How the US defense industry's greed led to the Ukraine war

WHAT struck me most in the letter by American national security experts condemning the US for provoking Russia to invade Ukraine (which I posted in this column last Monday, June 19) were the following assertions:

"Why did the US persist in expanding NATO despite repeated warnings [by its own security officials and by Russia]? Profit from weapons sales was a major factor. Facing opposition to NATO expansion, a group of neoconservatives and top executives of US weapons manufacturers formed the US Committee to Expand NATO.