Trump Administration Pushing Military Action
In light of the propaganda buildup we're seeing, intended to generate support for military action against Russia and further actions against Syria, we're producing a series of venn diagrams showing the overlap of prominent companies in the military industrial complex and the federal government. The survival of these corporations depends on continual U.S. engagement in weaponized conflict and the military's ongoing consumption of their products.
These companies have employed lobbyists and specialists who were also hired as staff members of agencies and committees handling defense-related decisions, including the Defense Department, the departments of the Army and Navy, the House and Senate Armed Services committees, and various appropriations committees. Government staff positions like these allow former and future employees of companies like Raytheon the ability to influence the direction of military funding, the awarding of contracts, even decisions on when and how often to engage in military conflict.
Of special note is the fact that President Trump nominated former Raytheon lobbyist Mark Esper for a top-ranking position as United States Secretary of the Army. According to journalist Jared Keller, "[T]he Trump administration has the most generals in executive branch leadership positions since World War II [and] more than half of the White House’s federal nominees have close financial ties to the industries they are being appointed to oversee, setting up a tangle of conflicts-of-interest that could mire the Army in unnecessary political distractions."
Syrian Conflict = Raytheon Profits
Whenever military action against Syria is discussed, Raytheon stock tends to go up, as the Tomahawk missiles used in past attacks on Syrian military targets were produced by Raytheon Missile Systems, Co., based in Arizona. The Guardian published an article in mid-December defending the Syrian Civil Defence (White Helmets), a group pitted against both the Assad regime in Syria and Russian authorities -- two targets recent propaganda has been actively demonizing in an attempt to generate support for military action. Since this new round of anti-Syrian propaganda has been implemented, stock in Raytheon has risen considerably.
(stock charts from NASDAQ.com)