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Instead of Fixing the U.S. Economy or Creating Jobs for AMERICANS, Obama Will Spend The Money in Afghanistan and Iraq
America is in the most severe unemployment crisis since - and perhaps including - the Great Depression.
And
yet Obama, like Bush, has done virtually nothing to create more jobs.
Instead, they both gave trillions to the biggest banks (who are not
loaning it out to the little guy) and for waging wars in Afghanistan
and Iraq.
Obama is apparently escalating - not ending - the wars. And its not cheap.
According to the White House, the cost of deploying new soldiers to Afghanistan could be $1 million per soldier. Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says that the Iraq war will cost $3-5 trillion dollars.
As I have previously pointed out, protracted war increases unemployment, shrinks the economy, and causes recession. See this, this and this.
But deficits don't matter, right? Wrong.
But We Had No Choice ... We Had to Fight Those Wars
But - you may say - we had no choice, we had to fight those wars because of 9/11.
Well, top British officials say that the U.S. discussed Iraq regime change long before 9/11. In fact, they say that regime change was advocated one month after Bush took office:
The
chairman of the British Joint Intelligence Committee in 2001 told
investigators Monday that elements of the Bush Administration were
pushing for regime change in Iraq in early 2001, months before the 9/11
attacks and two years before President George W. Bush formally
announced the Iraq war.
Sir Peter Ricketts, now-Secretary at
the Foreign Office, said that US and British officials believed at the
time that measures against Iraq were failing: "sanctions, an incentive
to lift sanctions if Saddam allowed the United Weapons inspectors to
return, and the 'no fly' zones over the north and south of the country."
Ricketts
also said that US officials had raised the prospect of regime change in
Iraq, asserting that the British weren't supportive of the idea at the
time.
***
The head of the British Foreign Office's Middle East
department, Sir William Patey, told the inquiry that his office was
aware of regime change talk from some parts of the Bush Administration
shortly after they took office in 2001.
"In
February 2001 we were aware of these drum beats from Washington and
internally we discussed it," Patey said. "Our policy was to stay away
from that."
The Brits previously revealed that intelligence and purported facts of Iraq's weapons programs were "fixed around" the pre-set policy of invading Iraq.
It's not just the Brits.
Former CIA director George Tenet said that the White House wanted to invade Iraq long before 9/11, and inserted "crap" in its justifications for invading Iraq.
Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill also says that Bush planned the Iraq war before 9/11.
Everyone knew the WMD claims were fake. For example, the number 2 Democrat in the Senate, who was on the Senate intelligence committee, admitted that the
Senate intelligence committee knew before the war started that Bush's
public statements about Iraqi WMDs were false. And if the committee
knew, then the White House knew as well.
The CIA warned the White House that claims about Iraq's nuclear ambitions (using forged documents) were false, and yet the White House made those claims anyway.
Cheney was largely responsible for generating fake intelligence about Iraq in order to justify the war. For example:
- Falsified
documents which were meant to show that Iraq's Saddam Hussein regime
had been trying to procure yellowcake uranium from Niger can be traced back to Vice President Dick Cheney
And see this.
And you may have heard that the Energy Task Force chaired by Cheney prior to 9/11 collected maps of Iraqi oil fields and potential suitors for that oil. But you probably don't know that a secret document
written by the National Security Council on February 3, 2001 directed
the N.S.C. staff to cooperate fully with the Energy Task Force as it
considered the “melding” of two seemingly unrelated areas of policy:
“the review of operational policies towards rogue states,” such as
Iraq, and “actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and
gas fields”.
In other words, it is difficult to brush off
Cheney's Energy Task Force's examination of Iraqi oil maps as a
harmless comparison of American energy policy with known oil reserves
because the N.S.C. explicitly linked the Task Force, oil, and
regime change. Indeed, a former senior director for Russian, Ukrainian,
and Eurasian affairs at the N.S.C. said:
If
this little group was discussing geostrategic plans for oil, it puts
the issue of war in the context of the captains of the oil industry
sitting down with Cheney and laying grand, global plans.
(and see this).
