Big Money in Politics Doesn’t Just Drive Inequality. It Drives War.

http://www.juancole.com/2016/04/big-money-in-politics-doesnt-just-drive-inequality-it-drives-war.html

Military contractors have shelled out over $1 million to the 2016 presidential candidates — including over $200,000 to Hillary Clinton alone.

Big Money in Politics Doesn’t Just Drive Inequality. It Drives War.
By contributors | Apr. 28, 2016
By Rebecca Green | ( Otherwords.org)

The 2016 presidential elections are proving historic, and not just because of the surprising success of self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders, the lively debate among feminists over whether to support Hillary Clinton, or Donald Trump’s unorthodox candidacy.

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Big money in politics drives grave inequality in our country. It also drives war.

After all, war is a profitable industry. While millions of people all over the world are being killed and traumatized by violence, a small few make a killing from the never-ending war machine.

During the Iraq War, for example, weapons manufacturers and a cadre of other corporations made billions on federal contracts.


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Speaking of weapons:

http://www.juancole.com/2016/04/globally-deaths-from-explosive-weapons-rise-54-and-34s-victims-are-civilians.html

Civilian casualties from explosive weapons rose by 54 percent in 2015 compared to 2011.

Globally, deaths from explosive weapons rise 54%, & 3/4s are Civilians
By contributors | Apr. 28, 2016
TeleSur

More than three-quarters of those harmed by explosive weapons in 2015— bombs, missiles and mortars— were civilians, with 30 of them killed on average every day, according to a new study from Action on Armed Violence or AOAV, a non-governmental organization based in the the United Kingdom.

“The last 12 months have seen explosive weapons, both manufactured and improvised, bring appalling suffering to civilians across the world,” says the report, released Tuesday. At least 33,307 civilians were killed or wounded by such weapons in 2015, according to AOAV. That figure is 54 percent higher than that recorded in 2011.

But, the report says, “Many more people are affected by explosive weapons than can possibly be hinted at by our casualty figure.”

More than 10,000 deaths and injuries were recorded in Syria alone, a 39 percent increase from the year before. The worst incident of 2015 occurred in Douma, Syria, when 620 civilians were reportedly killed or injured when “Multiple air-dropped bombs hit (a) marketplace.”