The military industrial complex can be repurposed for space exploration and settlement, and would yield far greater profits than what’s achieved from death and destruction. People who have stakes in these decisions already know this.

But you can only create exploitable working classes by perpetuating said death and destruction. Those who wish to remain in power keep perpetuating the same lies by keeping people divided based on arbitrary criteria like race, religion or whatever.

Edit to say there are sociopaths amongst us who want to harm others based on their own delusions, so the military industrial complex makes sense for creating defensive capabilities. However, enabling genocide or perpetuating unjust warfare will always create a cycle of bloodlust and violence. Again, the stakeholders of these decisions know this. Creating a cycle of violence and bloodlust serves their needs.