Cheney's
role in getting the U.S. into unnecessary military confrontations is
not new. According to former high-level intelligence officer Melvin
Goodman, during the Ford administration, Cheney orchestrated
phony intelligence for the Congress in order to get an endorsement for
covert arms shipments to anti-government forces in Angola.
And in the 1970's, Cheney was instrumental
in generating fake intelligence exaggerating the Soviet threat in order
to undermine coexistence between the U.S. and Soviet Union, which
conveniently justified huge amounts of cold war spending. See also this. This scheme foreshadowed Mr. Cheney's role in generating fake intelligence in Iraq by 30 years.
And Cheney was the guy who directed all counter-terrorism activities in 2001 and who directed the U.S. response on 9/11, accidentally allowing hijacked planes to fly all over the place, and perhaps - as implied by Secretary of Transportation Norm Minetta - to slam into the Pentagon (confirmed here). Heck of a job, Dick ...
The government also apparently planned the Afghanistan war before 9/11 (see this and this).
But
you don't even have to even think about all of the complex facts
discussed above. It's really simple: when asked to specify exactly why
we are still fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama cannot really
explain why we are still there.
(It's also simple because the top bipartisan experts say that the Iraq war has increased the threat of terrorism. See this, this, this, this, this and this).
The Wars Are Unnecessary and Are Killing the Economy
Bottom
line: The wars are unnecessary, and they are draining resources which
could be used to reduce unemployment and help the economy.
Note: This is not a Republican versus Democratic issue. For example, Bill Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act in 1998, calling for regime change in Iraq. And Obama is escalating wars started by the previous administration.
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Foolish of me to expect an immediate reply. I assume the new issues of Guns & Ammo & Soldier of Fortune arrived in the mail box today.
Yes, that's part of it.
Airport security has been and still is pathetic.
If you want secure, fly El Al.
which pew poll are you referring to exactly...this one?
http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=264
can you provide the reference for the 200 million muslim claim?
I view this poll as indicative of nothing more than a Good Riddance the worst POTUS in recorded history, maybe unrecorded, as well.
Just the thought of Bush riding around on tricycle in Texas warms my heart.
But I don't think TheBamster is capable to govern anything more than a shantytown, like Compton. We need to see who is Men Behind the Curtain (MBTC) are and little by little we are finding out that they are the same ones as Bush had with different sounding names, and mostly Jewish. Whereas
Bush had mostly WASPs and Jewish ones really running things in the background like Wolfowitz and other AIPACs.
the CIA radicalized islam, and britain and america have been bullying the mid-east since oil was discovered. I guess the israeli's are justified in their treatment of palestine, because the palestinians are just not dying fast enough, and they have the fucking nerve to still have more children. wake up, wahabism is a response to provocation. we actually did kill a million iraqis, how many americans were killed in their own country by muslims in the last 10 years. and don't even try to say the WTC was not a CIA/MOSSAD inside job, designed to promote the zionist adgenda. Open your eyes, our biggest enemies, are in the henhouse.
yea, now you put it that way, we all remember CIA supplied the Talibans and Obama to distract the Soviets hoping to tear apart eastern europe. And Saddam was richly rewarded and heavily supplied by our secret accounts through the great work of the CIA/Mossad in the Iraq/Iran war. Reagan was frontpaged recently as hero that ended the cold war, which only created the killing fields in former Yugoslavia, and while Bosnian Muslims and Serbs slaughter each other, western world sat idly by twiddling thumbs. And Clinton claimed credit for ordering air strike which put a stop to that, which of course save Lockheed and Hughes and Rockwell and many other American weapons peddlers from near bankruptcy as pentagon replenished our mighty arsenal. And of course, the US of A and Tony Blair's BAe continued to supply the Saudis with F15s and AAMRAMs hoping to turn tyrannical Sunnis against Shiites. Fellow Americans. The Afghan decision is another step towards our next target, Iran, prepare your sons and daughters, more American blood would be spilled, more dollars wasted. How did we ever get here? What can stop this absurd destruction of our chidren's future?
If you think it's a good idea to have US troops in 135 different countries around the world, I've got some US dollars to sell ya.
What is the motivation for their hate?
Uh, the Koran.
