OP/ED: War Games, Big Money and the Plummeting USD

The US war on terrorism is a big ticket item � about to hit $225 billion for the year�s fiascos in Iraq and Afghanistan, with another $5.6 billion committed to develop vaccines for diseases that do not exist. Much of the �war money� goes to pay heavily inflated costs for goods and services to corporations like Halliburton � leaving soldiers without adequate armor or support, and forcing them into suicide missions. As a result, the US deficit is already in the trillions, and the world is dumping US dollars.



President Bush is not concerned. �The Bush administration intends to seek about $70 billion in emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan early next year, pushing total war costs close to $225 billion since the invasion of Iraq early last year, Pentagon and congressional officials said yesterday,� reports the Washington Post.

The innocent and uneducated think war is about missiles, troop movements and fighting to protect democracy. It�s not. War is about redistributing wealth, grabbing resources and mainly, about re-allocating and claiming tax dollars. War is a business opportunity. All else is secondary, at best.

War reparations alone are worth gold � before rebuilding, corporations and other powerful countries take their cut, off the top, out of our tax contributions. �Despite the $18.4-billion of U.S. tax dollars allocated for Iraq�s reconstruction, the Washington Post estimates that only $29-million has been spent on water, sanitation, health, roads, bridges, and public safety � combined.� So where does our tax money go, exactly?

Off the top and before rebuilding, �Here is a small sample of who has been getting �reparation� awards from Iraq: Halliburton ($18-million), Bechtel ($7-million), Mobil ($2.3-million), Shell ($1.6-million), Nestle ($2.6-million), Pepsi ($3.8-million), Philip Morris ($1.3-million), Sheraton ($11-million), Kentucky Fried Chicken ($321-thousand) and Toys R Us ($189,449). In the vast majority of cases, these corporations did not claim that Saddam�s forces damaged their property in Kuwait � only that they �lost profits� or, in the case of American Express, experienced a �decline in business,� �One of the biggest winners has been Texaco, which was awarded $505-million in 1999,� reports Naomi Klein.

In the same vein, �Mr Baker�s Carlyle Group is in a consortium secretly proposing to try to collect $27bn (�15bn) on behalf of Kuwait, one of Iraq's biggest creditors, by using high-level political influence. It claims Mr Baker will not benefit personally, but the consortium could make millions in fees, retainers and commission as a result,� reports the UK�s Guardian. Baker is Bush�s special envoy. �One international lawyer described the consortium's scheme as �influence peddling of the crassest kind�,� says the Guardian report.

And take Halliburton�s gas premiums. Halliburton supplies gas to the troops in Iraq, getting 26 cents a gallon for its overhead and fee, according to documents from the Army Corps of Engineers. �I have never seen anything like this in my life. That's a monopoly premium � that's the only term to describe it. Every logistical firm or oil subsidiary in the United States and Europe would salivate to have that sort of contract,� says California oil economist Phil Verleger.

It�s not just Iraqis who suffer when funds are �re-directed� and appropriated. American troops are left without armor or adequate military support. It�s one thing to give your life for your country, but die for corporate profits? Puh-leeze. Our troops are forced to mutiny, just to be heard. As Newsday's Dennis Duggan writes, �Better mutiny than �suicide.� �

Then there�s the bio-terrorism threat. Bush signed Project BioShield into law in July to prepare for possible bio-terrorist attacks, committing $5.6 billion to the project. But the drug companies want more. Says a Senate staffer, �Privately, the companies are telling us that BioShield's provisions are not remotely enough.�

In fact, the Bioshield defense plan has several problems. Chiefly, the greatest biological threats today are not from bio-terrorists, but from nature. The best equipped bio-molecular laboratory in the world is the living cell. No man-made lab can touch the ability of living cells for creating new mutations and manufacturing diseases � never mind some neo-nut terrorist in a basement. New mutations of old diseases are triggered by new chemicals and contaminants in the environment, inside living cells. This is the real and present danger.

Besides HN1V bird flu, several other �natural� disease mutations are set go epidemic. One already has and as a result, the US is under biological attack, on home soil. Everyone knows but the American public.

About 4 years ago, a disease called fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) escalated out of control into a full blown epidemic. Most FMD cases in the USA are not reported; it is not required. Even so, at 1.7% total reported incidence, the nation reported 3.5 million new cases in 2003, with 7,000 new cases diagnosed in autopsy, every day.

FMD is incurable and often untreatable. There is no vaccine. FMD causes high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and obesity. It generally takes decades to cause real problems but eventually kills by stroke, heart attack, ruptured aneurysms, dissected arteries and kidney failure. Victims are often destroyed before death: physically, mentally and financially.

Warnings bells are sounding round the world: emigrate to the USA and your health will suffer. One article on India�s indolink is aptly named, �All Not Well for Immigrants in Land of Opportunity.� The writer warns India�s people, �A study conducted by the California-based Packard Foundation shows that the health of immigrant children gets worse the longer they live in the United States.� At present, publishers politely follow Bush�s lead, blame the victims, and parrot the fiction that diet and lifestyle are at fault. But the cover-up is falling apart.

Recently, the EPA journal Environmental Health Perspectives dis-embargoed 30 years worth of research that shows the effect of environmental contaminants on the human genetic structure. Current work on mitochondrial RNA shows the impact of environment-caused mutations on health and, �These results show for the first time that mutations in the mitochondrial gene can cause high blood pressure and high cholesterol.� More mainstream health writers are catching on every day. As Michael Gard wrote in spiked-online, �The claim that playing computer games is making kids fat is thin on evidence.�

The truth is coming out, trillions of hard-earned tax dollars late.

Bottom line: One way or another, our tax dollars are funneled straight into corporate coffers; and at home or at war, ordinary Americans take a back seat. Overall, this is some serious looting going on here. We�re talking trillions and trillions of dollars for a chosen few, while good, hard-working ordinary Americans are left to go broke, suffer and die � without getting help they need and deserve.

Adding insult to injury, our country gets down-graded on international money markets, because our debt is too high, our people are too sick, all our decent jobs are outsourced and our economy is weak.


www.indolink.com...
www.ajc.com...
www.spiked-online.com...

Related News Links:
www.washingtonpost.com
nologo.org
www.guardian.co.uk
www.commondreams.org

Related Information:
Newsday.com
the-scientist.com
emedicine.com
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov


[edit on 27-10-2004 by Banshee]

$225,000,000. That's $765 for every American man, woman, and child (population 293,000,000 including those in armed services). Sweet deal.

You dropped the last 3 zeros - it's $225,000,000,000. We're looking at selling firstborns here, and they're not done yet...

[edit on 26-10-2004 by soficrow]

BUMP!

Can't believe I missed this!

Nice work soficrow

The dumping of US dollars is accelerating as the war in Iraq kicks into high gear with Martial Law declared.

But just for two months... then well have elections... with diebold machines

.

Originally posted by Gools
BUMP!

Can't believe I missed this!

Nice work soficrow

Thanks Gools. ...Hope you're still around. Haven't heard from you in a while.

Check out this one too, it's kind of related:
www.atsnn.com...



.