Monday, March 19, 2007

War Without End: Why the Military-Industrial Complex LOVES the continuing "War on Terror."

The problem with Gore Vidal is that he is so often, right. Vidal’s 2003 screed, “Dreaming War: Blood For Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta,” appeared scurrilous at the time. Just 4 years later almost everything he described has come to pass. Of course, in 2003 there was no way to discover the truth. Only the most secure and brave souls spoke out against the phony intelligence that Cheney developed with the help of his Vulcan staff. But Gore knew and he was far past the point of worrying what his social intellectual and spiritual inferiors thought of him. So he made his case: Gore Vidal’s book explores the oil connections between George Bush’s oil days in Texas and the family of Osama bin Laden. Specifically, he calls for an investigation into 9/11 that would include what Bush knew and when he knew it—and why and how he and his associates have profited from it. Beyond that, Gore gives example after example of the no-bid war profiteering that has enriched those companies favored by the Cheney-Bush gang. It is no coincidence that Hamid Karzai and Condi Rice BOTH worked with Unocal and Chevron. Nor is it a surprise that Unocal was given the right to control the major oil pipeline running through Afghanistan, or that KBR did much of the construction in Afghanistan.

From the perspective of a defense contractor, the War on Terror is the “perfect” war. We are up against an implacable, ruthless, “inhuman,” relentless, intelligent and patient worldwide enemy. There was a beginning (9/11). But there is no end. If the American people let them, the war profiteers will keep the war going in order, as Vidal has eloquently said, to wage a “Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace.” As always we must ask the right question: WHO BENEFITS? Exxon-Mobile? Chevron? Halliburton? Lockheed? Boeing? Those, and many more obscure companies. They profit while we pay.

So, I have come full circle. In 2000, I started out with the idea that the regime of Bush-Cheney was illegitimate. Then came 9/11 and I felt it was my patriotic duty to support the President in a time of national crisis. After 6 long years of crime, I am now convinced that this is a criminal administration. They work for the corporations whose only concern is the bottom line. How else explain the disgrace of Walter Reed, Katrina, the fiasco in Iraq and so many other failures? Bush and Cheney have earned a comfortable retirement. They have succeeded in transferring $500 BILLION to the Military-Industrial complex while at the same time drastically cutting taxes on the top 1% of taxpayers. And the War on Terror goes on and on and on ...

In morbid fascination, I remain

Savant