Opinion: Wars Are Corrupt and Politicians Are Too

With growing issues surrounding the United States’ foreign policy, its age-old desire to enter meaningless, zero-sum wars has once again regained the spotlight at the center of American politics.

In a two party system where the appetite to enter foreign wars was once dominated by the political right, today’s congressional divide has a much different look. Rather than right versus left – war versus anti war – it is the neocons versus the peacemakers; the establishment versus the outsiders. Why is this you ask? It’s quite simple. Money and power – and establishment politicians – by nature – tend to be ruled by it. 

When people refer to American politics as “bought and paid for”, it can feel cynical – discouraging even – but unfortunately, in many cases it is the truth. It is why we have remained in the Ukraine for nearly 2 years in an unwinnable war, why we remained in Afghanistan for the better part of two decades, why we ever went to Vietnam, and most recently why our politicians are urging us to enter yet another war in the Middle East – this time with Iran. Lifelong politicians like Lindsay Graham, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and Chuck Schumer (the list goes on) who have advocated for the continuation of war in the Ukraine (and elsewhere), are the prototype establishment politicians I’d like to focus on in this paper. These entirely corrupted politicians, whose careers have been built on the backs of funding from companies such as BlackRock – and therefore rely on them for their prosperity – will stop at nothing in order to carry out the bidding of their warmongering bosses. In the Ukraine for example, where “Last year, the Ukrainian government essentially outsourced the entire post-war “reconstruction” process to BlackRock… to “provide advisory support for designing an investment framework…” Establishment politicians such as Senator McConnell and Schumer have each lobbied hard for the continuation of what has been known to be an unwinnable war in the region. Why you ask? The common thread through all establishment politicians who lobby for war – funding from those who stand the most to gain. “the war is clearly good for business: indeed, the greater the destruction, the greater the opportunities for reconstruction. At Davos this year, Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, said he hoped the initiative would turn the country into a “beacon of capitalism”. David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, also spoke cheerily of Ukraine’s post-war future. “There is no question,” he said, “that as you rebuild, there will be good economic incentives for real return and real investment.” This is all to say that the war in Ukraine, just like a multitude of other foreign wars around the world, has become nothing more than an investment opportunity for America’s most dominant companies. These companies and the hot bed of corrupt politicians they control claim to be serving the common good when in reality they are simply sucking every ounce of capital out of what is in this case a helpless country – at the expense of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives.

Works Cited:

1. Brush, Silla, (2022, November 4), “BlackRock Spends Record on US Political Campaigns as ESG Fight Intensifies”, BlackRock (BLK) Spends Record on Political Campaigns as ESG Fight Intensifies - Bloomberg

2. Graham, Lindsay, (2024, January 28), Lindsey Graham - "Hit Iran now. Hit them hard." / X

3. Editors, “Casualties of the Russo-Ukrainian War” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War#:~:text=In%20December%202023%2C%20the%20Ministry,been%20killed%20and%2017%2C329%20wounded.

Editors, (2017, July 17),  “The whole Ukraine goes for sale -massive profit opportunities being created by the war”, The whole Ukraine goes for sale -massive profit opportunities being created by the war - Modern Diplomacy