Their motivation? Simple but homicidal Envy
Our women have generous amounts of pure lustiness, but our men draw a line at blowing themselves into carbon nano-molecules for even one virgin, let alone 72 of 'em; our homes have "Guitar Hero" with a new Django Rhinehart module on the way; our garages house 911 turbos; our camels live in zoos; we got rid of our gowns before we were potty trained; we use toilet paper instead of our left hand; and the only sand in our shoes comes from a trip to St. Barth's.
If I were a shit or sooney, I'd wanna kill someone too.
Sure, so we need to go ballistic over cave dwellers whose exposure to technology probably hasn't even reached indoor plumbing level. Yes, they shit in holes in the ground for the most part so I am a quaking in my boots at all the other technology they have at their disposal to take us out.
Why didn't they attack Finland or Switzerland then? Japan?
Is that a question? I guess it is because you used a question mark as punctuation.
Just keep on thinking along those lines. Yea it must be envy.
Bottom line: The wars are unnecessary, and they are draining resources which could be used to reduce unemployment and help the economy.
The bottom-line: Since the party charters were authored they are both two branches of the same tree and neither reducing unemployment nor helping the economy are part of their purpose. They are both purposed with spreading the seeds of man's permanent enslavement to his debts. With liberals on the one hand demanding a greater and greater personal interventionsist welfare state and the conservatives on the other hand demanding a greater and greater foreign interventionist warfare state. Either branches roots evokes the same tree. A permanent codified mountain of irredeemable debt whose singular sadistic purpose was to permanently and irrevocably enslave and destroy the free individuals assembled in strong delusion under the protections of the United States Federal Government Corporation.
- War is expensive, no doubt. The lives we are breaking is a much higher cost than the dollars expended, as expensive as those dollars are.
- Details posted pointing towards conspiracy are academic. All this started in 1990 and was left an unfinished open sore that was going to be addressed sooner or later. The events of 9/11 prompted action. Rightly or wrongly.
- Now we're in those wars with people on the ground killing and being killed every day. We owe it to them to prosecute those efforts successfully.
- We have many serious problems in this country - as this site so well illustrates. But the most pressing is that our brothers and sisters and sons and daughters are engaged in combat. And supporting them is our most pressing priority.
Good grief! 911 was orchestrated by the Administration in coordination with multiple intelligence agencies including the CIA, Mossad and ISI with support from black ops within the US military. Certainly, you still don't believe the 911 terrorist bullshit.
"And supporting them is our most pressing priority."
Agreed. Let's stop the killing and bring them home. I support them not being targets anymore.
Without resolution to the problems they went to address you can bring them home now but hey'll go back sooner or later. And their adversaries will know that they chased them out once and be emboldened by it.
So what would you suggest? Stay in the middle east for 50 years, chasing snipers out of bushes while watching our friends and relatives get blown up by roadside bombs, at the low cost of billions and trillions?
You fail to acknowledge that our interference in the foreign affairs of others is what leads to circumstances just like this war.
Now, we feel it is our responsibility to force others to adapt to our system of government and lifestyle once more.
Staying in war leads to more war as much as or more than leaving war.
We've been in Germany and Japan for 60 years and we're better off for it.
Sounds suspiciously like the global warming hoax perpetrated to enable cap & trade.
Some fat fossilized Democrat just proposed a 1% Fed tax to pay for it.
It gives Obama political cover to pull the plug. No one wants the war if they have to come out of pocket.
We pay for it via 1) inflation or 2) taxes. War isn't free. A 1% tax on those earning more than 200-250k (the proposal) is entirely reasonable.
Great post GW! Love it when you pass out the blame to both crooked teams in the rigged political game. What amazes me is no one on the Blue team asks why they don't go after the Red team's former team captain when there are so many smoking guns.
Oh no, no, no. This administration has far to many problems to attend to.
No time to dredge up the past.
Cheney also waterboarded Armitage to give up Plame.
I think you were supposed to post this at the Daily Kos or Mother Jones.
It is not possible to separate our current economic woes with the militarization of our country and economy. We spend trillions killing abroad while our country un-develops at home. The United States has been at war more or less constantly for 60 years. The wasted blood and bounty is severe.
