William Hartung

Military contractors and arms manufacturers cash in as Congress adds billions to the Pentagon budget each year.

Instead of focusing on who is to blame for creating this dire situation, Ukraine, Russia, and the international community need to work together to figure out how to stem the danger of a strike on Zaporizhzhia or its supporting safety systems.

Lawmakers added $37 billion beyond what the Pentagon asked for, most of it going to defense contractors.

America and the world would be far safer places if this outrageous spending was drastically cut and those funds redirected to "moral" investments in people, society, and planetary health—not war and weapons.

In none of those cases have any executives in the American weapons-making firms expressed the slightest qualms about their role in fostering human rights abuses and fueling destabilizing, unnecessary conflicts.

Even before hostilities broke out, the CEOs of major weapons firms were talking about how tensions in Europe could pad their profits.

The U.S. military budget is replete with examples of waste and dysfunction that must be addressed before going on a new spending spree.

A history lesson for our desperate moment.