Is it a sin, or morally wrong, or even illegal to profit from war?

[Philosoraptor]

I'm just wondering, and could use some clarification from any experts in this regard, cause I've been harboring the old fashioned impression that war profiteering was a crime of some kind, a bad crime, one that could get you sent to prison for a long time, but I could be wrong.

Is it some sort of fuzzy area legally? I know that certain things and words don't mean what they used to 8 years ago, like torture really means harsh interrogation methods, but what about war profiteering? Is it a crime to make huge profits from war? Does it even matter?

I wish I had a list I could publish that would show just exactly how much money each individual war profiteer is making, but I'm sure they try to hide these figures from the general public, because if it ISN'T illegal and criminal, it definitely would look bad.

And if indeed war profiteering ISN'T a criminal act, and people like senators and presidents and vice presidents are becoming billionaires by killing a million innocent people and taking their land just like it was business as usual, who are we to be concerned? The fact that four thousand soldiers have died to make it all happen should hardly matter either, but what pisses me off is the money, where's OUR cut? Times are hard out here, why aren't WE feeling the war profits?

Is it a total myth that war profiteering is illegal and criminal? How can I, a common citizen get in on these war profits? I'd like some of that money too, and of course I don't ever want to be prosecuted for it, just like the war profiteers.

[yourout]

1. It should be all three....

[hobbit709]

2. I would consider it all of the above.

[Tippy]

3. Just ran across this

Digg - 151 Congressmen Derive Financial Profit From War !!151 Congressmen Derive Financial Profit From War !! americanfreepress.net — Who profits from the Iraq war? More than a quarter of senators and congressmen ...
digg.com/politics/151_Congressmen_Derive_Financial_Profit_From_War - 27k - Cached - Similar pages

[aquart]

4. War profiteering is NOT the same as making a profit.

Making a profit, or making an honest dollar, is VERY different. That's giving good value. War profiteering does NOT give good value.

Would you call the company that developed the Norden bombsite a war profiteer? It gave us air superiority in World War II. But Kellogg, Brown, and Root sold bad water and food to our soldiers, charged for laundry they never washed...THEY are war profiteers. They overcharged, charged for bad work or no work, they did NOT give good value.

There's a mindless hatred of all things "corporate" here on DU. But doing an honest job to the best of your ability and charging a fair price for it does not deserve insults. Don't confuse all business in wartime with "war profiteering" which IS a crime.

[JackintheGreen]

10. Let me second this distinction with a difference

SO MANY things are needed and can be used in/for war that is is impossible to separate them entirely. Should we condemn the farmer who produces the food that feeds the soldier, whether engaged in war or no? Do we condemn the auto parts manufacturer who produces various plastic widgets that are used in OUR OWN cars, but are also used in military vehicles - say speedometer needles? Do we stop buying paper for our printers because the same corporation sells to the military and we happen to be in a war?

Profiting during war is not the same as war profiteering. Good on you, aquart!

[Zorra]

5. In my world it is morally wrong to profit from war.

I would never own a stock that I knew was somehow increasing in value because of the spilling of blood of another person.

[jeff30997]

6. War is a Racket.

It always been a Racket.

U.S. Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler denounced it in the 30's:

http://www.horstwisdom.com/wiki/index.php5?title=War_is_a_Racket

"In the World War a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few -- the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill. "


I wonder how those pigs can sleep at night.

[BrklynLib at work]

8. Gen Smedley Buter was a true hero. He helped stop the corporate/Nazi attempt to get FDR

out of office...which was engineered by the a group that included Chimpy's Grandpa.

[leftofthedial]

7. why do you hate America?

it's our freedoms, isn't it?

I don't know how things are in France, or wherever you come from, but here in OUR country, it is a sin, morally wrong and even illegal to stand between a man and a nickel he can make (or inherit or steal).

[flashl]

9. 151 Congresscritters profiting from war appears to be a conflict of interest.

When Americans chose to take a stand against Apartheid in South African or University trusts holding for-profit prison stocks, or green initiatives, they divested.

[nuxvomica]

11. It's not illegal but it may become so

The House passed a war profiteering act last year but I don't think it's come up for a vote in the Senate yet.

[aikoaiko]

12. I don't like to think about how much my retirement plan has benefited from the war

[wtmusic]

13. It's morally wrong to provide the resources to conduct an illegal war

One day I'd like to see a defense contractor sue the US because their products were not used for "defense".

I'm not holding my breath.

[BigDaddy44]

14. YOU are providing the resources to conduct an illegal war

They're called taxes. Still paying your taxes? Then you're one of the ones providing the resources.

[wtmusic]

15. No, I'm just a cog in the machine

The people who pay my salary so I can pay those taxes -- THEY'RE the ones to blame.

:eyes:

[annabanana]

16. I'd like to see designs from defense contracors for "transformers"

You know.. stuff that would also work, (MORE profitably) as plowshares, so to speak...