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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMIC summoned to the WH to reap more blood money from Trump dropping more bombs on more people abroad
Last edited Tue Mar 3, 2026, 10:36 PM - Edit history (5)
...THIS is what drives these ME wars.
Mike Stone @MichaelStone 32m
The Trump administration plans to meet with executives from the biggest U.S. defense contractors at the White House on Friday to discuss accelerating weapons production,
Companies including Lockheed Martin (LMT.N), and Raytheon parent RTX (RTX.N), along with other key suppliers, have been invited to attend the meeting, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the discussions are private.
The meeting underscores the urgency felt in Washington to shore up weapons stocks after the Iran operation drew heavily on munitions. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and Israel began military operations in Gaza, the U.S. has drawn down billions of dollars' worth of weapons stockpiles, including artillery systems, ammunition and anti-tank missiles. The conflict in Iran has consumed longer-range missiles than those furnished to Kyiv.
Lockheed, the Pentagon and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. RTX declined to comment. In a social media post Monday, Trump said there was a "virtually unlimited supply" of U.S. munitions and that "wars can be fought "forever," and very successfully, using just these supplies."
Tomahawk missile maker Raytheon has a new agreement with the Pentagon to eventually ramp production to 1,000 units annually. The Pentagon currently plans to buy 57 of the missiles in 2026 at an average cost of $1.3 million each.
https://6abc.com/live-updates/iran-live-updates-trump-says-major-combat-operations-have-begun/18660347/
Trump administration wants to own shares in defense companies like Palantir, Boeing, Lockheed
If Trump pushes this further, it means government cash will buy part of the companies themselves. The Trump administration already made a move on Intel, a deal Howard called a win for national security and economics. It strengthens U.S. leadership in semiconductors, which will both grow our economy and help secure Americas technological edge, he said.
Economist Scott Lincicome from the libertarian Cato Institute wrote in The Washington Post that Intel might now be forced to make political choices instead of business ones. Senator Rand Paul didnt sugarcoat it. He posted, If socialism is government owning the means of production, wouldnt the government owning part of Intel be a step toward socialism?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/trump-administration-wants-to-own-shares-in-defense-companies-like-palantir-boeing-lockheed/ar-AA1LhyRC
More than 50,000 troops are participating in the operation, which has so far struck nearly 2,000 targets in Iran, Admiral Brad Cooper said in a video update on the operation released Tuesday.
"Many of you may remember the Shock and Awe strikes of 2003. The first 24 hours of this operation were nearly doubled the scale," he said.
Since Trump returned to office in January 2025, the number of personnel tasked with minimizing harm to civilians across the Defense Department has sharply decreased, two sources familiar with discussions in the U.S. military about civilian harm told HuffPost. They spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal dynamics.
One said the staff in such positions has dropped from 165 to a handful. The Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, a Pentagon office that provides advice on limiting casualties in combat and investigates the toll of military operations, has had its staff reduced from between 30 and 40 staffers at the beginning of the administration to only seven today, according to the other source. (The Army attempted to shutter the office altogether, but its existence was mandated by Congress.)
And many officials at military commands who worked on analyzing the civilian environment in war-zones and red-teaming― the process of gut-checking whether a particular attack is appropriate and legally defensible ― have been reassigned to other jobs.
Four days into the conflict, U.S.-Israeli attacks have killed at least 742 Iranian civilians, including 176 children, and wounded 971 others, per Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), an Iranian rights group. The very first day of bombing saw a missile strike a school, killing at least 165, mostly young girls, and reports indicate strikes are escalating in residential areas of Tehran, home to 9 million people.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/insiders-fear-steep-civilian-toll-193325977.html
More than 1,000 civilians killed in Iran since war began, rights group reports
https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/iran-war-us-israel-trump-03-03-26
Wannabe Nobel Laureate Donald Trump has now ordered more attacks against a greater number of countries than any other president in modern U.S. history.
...he has ordered strikes against targets across no less than seven nations, Iran, Nigeria, Venezuela, Iraq, Somalia, Syria and Yemen at a rate that has already outstripped the total sanctioned by Joe Biden throughout the Democratic presidents four years at the White House, Axios reports.
He's attacked seven nations, three of which, Iran, Nigeria and Venezuela had never been targeted by U.S. military strikes. He authorized more individual air strikes in 2025 than President Biden did in four years.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/peace-president-donald-trump-breaks-record-for-attacking-the-most-countries/
surfered
(12,848 posts)bigtree
(93,969 posts)Trump administration military leaders are thinking about whether the U.S. should acquire equity stakes in top defense contractors, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.
Lockheed Martin, which makes most of its revenue from federal contracts, is basically an arm of the U.S. government, he said.
Lutnicks remarks on CNBCs Squawk Box came days after the U.S. government acquired 10% of Intel stock in a roughly $9 billion deal.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/26/trump-pentagon-equity-stakes-in-defense-contractors.html?msockid=2b6621c2034b646f1813373a028c657b
bigtree
(93,969 posts)...defense spending by the United States accounted for nearly 40 percent of all military expenditures by countries around the world.
Some $997 billion in 2024! $962 billion in 2025...
If we can't fight this, we can never turn off these wars of choice.