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Originally Posted by onelifecrisis
The same could be said (and is said) about military organisations.
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Not really. A nation uses to support and maintain it'S military even when not being at war. It even may desire to avoid war. However, that decision is a political one, not a military one. The decision to join a war is made by politicians and givenrment - not by the miluitary. But the mercenary company makes that decision itself, by chosing its contracts and offering its services.
I agree however, that this is somewhat the ideal circumstance that probably in no other Western country has been left behind to such a degree like in the US where the mililtary-industrial complex heavily interferes with policy-making to sell it's goodies to the military, which leads to absurd events like systems and quantities being sold that the military does not need, but is ordered by politicians to get nevertheless. War-profiteers certainly are not feeling sad about wars braking out. they are also great in painting threats that are exaggerated or not real at all.
The borderline between ideal utopia and failing reality certainly is no solid one. the American example above we have had in Germany, too, and several times. Most prominent is the old Starfighter-program of which the CSU defence minster ordered more than the Luftwaffe needed, or had the potential to properly maintain. The result was that the damn things did not stop to fall out of the skies. Every third plane in German service, to name it - almost 300.