Further, our country has been lied to in successful attempts (and not just for Iraq) to push the population to support wars. We have no need to be in Afganistan or Iraq. We do not need bases in Japan, Germany, Italy, Korea etc. Our infrastructure at home is embarassing. Our people are drunk on violence. Our balance sheets are destroyed.
GW, thanks.
+100
That is the purpose of this "war". Obamas mission is to usher in serfdom.
I'd be curious to know the break down of the $1 million per soldier as I'm sure the soldiers themselves would. The statement says the cost of "deployment". That certainly cannot be true.
They (individual U.S. Military volunteer) stands to make approx $20,000/yr.
The 20k a year is aside from free room and board, free training, 50k signing bonuses, free health care, free pension...
And don't forget the medical costs after they get stateside, plus the free tuition and a 2000 dollar a month stipend as long as they remain in school because of the GI bill.
Well schooled on these numbers you are Master.
So your point is that our service people are worth every penny? Because that surely is my belief.
Or you think (as your tone might imply) that it is yet another liberal bullshitgravy train? And we should "Blackwaterize" the entire "armed forces"?
For each soldier in the field of battle, there is a logistical supply chain supporting him from the 435 congressional districts. This works out to only $2,300 per district per soldier.
For each 10,000 new troops Obama puts into the battle field, he increases the flow of money to each congressional district by $ 23 million.
Adding troops and expanding the battle field is a win / win decision. We increase economic activity, increase employment, and shut down the terrorists. My recommendation is to immediately add 100,000 more troops to the region and expand the war effort into Pakistan. If that doesn't work then add another 100,000 troops.
i hope that was sarcasm....
You are a genius. At that rate, the US of A would have zero unemployment. Ship all those on ZH constantly urging war with Iran or China and let them and their sons go to war and get paid $1m. It is time ZH make a stand, this forum is turning fascist, elements are channeling the anger against Wall Street into hunger for war. This must stop or TD would become another one of those forgotten blogs.
I've been thinking the same thing... I'm sure these numbers include private contractor payments to outfits like Princes' Blackwater (Xe?) and Cheney's Haliburton and KBR subsidiaries...
These outfits make so much profit they can pay employees between $100 - $200K per year... and remember there are tens of thousands of these guys in Iraq alone. But at least Americans are safe from imminent attack now.
Can we recover any of the money from Bush and Cheney in court?
yackety yack..Cheny hiked the ball, Obama is running with it, you need to realize that the serfing of America is bi-partisan. Look at the CFR, Bilderberg..etc. to see who is pulling the strings, it sure as hell isn't the right or the left, it's the globalists with their elite agenda.
Wake up!
JohnKing is absolutely correct. For further investigation, find out why Zbigniew Brzezinski had his hand in Georgia (former S.S.R.) and in the back pocket of presidential candidate Obama at the same time.
Look at the Tbilisi Pipeline and see what Henry Kissinger has to do with that. Kinda crazy coincidence, huh?
Once you can reconcile these things in your head, you will see that the TriLateral Commission, the Bilderberg Group and the Council on Foreign Relations are the ones running the global game.
What do Blood and Gore have to do with a global carbon tax? What the hell does that have to do with Afghanistan?
Did you know that since the US has occupied a lot of Afghanistan, the poppy fields have produced six times more opium than under the Taleban? Do you wonder why that is?
"They" (yes, THEY...) want you to be divided; to talk about Republican bad, Democrat good. They want you to write a letter to ABC telling them how disgusted you were that Adam Lambert kissed a fucking guy, fer Chrissakes, Ethel!
They want you to believe that I am sitting in JohnKing's basement wearing a tin-foil hat while he is out at the store getting more cans of Vienna sausages and more ammo...oh, and more tin-foil.
I know, I know. I am just another conspiracy theorist. Never mind me.
Don't forget the crackers. :)
Right/left in the US today are mostly "culture wars" and pageantry. Our one-party system would do the Soviets proud.
Indeed it would.
Elite must have a war or two and a "pandemic" in the headlines to deflect interest away from their criminal operations of looting and stripping large groups of people of their human rights.
WWF wrestling and the US 2 party system. Both have planned outcomes.
One entertains some segment of audience. The other fucks over the entire population.