>As for civilian items, the average income of an Afghan/Iraqi civilian is not enough to afford American product OK, so that completely breaks the first part of

>As for civilian items, the average income of an Afghan/Iraqi civilian is not enough to afford American product OK, so that completely breaks the first part of traditional Marxist arguments. I will grudgingly admit, however, that the U.S. tried for many years and at great expense to improve the economic situation of average Iraqis to a point where they could afford American-made goods. >U.S military contractors got handsomely rich off both Afghanistan and Iraq and both nations are almost exclusively importing American military equipment. I’d 100% agree with you there. However, the military-industrial complex is a very different beast than Lenin’s theory of imperial monopoly capitalism. The M.I.C. is to me a far simpler and more boring explanation, and one which bears up better under scrutiny, than the Marxist theory of warfare which your OP postulated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist_explanations_of_warfare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist_explanations_of_warfar...