There are other corporate players. It comes as no surprise that Vice President Dick Cheney---as Secretary of Defense and later as Texas-based Halliburton's CEO---has been a major force in encouraging the Pentagon to rely increasingly on private contractors. Halliburton-KBR has reaped much of the profit.
The connections between energy, defense contracts, privatization and profits run deep. You'll find a chronicle of the Bush family connection as well as the influence of the Religious Right in reformed Republican Kevin Phillips' eye-opener, "American Dynasty."
As Gabriel Kolko reminds us in "Another Century of War?," the United States---during the Carter, Reagan, and Bush I administrations---used secularist Saddam Hussein as a pawn in the Iran-Iraq war to counter militant Islamic fundamentalism. Our government provided Saddam with the chemical and biological weapons that he used not only against Iranians, but against his own people---those infamous WMDs. And the U.S. continued to bankroll him after knowledge of these attacks.
Kolko also reminds us that we cannot have peace in the Middle East, we cannot counter terrorism, without a just and peaceful solution to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict---currently being ignored in our distraction with the war in Iraq, our thirst for oil, and the Bush/Cheney partnership with an intractable Israeli government.
Does this policy reflect the views of a majority of Americans? Is this radical and costly strategy the kind we want, as a nation, to pursue?
This has not been some clandestine conspiracy. Most of it has been up-front, in the light of day. The press has failed to pursue it, and the public has failed to care.
It's not difficult to understand our policy problems; but don't take my word for it:
'Google' "PNAC/Project for a New American Century" and the "Carlyle Group," and see for yourself. And while you're at it, pick up a copy of Gabriel Kolko's "Another Century of War?"---concise, comprehensive, easy to read.
Must Read (
Well Said (
News (
Touching (
Funny (
Supported (
Interesting (
Inspiring (
Valuable (
