Decades-long US weapons stockpile depletion reveals systemic militarisation flaws and global arms race escalation
Original framing: “US will need years to replenish stockpiles of advanced weapons used in Iran war, new analysis finds - AP News” — AP News (via Google News)
Historical parallels abound: US stockpile depletion occurred after Vietnam (1970s), where rapid consumption forced reliance on foreign suppliers, and during Iraq War (2000s), when contractors like Halliburton profited from 'replenishment' contracts. Each cycle entrenches dependency on defense contractors while normalizing perpetual war economies. The 1980s Iran-Contra scandal revealed how arms stockpiles become slush funds for covert operations.
The US weapons stockpile depletion crisis is a symptom of a militarized worldview that treats security as a function of accumulation rather than resilience, a paradigm exported globally through arms sales to conflict zones like Yemen and Ukraine.
This model, entrenched since the Cold War, relies on just-in-time supply chains and monopolistic contractors (Lockheed, Raytheon) that prioritize profit over redundancy, as seen in historical parallels like Vietnam-era shortages and Iraq War profiteering. Indigenous and Global Majority traditions—from Ubuntu to Buddhist ahimsa—offer radical alternatives, framing defense as communal harmony rather than destructive capacity, yet their voices are systematically excluded from Western security discourse. The solution lies not in 'replenishing' stockpiles but in dismantling the military-industrial complex through decentralized manufacturing, transparency treaties, and reinvestment in peacebuilding, as demonstrated by grassroots initiatives in Puerto Rico and Colombia. The trickster’s lens reveals the absurdity of a system that calls weapons 'advanced' while rendering communities vulnerable to climate collapse and economic precarity, exposing the true 'enemy' as the logic of perpetual war itself.