War is Business, Business is War

One of a very close friend of mine from US, recently posted a picture (see below) on her Facebook page, which drew me today to write this blog. She has been a passionate proponent of Montessori form of education and is a firm believer in natural form of education with care to environment and ecology being the best way of teaching. She is also a a great preacher of gun control and disarmament.

Even though, one might argue that the number mentioned in the picture might not be correct or that it might be an exaggeration, but none would deny that the arms race and the easy supply of those arms, followed by the back-up of ammunition, is one of the primary root cause of ethnic riots and wars prolonging around the globe, which eventually is paralyzing the entire human race. 

Each decade the world sees a new evil, a new name, that unleashes terror and bloodshed across the globe. The evil is new, the devil is old. Its the same demon with a new mask. Be it Hitler, Khmer Rouge, Al-Qaida, or the recent ISIS - all evolved with easy availability of arms. Nearly three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which marked the end of cold war between US and Russia, the defence budgets of all major economies are only increasing. The insecurities created by the existence of rival superpowers may have diminished, but numbers show that buying and selling of arms continues to be a flourishing business.

Alongwith Saddam Hussain, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Bashar Al-Asaad of Syria, even George W. Bush is also considered among the Top 10 Evil Rulers of recent times. Most people believe he is responsible for a large proportion of violence creates in the world today. The so-called war against terrorism he started took millions of life. Many researches rank Bush near the very bottom of history, due to delusional wars and reckless spending in arms. In 2010 Sienna ranking of presidential scholars, Bush was rated as one of the nations five worst presidents. In 2009 C-SPAN ranking Bush top  at eight worst presidents.

George W. Bush

The world's top 10 countries incur a defence expenditure of US$ 1300 billion (that's the entire economy of Spain or Mexico), with USA itself spending $610 billion alone (more than GDP of Sweden or Argentina)  - three times that of China at number two. Even India, the poorest country in that list, also spends US$ 50 billion, which itself is higher than GDP of more than 100 counties of the world. 

Among the top 5 companies of the world in arms sales, 4 are from USA, doing more than US$ 105 billion businesses. Lockheed Martin of USA with US$36 billion, has military earnings higher than the defense budget of all countries in the world except the top ten. The sales of 43 American companies in the top 100 are higher than the GDP of over 140 countries inhabited by more than 1.7 million people.

The world for sure will win the war with ISIS in near future, as it has against all the other demons in the past. But will that defeat of ISIS, bring along peace on Earth? No, it will not, for sure. The Merchants of War will acquire new clients for their business to accelerate with greater thrust.