Being a retired soldier my perspective is thus: the winners that are writing the history books aren’t necessarily the winners, but those who killed the most.
Often those who deviate from the laws of war in order to cheat and win in horrific ways then get to write about the other side being the bad guys…
Those cucumber farmers in Iraq sure didn’t seem like the Al-Qaeda/ isis that I was told they were. Afghanistan was similar. Nobody was the hero involved in that.
As a veteran of three wars who is currently on food stamps and under poverty wage because disability doesn’t pay the bills, I agree with you. I witnessed those bloated budgets throughout my career. It’s free money and it’s a way to funnel it to large corporations. The military takes that money and then “spends” it, paying large corporations for their jets and such. Jets that they don’t need. This is all a method to keep money going to the upper class. This is the machine that Eisenhower warned us about.
The only companies who survival I care about are those who pay their employees a thriving wage. Everything else can burn.