The February 16th meltdown was already being predicted at the close of trading on the 15th. The financial press had previously hinted that the US defense industry could also take a beating if the new Bush Administration were to curtail military procurement. For weeks, defense contractors had been actively lobbying the new Administration. And two days later Baghdad was bombed by the US Air Force. Had the Bush administration decided otherwise, Lockheed Martin's listing on the New York Stock exchange might well have experienced the same fate as that of Nortel.
Militarisation is an integral part of the neoliberal agenda.
And this satisfies the financial establishment irrespective of the needs of ordinary people. The bombing raids on Baghdad were certainly intended to intimidate countries committed to ending the sanctions on Iraq. And America's war machine is used to support the conquest of new economic frontiers. In the Middle East, the Balkans and Central Asia, the US military is positioning itself directly and through NATO not only to support the interests of the Anglo-American oil conglomerates, which are working hand in glove with defense contractors in lucrative joint ventures, but to further colonize the former Soviet Union and Asian countries. Meanwhile, spiraling defense spending pours wealth into the military industrial complex at the expense of civilian needs.