The Dogs of War

posted by ewing2001 on Monday October 06, @03:18PM

The Dogs of War

By Tonie61

October 6

"We all have our dark side to say the least, but dealing in death is the nature of the beast”!
Who, except for the aging ex-hippies, knows that song lyric?

Pink Floyd’s “Dogs of War” being unleashed by their silent transfers in marbled halls. Well Dubya, the Flim-Flam man--merchant of death, uses it as his credo. Once the wolfish Dubya acquired his first taste of blood, it became an irresistible appetite. He has slowly understood that you can good profits in ripping off US suckers, but you get your biggest bonanzas by raping and pillaging oil rich countries.

That a host of our fine US boys and girls die in combat is a shame, but getting the cream off the top will require some sacrifice.

Besides, we must show our enemies that the US won’t run away from a confrontation at the first little problem. The PNAC boys say we must be tough and stay no matter what the cost.

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For Rove it comes down to the bottom line of a ledger sheet where the top 1% gets everything and the rest of us are replaceable spare parts to be lied to. Dubya is intentionally ruining the US and worldwide economy for political advantage.

He is making sure his international “Ranger” and “Pioneer” buddies are getting war-profiteering profits, as last illustrated in his $87 billion Iraq bonanza. The most brutal example of the lack of morality in Dubya though is that even the US soldiers, who are in continual jeopardy, are getting shafted.

Here is what he has done for the US according to the article, “Fiscal Doomsday in the Offing” by David Broder of October 5, 2003. The author says the US economy is seriously bad now, but will become bleak as the baby boomers need services, ”But the reality is that after 2013, things will get worse.

The first of the baby boomers reach retirement age in 2008, and from that point on, Social Security and Medicare payments will explode, as the number of claimants rises each year. As Pete Peterson, the Republican former secretary of commerce, told the news conference where this report was presented, anyone who thinks those programs are solidly financed ought to think again. "To talk about a Social Security trust fund is a fiscal oxymoron," he said. "It isn't funded and it can't be trusted." Rather, the government faces $25 trillion of unfunded entitlement obligations.”

That is bad, but we voted him in, so we have to live with what we asked for. Shame on any of you silly enough to believe the Dubya spin of 2000, as it was plainly all smoke and mirrors. See, all of us aging baby boomers, ex-hippies or not have lived through this before. This is all part of an age-old GOP strategy. They terrify the US into believing that the military must be built up excessively. Reagan had the “Evil Empire” and Tricky Dick had the “domino theory”. Then they add to this tax cuts for their rich 1%. Guess what—Et voilla no money for Democrats!

The US budget can’t support this military buildup as well as fund the social safety net, so which budgets get reduced? We see our own relatives and neighbors dying before their time. We are without adequate health care, decent medical insurance. Too many of us must choose between purchasing either prescription drugs or food. Due to Dubya’s awful administration of the US economy each of the states are cutting everything they can. When the Democrats, who are the champion of social service programs, ask for money to help the 99% of US citizens, the GOP have a pat comment. “They are typical tax and spend Democrats!”

What was his tremendous photo-op on the USS Lincoln, with “Mission Accomplished” behind him other than a chance for him to act as the mighty, Commander-in-Chief? For the love of all that is good and decent in the world, Bush who proudly struts around as being concerned for the military, is going to look out for our youth in the Armed Services, isn’t he? His words don’t match his actions.

I can hear the GOP operatives saying, “We have to spend a lot of money to make sure our troops have the best of everything to fight the “everlasting war against terrorism”.” It would be one thing if that was true, but it is not. Since our dear troops aren’t in the top 1%, Dubya isn’t going waste his blood soaked booty, on adequate military equipment and processes on them.

So what if through his idiotic actions Dubya has forced their lives to be on the line. For Dubya you either have the secret membership card, a big, fat wallet, or you are cannon fodder.

In general, the "support our troops" crowd draws the line when that support might actually cost something. The usually conservative Army Times has run blistering editorials on this subject. Its June 30 blast, titled "Nothing but Lip Service," begins: "In recent months, President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress have missed no opportunity to heap richly deserved praise on the military. But talk is cheap — and getting cheaper by the day, judging from the nickel-and-dime treatment the troops are getting lately."

