BREAKING: A powerful lawmaker just unveiled a new push to increase the already astronomical Pentagon budget by $37 BILLION, plowing money to defense contractors for unnecessary warships, fighter jets, tanks, and helicopters. [1]
Why is this happening? Well, maybe it’s a coincidence, but a new investigation found nearly four dozen members of Congress hold shares in weapons corporations — companies whose value has risen nearly 900% since the start of the war in Afghanistan. [2]
These companies profit from keeping our priorities focused on weapons and war. But redistributing taxpayer money to corporations, and then personally profiting? It’s naked corruption — and the consequences are life or death.
Not many are willing to go up against the enormous influence of mega defense corporations and their lobbyists, but that’s what Win Without War is built to do. Together with a growing cohort of brave lawmakers we’re fighting tooth and nail to block this latest attempt to blow-out the bloated Pentagon budget, and we need your support:
Our David and Goliath battle depends on grassroots donations, but less than 1% of those reading will give. Our average donation is $16.83, and any amount will fuel our fight to block the bloated Pentagon budget.
These “death dollars” fuel wars like the one in Afghanistan while denying funds for urgently under-resourced areas like public healthcare, education, and refugee resettlement.
From millions in donations every election cycle, to job-creation schemes in the districts of key lawmakers, to the revolving door into the Pentagon — the omnipresence of the corruption of the defense industry is as powerful as it is devastating.
It’s not just Congress that’s caught in this corrupt nexus. We see it in the abject failure by most media outlets to point out that their parade of ex-military and ex-public officials are almost all on the payroll of the weapons industry as advisors or board members. These same folks have dominated recent discussions about Afghanistan across cable news.
And now, in addition to $37 BILLION more that’s being pushed for in the annual Pentagon Budget, it’s once more clear as defense corporations and their lobbyists have greedily clamored to claim a $3 BILLION windfall from funds that had been allocated to the recently collapsed Afghan security forces.
It’s high time that we stop spending where war profiteers and arms lobbyists want, and start spending on the things that will improve peoples’ lives.
From fulfilling our obligation to the people of Afghanistan, to responding to hurricanes and forest fires fueled by climate change, to fixing our broken healthcare system still under the stress of COVID, the war industry’s insatiable appetite for death dollars completely distorts our country’s priorities for their own self-interest.
And with your help, Win Without War is determined to turn the status quo around.
This is a massive uphill battle, but we are better positioned than ever to build power and win. A donation of $15 can make an enormous difference as we use every tool we’ve got to block the bloated Pentagon budget.
The past twenty years should be a clear signal that the last thing that will build security and peace is yet another war, yet more destruction, and yet more unnecessarily lost lives.
Congress spends hundreds of billions of dollars each year on keeping the arms industry afloat. As we finally turn the page on the disastrous U.S. war in Afghanistan, the very last thing we should be doing is plowing more desperately needed taxpayer dollars into our military arsenal.
Thank you for working for peace,
Erica, Faith, Annika, and the Win Without War team
---
- Sludge, “Lawmakers Benefit From Booming Defense Stocks”
- Defense News, “Rogers proposes $25 billion defense plus-up ahead of NDAA markup”
1 Thomas Circle NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20005
(202) 656-4999 | info@winwithoutwar.org
