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War's Shopping Cart
Pepsi, Apple, Krispy Kreme and other consumer firms profit from Iraq too.
By Nick Turse
19/05/08
"LA Times"
May 9, 2008 -- Last month, a review of 2006 congressional financial
disclosure statements by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics
found that lawmakers have as much as $196 million "invested in companies
doing business with the Defense Department, earning millions since the
start of the Iraq war." An Associated Press article on the re****t,
however, offered a caveat: "Not all the companies invested in by
lawmakers are typical defense contractors. Cor****ations such as PepsiCo,
IBM, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson have at one point received
defense-related contracts."
But the Associated Press is wrong. The fact is that cor****ations such as
PepsiCo, IBM, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson are, indeed, typical
defense contractors. To suggest that such firms, and tens of thousands
like them, only receive defense-related contracts at the odd, aberrant
moment is specious at best.
In 1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his famous farewell address as
president, warned of the "acquisition of unwarranted influence" by what
he called the "military-industrial complex" in the United States. Today,
however, the "large arms industry" of Eisenhower's day is only part of a
complex equation. Civilian firms such as PepsiCo and IBM form the
backbone of what more accurately can be described as a
"military-cor****ate complex." These businesses allow the Pentagon to
function, to make war and to carry out foreign occupations.
For example, in 2006 (the last year for which official figures are
available), PepsiCo and IBM ranked among the Pentagon's top 100
contractors, taking in $286,696,943 and $291,825,309, respectively. This
was no aberration. The previous year, they received $233,053,993 and
$382,408,117 each, according to Department of Defense do***ents. In
fact, both companies have been defense contractors every year since at
least 2000. And there isn't anything special or odd about PepsiCo or
IBM, when it comes to the Pentagon.
Almost a decade after Eisenhower's farewell address, there were still
only 22,000 prime contractors doing business with the Department of
Defense. Today, that number tops 47,000. While the well-known giant arms
makers -- Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics
-- remain the largest contractors, they are dwarfed by the sheer number
of fellow contractors from all imaginable economic sectors.
These stretch from coast to coast and around the globe, from
entertainment giants such as Columbia TriStar and Twentieth Century Fox
to auto-making titans Ford and General Motors to Big Pharma power
players such as Pfizer. Even the Krispy Kreme Doughnuts chain took in
almost $500,000 from the Pentagon in 2006, while Coca-Cola cleaned up
with more than $100 million in taxpayer dollars.
In 2006, the Pentagon's list of its top 100 suppliers also included such
well-known civilian firms as Tyson Foods ($335,239,095), Goodrich Corp.
($344,091,017), Procter & Gamble ($362,461,808), Kraft Foods
($500,799,104), Dell ($636,343,593), ExxonMobil ($1,176,354,936), FedEx
($1,303,032,027) and General Electric ($2,327,705,161). Also on the
Pentagon's 2006 payroll were such often-ignored defense contractors as
the animated mouse-house, the Walt Disney Co.; iPod-maker Apple;
sungl***** purveyor Oakley; cocoa giant Nestle; ketchup producer Heinz;
and chocolate bar maker Hershey.
These are, in fact, today's "typical defense contractors." They are the
companies that regularly take in tax-funded payouts from the Pentagon
for services and goods (chiefly for the more than 1.3 million active
members of the armed services). Few realize the actual look and shape of
the new "militarized" U.S. economy. It's not just the classic "permanent
armaments industry" -- it's civilian and it's widespread.
In reality, whether we like it or not, whether we care or not, we're all
participating in it. When we buy Crest toothpaste (Procter & Gamble) or
Oscar Mayer hot dogs (Kraft) or a PlayStation 3 (Sony), the fact is we
are sup****ting an increasingly civilian-oriented military economy and an
increasingly militarized civilian economy. As such, ever more U.S.
companies are going to war, and, even if ever fewer Americans are
interested in volunteering for military service, it's increasingly true
that, by the flow of our dollars, ever more of us are going to war with
them.
You might think, of course, that there's nothing wrong with the military
buying Pepsi.
"What's the problem?" you ask. Soldiers have to drink something, just
like the rest of us, so why not Pepsi's self-described "bold, robust,
effervescent magic cola"? The same goes for hot dogs and toothpaste.
But honestly, if you're thinking that way (and who isn't?), you'll never
fully grasp what's happened to our economy and our lives, writ large.
You'll never know just how -- literally -- close to home Eisenhower's
fears have come in the last half a century.
This isn't about a bottle of Pepsi or Krispy Kreme Doughnuts or a Sara
Lee cake. It isn't about which hot dogs the troops eat or which
computers they use -- be it for launching missiles or reading e-mail.
This isn't even about boycotting one brand or company or conglomerate in
hopes of slowing down the war effort. If you began that, in our
militarized economy, you'd eventually be left ****d, starving and
possessionless.
On their own, each of these brands, companies or conglomerates appear
minor indeed. But together, the effect is stunning: Nearly every product
in your pantry, every appliance in your home, every bit of high-tech
home entertainment equipment, even your morning newspaper (the Tribune
Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times, was a minor Pentagon contractor
in 2006 too) is now directly or indirectly tied to the Pentagon through
the company that produces it.
The real point is that the military-cor****ate complex is inescapable,
and it's hidden in plain sight, if only we'd care to look.
It's high time we at least recognize that PepsiCo, IBM, Microsoft, and
Johnson & Johnson and just about every other cor****ate giant (and
thousands upon thousands of flyweights of the business world) are
benefiting not only from our purchases of cola, computers, software and
bandages but from our tax dollars, via the Pentagon. We all know what
the Pentagon's doing abroad, and what that's meant for Iraqis.
Napoleon supposedly said, "An army marches on its stomach." Over the
years of occupation to come, and for the next invasion too, remember
that, whatever land it occupies, the Pentagon marches on a stomach
filled with Cap'n Crunch, Rice-A-Roni and Diet Pepsi Vanilla -- and,
ever increasingly, you're marching with it too.
Nick Turse, the associate editor of Tomdispatch.com, is the author of
"The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives," just
published by Metropolitan Books.
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
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Skipper: Professor, will you tell these people who is
in charge on this island?
Professor: Why, no one.
Skipper: No one?
Thurston Howell III: No one? Good heavens, this is anarchy!
-- _Gilligan's Island_, episode #6, "President Gilligan"
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