Last week, a major US firearms company warned it would be increasing prices of ammunition and gunpowder across the board in 2024. The company blamed “world events” but did not specify which world events are directly affecting prices.
A gunpowder shortage in the US is the result of the country’s support of ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, as well as the American elite living in a “fantasy land” of unlimited funding, Karen Kwiatkowski, a retired US Air Force Lt. Col., former analyst for the Defense Department and activist told Sputnik.
“The production capacities, which were focused on the production of gunpowder for small arms, including civilian and hunting powders, are now being converted to the production of gunpowder for artillery,” Kwiatkowski told Sputnik, noting that US manufacturing of gunpowder has been largely shipped overseas.
“Occupational Health and Safety (OSHA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seem to be the big reason that most US gunpowder manufacturing has been shut down, or has moved overseas,” Kwiatkowski added.
The remaining gunpowder manufacturers, like General Dynamics, as well as their subcontractors, are the ones who benefit the most from the increased price, along with governments who want to limit gun ownership among their citizens. And because both gunpowder and fertilizers use the same precursor ingredients, that also limits the food supply.
“Curiously, governments creating and promoting wars are doing far more damage to both the environment and food supplies,” Kwiatkowski said, “while ensuring increased profits for their heavily subsidized defense industries.”
While much of the American political class insists US support of Ukraine will not wane, and that NATO’s proxy war is not already lost, Kwiatkowski noted American entrepreneurs are not so naive.
“The US government lives in a fantasy world of unlimited funding, and of course, selling the idea of a better Ukraine in 2024 fits in with the Biden reelection campaign,” Kwiatkowski explained, adding that the major capital and asset management firms in the US hold no such delusions, saying they “are aware of funding limitations and they do track the actual productivity and futures of everything from weapons and ammo to food and medicine on a global level.”
In May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the creation of an “investment fund” by BlackRock to support the Ukraine Development Fund, a program still in the planning stages and not expected to fully launch until the end of hostilities.
The disconnect between reality and the American elite and political class is typical of an empire in decline, Kwiatkowski said.
“The US elite today is not the elite of the Industrial Age – they study influence, propaganda and control, they know little about innovation, production and solid investment. Increasingly they are as disconnected from reality as any other elite class experiencing late stage empire – they cannot evaluate how they got where they are, and they cannot see what is coming.”
US President Joe Biden has requested an additional $61.4 billion in aid for Ukraine as part of a package that also includes military aid for Israel and Taiwan. The bill stalled in Congress after Republican opposition.
A recent poll taken this month revealed that 48% of voters believe the US has already sent too much aid to Ukraine, compared to 27% who said Washington has sent the “right amount” and 11% who say it has not sent enough.
