"Silicon Valley made risky bets in recent years on developing defense-related technology and providing services to the U.S. military establishment. Now those bets are paying off. From behemoths providing data systems to smaller companies offering novel weapons, tech firms such as Google, Palantir and OpenAI have found themselves at the heart of the U.S. war effort.

Their central role amounts to an “I told you so” moment. For years, the tech industry’s efforts on defense-related offerings faced skepticism and opposition, with no clear or immediate business rewards. Many Silicon Valley engineers opposed the use of powerful technologies for killing, battles and other military purposes — concerns that persist.

Despite those fears, venture capital firms have poured billions of dollars since last decade into start-ups building drones, lasers and other military systems. In January, Andreessen Horowitz, which was founded by the entrepreneurs Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, closed a new, almost $1.2 billion fund to invest in defense technologies.

In recent years, defense tech start-ups often plowed ahead with weapons prototypes before they had official government contracts. At the same time, executives like Alex Karp, the chief executive of Palantir, and others started cultivating more ties with the government."

#USA #SiliconValley #BigTech #Defense #Militarism #Drones #DroneWarfare

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/technology/silicon-valley-war-defense-tech.html

"President Donald Trump has been leading a double life in prosecuting his war against Iran. In public, he regularly boasts that Iran’s military might has been decimated, its leadership killed off, and that the few officials remaining alive in Tehran are begging him to talk. “They want to negotiate. They want to negotiate badly,” Trump said Sunday night. “We’re talking to them. But I don’t think they’re ready, but they’re getting pretty close.”

Behind the scenes, it is the Trump administration that has been asking for talks. Two Iranian officials told Drop Site that Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff personally sent messages to officials in Tehran, including Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, last week exploring possibilities for resuming negotiations. Iran has not replied to Witkoff. The Iranian officials told Drop Site that Iran has also received messages from the White House via third countries.

“Because of decisions made by [Iran’s] top authorities, no response was sent to his messages,” a senior Iranian official told Drop Site. “The message here is clear: Iran has once again closed the window for any direct negotiations,” he added. “The authority to declare a ceasefire rests solely with the country’s Supreme Leader. It’s not something the foreign minister, or any other official or organization in Iran, would send messages about to a foreign party.”"

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/iran-war-trump-witkoff-araghchi

#USA #Trump #Iran #Militarism #War #MiddleEast

100,000 demonstrate against attempts to "reform" pensions, remove cost of living indexing, and militarize on backs of workers rather than the rich

https://www.newsclick.in/belgium-100000-join-national-strike-against-austerity

#Belgium #COLA #WageIndexation #inflation #militarism #union #unions #strike #strikes #BartDeWever #Arizona #BonusMalus #retirement #ForeverWar #capitalism #exploitation #ClassWar

War on Iran Is Enriching Weapons Firms as It Tanks the Global Economy

https://murica.website/2026/03/war-on-iran-is-enriching-weapons-firms-as-it-tanks-the-global-economy/

If countries follow #Trump his call to send ships to re-open the Street of Hormuz, they actively facilitate the smooth operating of American #imperialism. The #USA needs will be held less accountable for it's irresponsible actions that have besides the grave humanitarian effects, also far-reaching world wide economic consequences. #France, the #UK and also the #Netherlands let themselves be sucked into doing the "defensive" work for the US, that is always also part of waging war. To protect the places it uses to launch its attacks #Qatar, #UAE, #SaudiArabia, the Brittish military base on #Cyprus, is to help the #US to have its hands free to acticely wage war while spreading the responsibility for the consequences.

#NoWar #IranWar #Lebanon #Israel #Militarism ##Antimilitarism #UnitedKingdom #streetofhormuz #economy #war

"As President Donald Trump continues to bombard Iran, he’s following a plan laid out in a “Project 2025”–like manifesto written by a long-standing force in US foreign policy: the neocons who backed the Iraq War more than twenty years ago.

It’s part of a dark money–backed network of neoconservatives and Israel lobbyists that has been working quietly over the past year to push the Trump administration to launch a military intervention in Iran, releasing memos and polls urging action.

In the first weeks of Trump’s presidency in January 2025, a think tank called the Vandenberg Coalition released a white paper outlining a new agenda for US foreign policy. Called “Deals of the Century: Solving the Middle East,” the document was a “neocon manifesto” for a second Trump presidency, advocating for the United States to provide even more arms to Israel and take a “radically different” stance on Iran. It was a hawkish road map designed to influence a president who had ostensibly embraced isolationist messaging in his campaign.

The Vandenberg Coalition, formed in 2021 during President Joe Biden’s time in office, advocates for an interventionist foreign policy and increased defense spending. Over the past year, it has released a flurry of reports on Venezuela and Iran, cheering on the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and releasing a document in January that called for strikes against Iran."

https://jacobin.com/2026/03/iran-war-neocons-foreign-policy

#USA #Trump #Neocons #Militarism #Warmongers #ForeignPolicy

American "heroes".

It's fascinating. Here are people who helped start a war of aggression, illegal by international law as well as by national US law, and the US media, no matter of left or right, worship them as "American heroes".

American militarism and blind worship of the military. Of the wars America has fought since WWII, almost ALL were illegal, were wars of aggression, were started under false pretense, and were instigated by war criminals. And the people acting under the banner of following orders were called "heroes", or even better "American heroes". But no. They were not heroes. They did not defend their country, they did not defend ANYBODY. They helped commit war crimes. That's not my definition of heroism. At best, they are victims. But there are more fitting terms than that...

But if the orange criminal doesn't respect these "heroes" enough, even his followers complain or must be lied to about the true disrespect shown by him.

And if you, god forbid, criticize that American militarism under a YT video, your comment disappears quicker than a Chinese dissident. Without a trace. American free speech at its best...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtkI9fchX0A

#militarism #youtube #hero #warcrimes #usa #warcriminal #trump #warofaggression #censorship #msnow

"The military-industrial-complex has grown into a monster so influential and powerful that even its earliest critics likely never foresaw its evolution. Where will it go from here, and can anything stop it? Bill Hartung tackles this question."—The Chris Hedges Report

The Trillion Dollar War Machine with William D. Hartung >

https://youtu.be/4mxti7sPPD0?si=FnWlZJBM1e3ghv0a

#interview #USA #war_machines #insight #elite #wars #The_Pentagon #military_industrial_complex #war #Gaza #Iran #mass_medias #militarism #consequences #destruction #movies #Middle_East #media #trillions #money #degradation #budget #education #disinformation #economy #video

When you have more than you need, build a longer table, not a higher wall.

#militarism #morality

https://openthebooks.substack.com/p/pentagon-should-focus-on-defense?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=email