There's also another element in the Iraq logistical snafu: privatization. The U.S. military has shifted many tasks traditionally performed by soldiers into the hands of such private contractors as Kellogg Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary. The Iraq war and its aftermath gave this privatized system its first major test in combat — and the system failed.

According to the Newhouse News Service, "U.S. troops in Iraq suffered through months of unnecessarily poor living conditions because some civilian contractors hired by the Army for logistics support failed to show up." Not surprisingly, civilian contractors — and their insurance companies — get spooked by war zones. In Iraq, reports The Baltimore Sun, "the Bush administration continues to use American corporations to perform work that United Nations agencies and nonprofit aid groups can do more cheaply."

He knows the world is against his Iraq boondoggle so what does he do? In a NY Times article of September 30, 2003, “ Washington Insiders' New Firm Consults on Contracts in Iraq”, this quote shows Dubya‘s true concern, “At a time when the administration seeks Congressional approval for $20.3 billion to rebuild Iraq, part of an $87 billion package for military and other spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, the company's Web site, www.newbridgestrategies.com, says, "The opportunities evolving in Iraq today are of such an unprecedented nature and scope that no other existing firm has the necessary skills and experience to be effective both in Washington, D.C., and on the ground in Iraq."

The site calls attention to the links between the company's directors and the two Bush administrations by noting, for example, that Mr. Allbaugh, the chairman, was "chief of staff to then-Gov. Bush of Texas and was the national campaign manager for the Bush-Cheney 2000 presidential campaign." Also mentioned is that other directors, including Edward M. Rogers Jr. and Lanny Griffith, both of whom had been assistants to the first President George Bush.

There is a sucker born every day, but even the GOP can’t swallow this 20.3 billion for Iraqi reconstruction. In several closed meetings this week, Republicans questioned why the administration is piling more spending atop an ever-expanding federal deficit. Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, plans to offer an amendment making the package a loan, which the White House adamantly opposes. "The people of eastern Tennessee want to know why the $20.3 billion couldn't be repaid by the Iraqi people from the oil revenues," Wamp said.

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) urged that the administration press nations such as France, Russia and Germany to forgive some of Iraq's $200 billion foreign debt, which Bremer conceded is now the United States' responsibility. "It's tough to make a case to give $20 billion outright," Flake said. "There are a lot of us who are still troubled."

What is happening now in the Bush's $87 billion request for the Iraq struggle is reminiscent of how Dubya steamrolled the Homeland Security Bill through Congress with no debate. A full-blown debate is desperately needed on this huge allotment but Democrats are already complaining it may not occur.

Initial committee hearings are being tightly gaveled by the majority Republicans, with a member's question time limited to as little as eight minutes as administration officials testify. I wonder who will be the Eli-Lilly recipient of a huge blood-soaked prize this time.

Those of you who are not benefiting by this, essentially 99% of the US, better get this straight. His tax cuts help the top 1%, and you are not in it. He has hypnotized you with his “everlasting war against terrorism”, so that he can ruin the US economy and skim off the best for his own. His policies benefit only his international “Ranger” and Pioneer” buddies. He is making his friends rich with Iraq booty.

The US soldier he has mugged with for votes. Since he is the poster child for hypocrisy, he is not providing our troops with the services and equipment they need. Basically they are expendable pawns, so that his buddies can get rich while providing them with sub-standard material.

You red staters realize this. The kids of the rich folks rarely go into the voluntary US Armed Forces. He is giving his buddies loot, while he knows that your kids are dying, partially because the services they are receiving are sub-standard.

The primary reason for the preponderance of the Armed Forces bloodshed being from our fine US youth is that the world, except for Tony Blair, hates this illegal occupation of Iraq. He has alienated a sympathetic post 9-11 world. Our former allies won’t abide this fool. Worldwide he is considered the reckless cowboy, grim reaper of death, for starting an unsanctioned by the UN—therefore in the law abiding world, illegal, plunder of a defenseless oil rich country.

You red staters, none of you are the Binkys and Chips in his blue-blooded secret club. If you vote for him you are voting against your own self-interests. Frankly, if the US wasn’t the chief world power, Dubya wouldn’t be considering how he can get re-elected. He would be fighting off charges of being a mass murdered as Blair currently is.

b. connors

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