After World War I Woodrow Wilson speeched...

Is there any man here or any woman, let me say is there any child here, who does not know that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial rivalry?

Wars are about power and they are fought for economic and financial reasons. The power elite in control of banks profit from wars by printing incredible amounts of fiat money. The debt then rests on the shoulders of common taxpayers who are forced to repay this debt with interest in the future. War profiteers often sell their war material to both sides of the conflict. For example the Rothschild family financed both sides of the Napoleonic Wars, the BIS bank and its western banking allies financed both sides during World War II, and the West supported both Iran and Iraq when they were at war. Wars mean business for the power elite in control of the military industry.

War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

The arms trade is surrounded by great controversy. The nature of arms and the possibility to hold governments accountable for irresponsible trades makes the issue politically charged. In recent years, the propensity of many democratic governments to sell arms to autocracies and human-rights violators has stirred great public discontent.

It is generally supposed that the American military ideal is peace. But for this high-school classic, the U.S. Army, since 1776, has filched more square miles of the earth by sheer military conquest than any army in the world, except only that of Great Britain. And as between Great Britain and the U.S. it has been a close race, Britain having conquered something over 3,500,000 square miles (9 million square km) since that date, and the U.S. (if one includes wresting the Louisiana Purchase from the Indians) something over 3,100,000. The English-speaking people have done themselves proud in this regard.

The arms industry profits from the sale of its weapons, it benefits from wars and violence around the world. The military-industrial complex is big business. The fact that military activities may become a profitable enterprise leads to the realization that peace is the main enemy of the military-industrial complex. George W. Bush once said: Money trumps peace... commercial interests are very powerful interests throughout the world.**

For the first time in American history, men in authority are talking about an 'emergency' without foreseeable end. ... The only seriously accepted plan for 'peace' is the fully loaded pistol. In short, war or a high state of war preparedness is felt to be the normal and seemingly permanent condition of the United States.

If war means business then permanent war means permanent business. World War II was followed by the Cold War which evolved into the New Cold War. In 2017 SIPRI reported that World military expenditure is estimated to have reached $1739 billion in 2017, the highest level since the end of the cold war. United States foreign policy turned from a non-interventionist policy to an interventionist policy in order to expand the Anglo-American Empire.

Not only are wars between the most powerful actors in the system typically the most destructive variety, but the major powers have also historically been the most war-prone of states. Traditionally, not just military capability but actual bellicosity has become part of the very definition of great power status. Historically speaking, the most powerful state in the system by various empirical measures also is the one that experiences the most conflict.

Just war theory is nice in theory, but it has nothing to do with reality. Mills wrote that the ultimate kind of power is violence and military power determines the political standing of nations. Chinese military general Sun Tzu said: It is the rule in war, if ten times the enemy's strength, surround them; if five times, attack them; if double, be able to divide them; if equal, engage them; if fewer, defend against them; if weaker, be able to avoid them. It's common sense that stronger nations use their military power to attack weaker nations and expand their power while weaker nations use their military power to defend against attacking nations. Force is used for one's own interest. Carl von Clausewitz said that war ... is an act of violence to compel our opponent to fulfill our will. In 2007 retired general of the U.S. Army Wesley Clark said that, from the perspective of the United States, the purpose of the military is to start wars and change governments, it's not to deter conflict. Hence the many aggressive wars led by the United States since World War II.

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Since 1990, each large-scale U.S. intervention has left behind a string of new U.S. military bases in a region where the U.S. had never before had a foothold. The U.S. military is inserting itself into strategic areas of the world, and anchoring U.S. geopolitical influence in these areas, at a very critical time in history. It has been projecting that military dominance into new strategic regions as a future counterweight to its economic competitors, to create a military-backed "dollar bloc" as a wedge geographically situated between its major competitors (Euro, Yen)... The goal is not to end "terror" or encourage "democracy," and Bush will not accomplish either of these claimed goals. The short-term goal is to station U.S. military forces in regions where local nationalists had evicted them. The long-term goal is to increase U.S. corporate control over the oil needed by Europe and East Asia.*

The Anglo-American Empire is the most militarized empire ever. In 2015 the military of the United States was deployed in 147 countries around the world. There are currently in total 195 countries in the world. Especially since World War II the United States has intentionally expanded its military bases around the world. Military expansionism is part of the Anglo-American Empire paving the way for the globalization of the world. Military expansion serves economic objectives. The United States maintains 100s of military bases in East Asia surrounding China and 100s of bases in Europe surrounding Russia. American imperialism is a fact. See also NATO Imperialism and New Cold War.