwide arms market by a huge margin. Six of the top 10 arms dealers are American corporations and overall the US accounts for 58% of all arms sales around the globe.
With a very lucrative carrot dangling in front of them, and the means to manipulate the United States Congress to authorize billions of dollars in arms production for both the US Military and other nations around the world, there is very little motivation for any of these companies to stop creating weapons, or to stop encouraging the US Government to create the need for such weapons.
This is why American drones continually kill civilians in countries we are not even at war with, like Yemen for example. In December of 2009, the US military conducted 5 drone strikes in that country, with over 150,000 casualties. Keep in mind we are not at war with Yemen, and yet we are killing thousands without cause.
Why?
Is it because American Corporations are profiting in the billions of dollars fighting an endless war around the globe? Is it because such an endless war requires a steady stream of “enemies” to fight against?
At this point, even if the answer is “no”, the reality is that this is what is taking place: Corporations are making billions of dollars fighting an enemy that the US Military is actively engaged in creating through indiscriminate drone warfare that targets civilians and creates hundreds of thousands of casualties, leaving behind survivors who are left with little more than an enduring hatred for America and an empty wound where their loved ones once were.
This is the recipe for creating a terrorist. And the war on terror will continue endlessly until we finally stop creating people who only want to kill us.
This isn’t about Islam. It’s not about differing ideologies. They do not hate us for our freedom.
Those who hate America do so because we are engaged in an endless war that results in billions of dollars in profits and creates a more dangerous world for everyone outside of our borders.
