Weapon of Choice for Syria Tomahawk Missile; Defence Contractors Lockheed, Raytheon Shares Go Up (VIDEO)
War is Big Business; Politicians to Gain Campaign Funds from Defense Services Lobby
According to a blog post written by American youth, Kevin Nava and Zane Clarke-Waxman are urging young Americans to take a 'transpartisan' stand on a war against Syria.
A poll taken recently, "We, The People are screaming at the top of our lungs: Keep our Bombs Off Syria!" said if the U.S. attacks Syria against the wishes of 200 million Americans, President Barack Obama and other politicians approving the war would be doing an act of injustice. It is believed that an attack on Syria is more a reflection about the lobby for Israel and the defence industry.
This argument is validated by Raytheon's increase in stock price to a 52-wwk high. The weapon of choice for Raytheon is BGM-199, also known as the Tomahawk missile, expected to be used in Syria. Cambridge, Massachussetts-based Raytheon hires 74,000 people. Raytheon also makes Sparrow Missile AIM-7 and the AIM-9 Sidewinder. The F-35 bombers from Lockheed may also be used to deploy the missiles.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Raytheon raked in more than $23 billion in arms sales, totaling 90% of its overall income. Republican Rob Bishop of Utah, told Politico, "There are many of us who have been concerned for years about maintaining our missile capabilities." Rep. Bishop is a memeber on the House Armed Services committee.
Increasingly, evidence shows that an upcomiing war in Syria is about making money and has little to do with peace or justice. Just like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin has seen a rise in $3 billion in arms sales. Locheed is the biggest military services and arms producing nation in the world and its stocks surged to a six month high after a war on Syria became more of a possibility.
President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry have been pushing for an attack on Syria but the polls show that a military strike in Syria is as unpopular as it was twenty years. In other words, just 36 percent support the President for his cause for an assignment in Syria.
"Failing to respond to this breach of this international norm would send a signal to rogue nations, authoritarian regimes and terrorist organizations that they can develop and use weapons of mass destruction and not pay a consequence," President Obama was quoted as saying by U.S. News. He was speaking at the sidelines of the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia. The President added, "And that's not the world that we want to live in."
Despite Pres. Obama's rhetoric, the war on Syria had less support in gallup polls than the Iraq war.