The ugliest part is induced demand for violence. A lot of political actions are based on making sure their weapon manufacturer constituents are getting their bread buttered - leading to fabricated pretexts for killing humans to make sure the money train keeps rolling.

If hell is real, weapon manufacturer lobbyists are certainly on the guest list.

I'm painfully aware that a lot of weapon manufacturers are carefully paying attention to this real life test of their weapons.

When the Pentagon is regularly putting out reports saying "congress is giving us too much money, this isn't sustainable for society", it's time to sit up and take notice. They started doing that about a decade or two ago.

Congress uses the Pentagon as a pork barrel jobs program, buying votes. "Vote for me, I'll make sure the factory producing that troop carrier stays open." Next year: "vote for me, I'll make sure the proposed upgrade program to the troop carrier goes through" etc.

The only reason Susan Collins has a job is because she's kept Maine's shipworks in a diabetic coma.

But they could just as easily spend that money to create those jobs in repairing, maintaining and building infrastructure. Or education. Or health care. Or dozens of other things that would benefit Americans more than the ability to kill people in distant countries.

My personal wish is that they'd bring back the CCC for those purposes. There should be _good_ jobs available helping society, to compete with shit jobs like driving for Uber or working at Walmart.

Its the same thing with the NASA SLS in Alabama. Or how Washington state wanted more NASA funding so Blue Origin still has a shot at projects for NASA. Its all about bringing jobs to your state and keeping certain skills alive. If some industry is highly dependent on government funding, a lapse in project or funding means people will be let go. And it it happens long enough people will switch to different jobs and those skills will deteriorate.

Unfortunately this is a normal event in the history. Every N years a powerful bloody disruption happens. It's like diffusion, or better to compare with an earthquake where a long stress rises sufficiently to break through suddenly at once. The best is to identify where the next dangerous stress is rising and act smartly, persistently, and efficiently.

It is a waste when there exists a world where violence isn’t used to solve problems. Until then, it is not a waste.