The simple answer is probably profit, as cynical as it sounds. Not only is a ton of congress literally invested in defense companies [1], including the people o

The simple answer is probably profit, as cynical as it sounds. Not only is a ton of congress literally invested in defense companies [1], including the people overseeing said companies - but the defense companies also directly fund the election campaigns of politicians. [2] Every bomb made, every missile dropped, and every artillery shell launched just makes everybody richer and gets those election coffers stocked even fuller. Alongside the above 2 metrics, I'd also add that a lot of the graft is not directly tracked. For instance play ball with the defense industry while in office, and one can look forward to fatly compensated lobbying or advisory positions after leaving office. Similar to how presidents who play ball with banks/wallstreet get to go get paid $500k/speech for say-nothing 30 minute chats. There's a reason congress has never seen a war it didn't like. [1] - https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-members-are-trading-defense-stocks-while-shaping-military-policy-2021-12 https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-members-are-trading... [2] - https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?Ind=D https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?Ind=D