I have had many conversations about our many many endless wars….and I am asked that if I think they are so bad how can they still be fighting wars?
I have a very clear and succinct answer…..Think Tanks.
I am not a fan of most think tanks for they paid to make manure look like sirloin…..and our wars are no different. I gave my thoughts here on IST…..https://lobotero.com/2017/09/20/closing-thought-20sep17/
The American Conservative (yes I read a conserv publication has looked into this…..as well……
The top 50 think tanks in America, as ranked by the University of Pennsylvania’s Go To Think Tank Index, received over $1 billion from U.S. government and defense contractors. The top recipients of this funding were the RAND Corporation, the Center for a New American Security, and the New America Foundation, according to analysis by the Center for International Policy.
Donations to these think tanks came from 68 different U.S. government and defense contractor sources, under at least 600 separate donations. The top five defense contractor donors to U.S. think tanks were Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martina and Air Bus.
Top think tank funders from within the U.S. government include the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Air Force, the Army, the Department of Homeland Security, and the State Department. The defense contractors that forked over the most to think tanks were Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Airbus.
The RAND Corporation alone received over $1 billion between 2014-2019, accounting for approximately 95 percent of its funding that the report tracked. Nearly all the money came from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ($110 million,) the U.S. Army (over $245 million,) and the U.S. Air Force (over ($281 million.)
Top 50 U.S. Think Tanks Receive Over $1B from Gov, Defense Contractors
Then there is the MSM….they hire “experts” to make these wars acceptable…..both print and broadcast….for most are now owned by the very M-IC corporations that are funding the “whitewash” of our worthless endless wars.
If instance the NYTimes has had a section called “At War”….well it has decided to drop the section altogether
Following the announcement Tuesday that the New York Times “At War” section—which has explored the “experiences and costs of war” for the past two and a half years—is ending this week, peace advocates were quick to note that the United States’ actual “forever war” outlasting a forum dedicated to covering it should be a sobering reminder of the nation’s destructive and bloody foreign policy nearly two decades after the invasions of Afghanistan and then Iraq.
The news came just one week after Stars and Stripes provided an account of U.S. military veterans who fought in Afghanistan watching their children deploy to the same ongoing war.
The whitewash and the justification for war and the deaths of Americans proceeds…….with very little notice.
Final Thought: Tonight is the final debate and I will offer analysis in tomorrow’s posts.
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In Saner Thought 
Rand gives government what it wants – cover – to justify military industrial complex welfare.
Most of the think tanks do the same…..they are given a conclusion and they make up the rest. chuq
The think tanks are funded simply to advocate more military spending and continuing wars You got that dead right.
Best wishes, Pete.
All think tanks are advocates. in one way or another. chuq