The only way

Who can fail to enjoy the sacking of war hawk Rumsfeld or Bush’s squirming body language on his recent Asian trip? It does one’s heart good to know that these supreme war criminals have to pay some price—albeit so very small—for the terrible destruction they have wreaked on the world.

But behind these very public figures lies a vast network of interlocking institutions and a class of people whose prestige, fortune and power all emanate from the cozy relationship between government and the privately owned businesses that profit hugely from imperialist expansion and from militarism itself.

Take, for example, the Lockheed Martin Corp. It is the largest arms producer in the world. In 2003 alone, the year the U.S. invaded Iraq, this company got $22 billion in Pentagon contracts. Its stock price tripled between 2000 and 2004. By 2005, with two wars going strong in Iraq and Afghanistan, Lockheed had a backlog of orders from the Pentagon worth $75 billion.

Former Lockheed executives and lobbyists hold key policy positions in the government—especially when it comes to deciding where to send troops and jet fighters next and how much to spend on military procurement.

Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, is one of them. He heads the National Security Council, which describes itself as the president’s “principal forum for considering national security and foreign policy matters.” Hadley has been in and out of government and private business for decades. He represented Lockheed at the giant D.C. law firm of Shea and Gardner before joining the Bush administration.

E.C. Aldridge Jr. now sits on Lockheed’s board of directors. Earlier, when he was head of the Pentagon’s weapons procurement program, Aldridge signed the contracts with Lockheed to build the F-22, the world’s most expensive airplane.

A former vice president of Lockheed, Bruce Jackson, headed a group called the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq that had free access to top government officials in pushing for the war—all in the name of “democracy” and “freedom,” of course.

“Conflict of interest” laws are supposed to protect the public from the kinds of backroom deals that favor politically connected corporate interests. Obviously, these laws are a joke. The truth is that the capitalist government itself represents an enormous conflict of interest, since it speaks in the name of the people—essentially, the working class—while consistently doing the bidding of the moneyed class. Corruption is endemic.

Ending predatory wars of domination once and for all means getting rid of capitalism. There is no other way.