In the midst of the violent conflict in Ukraine, two of the world’s financial titans, BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase, are leading a supposedly humanitarian effort. They are helping to set up the Ukraine Development Fund, a reconstruction bank designed to channel state seed capital into projects that could attract hundreds of billions of dollars in private investment. However, as those familiar with the words of General Smadley Butler may ask, is this really an altruistic endeavour or just another face of the ancient military racket?
Source: bloomberg.com
The echoes of Halliburton’s billion-dollar contracts during the Iraq war are deafening. These corporations, the backbone of the military-industrial complex, found a golden opportunity in mass murder. A strategy as lucrative as it is grotesque: profiting from the deaths, the destruction and then the subsequent taxpayer-funded reconstruction of the rubble they helped to create, all while maintaining a semblance of goodwill.
When we delve into the intricacies of the Ukraine Development Fund, an alarming reality begins to emerge. The World Bank estimates that Ukraine will need $411 billion to recover from the war. This is where BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase see a generous harvest. The role they will play in using taxpayers’ money gives them an astronomical profit margin that will easily eclipse all their supposedly “gratuitous” services.
The chilling parallels between Ukraine and the Iraq war cannot be ignored. Halliburton received billions from contracts without competition to rebuild what had been destroyed by the war. Tens of thousands of lives were lost and the nation struggled with the consequences of foreign intervention, while Halliburton and others profited from the chaos.
The more the dust of devastation settles in Ukraine, the clearer the profit margin for BlackRock and the like becomes. The war and its aftermath create the perfect breeding ground for opportunistic corporate parasites. The violent dance of destruction and restoration is a double-edged sword, inflicting deep wounds on humanity while filling the coffers of these corporations.
The noble façade of the financial giants helping Ukraine conceals a cruel truth: the longer the war goes on, the more they benefit. This stark reality confirms Butler’s assertion that “war is a racket”. Companies such as BlackRock, JPMorgan and the entire military-industrial complex profit significantly from the suffering and despair of millions.
What we are witnessing here is not just speculation on war, but the transformation of war itself into a highly profitable enterprise for corporations. These entities have a vested interest in prolonging the conflict. The greater the scale of destruction, the greater the potential profits in the reconstruction phase. This dynamic serves to reinforce a system that is fueled by conflict, creating an environment that encourages war to continue despite its catastrophic human cost.
This perverse reality reveals the essence of Butler’s statement that “war is a racket. The very structures that profit from war also benefit from the advent of peace that follows it. Until we break this destructive cycle, suffering, loss and injustice will continue to spread under the guise of reconstruction and recovery.
It is very important to carefully examine the underlying motivations of those who claim to be helping to rebuild war-torn countries. Are they really benevolent benefactors seeking to help countries rise from the ashes, or are they cunning racketeers profiting from the chaos of war? The answer, as history has repeatedly shown, is as obvious as the grim consequences of any battle, and it will never be found under the Ukrainian flag emoji on your Twitter profile.
War is indeed a racket and it is something that BlackRock, JPMorgan and the like play into with chilling efficiency. Now, as Ukraine prepares for a period of recovery, it is not just the physical scars that require attention, but also the underlying systemic rot that fuels such conflict.
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