Twentymiglia
Every time we debate gun control in America, I have to think about a book I read a few years ago. The Merchants of Death: A Study of the International Armament Industry was published in 1934. It was an expose on the industries that profited from selling arms to nations, often enough to both sides of the same conflict.
Though it was written long before World War II, there are passages that explain so many terrible 2oth century inventions including The Cold War, The War on Terror, the NRA, and Lobbying Congress.
Arms makers engineer “war scares.” They excite governments and peoples to fear their neighbors and rivals, so that they may sell more armaments. This is an old practice worked often in Europe before the World War and still in use. Bribery is frequently closely associated with war scares.
and from the wikipedia page:
The term was popular in antiwar circles of both the left and the right, and was used extensively regarding the Senate hearings in 1936 by the Nye Committee. The Senate hearing examined how much influence the manufacturers of armaments had in the American decision to enter World War I. 93 hearings were held, over 200 witnesses were called, and little hard evidence was found. The Nye Committee came to an end when Chairman Nye accused President Woodrow Wilson of withholding information from Congress when he chose to enter World War I. The failure of the committee to find a conspiracy did not change public prejudice against the manufactures of armaments, thus the popular name “Merchants of death”.
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