And talking about the US prior to the military industrial complex and post military industrial complex are two different things.
Post WWII its been a revolving door of “defense” company executives having high positions in government.
Remember VP Dick Cheney, former CEO of Halliburton? Remember Halliburton getting no-bid contracts to rebuild Iraq?
My point is: this is the norm now.
Is it stupid? Yes. It is a result of the growth of the power of the military industrial complex? Also yes. Is it what you ought to expect based on past behavior? Fucking obviously.