Have you stopped to consider “why the U.S. invaded Iraq”, from a purely economic standpoint, and remove the political, the vendetta angle, the suspected chemical weapons and the supposed links to Al Qaeda? Could it be that the machine just needed a place to justify its existence? I’ve been in a particularly cynical mood of late, and despite my better instincts, have begun to entertain the notions of some of the more radical points of view, with regards to the decision to invade Iraq and everything that led up to that decision. While I don’t really believe in conspiracy theories that throw around terms like Council on Foreign Relations, Bilderbergers & Illuminati, I do however believe in the notion that the true power in Washington is behind the scenes, and possibly more insidious than popular fiction can imagine. It’s no secret that the U.S. has sold itself down the road to China, and others, in the name of cheap stuff at the big box mart. That’s not the point of this thread, so I won’t go into detail, but suffice to say, Wal-Mart is a main character in this drama. So, the manufacturing base is completely eroded, and something has to replace the energy consumption of all those plant closures, right? It occurs to me that there is one manufacturing base that Washington would not completely sell out, and that’s the vendors that supply the DOD and DOE. So in order to make sure that Raytheon, Boeing, Bell, GM, etc. have work, the guys behind the guys make sure we’ve got a war to fuel those contracts. This ensures that the intellectual capital that engineers the most effective and devastating weapons in the world is not lost, and it also ensures that the unnecessary money spent on some General/Admirals flight of fancy can be justified. We have Star Wars, but our troops on the ground don’t have adequate body armor? See what I mean? Body Armor doesn’t really have to be made in the U.S., but the DOD would never subcontract out its most sensitive R&D missions to China, unless of course Clinton told them to, but that’s yet another thread. I’ll try to get to my point here: I think the public realizes this is happening, and while they might find the idea grotesque on principle, they like having good paying jobs that feed the machine, so they don’t really get too upset about it. The 535 people who have to sign all the checks know this, and so while they may publicly caterwaul about the war and its high cost, they aren’t going to call the bank, and explain that the POTUS isn’t allowed any more cash. If they did, they would be acknowledging that it really is their fault in the first place, because the POTUS isn’t allowed to write any checks that they don’t sign. I think this is because so many of them have a lobbyist in their ear every night telling them how important it is that the DOD/DOE keeps feeding business to whatever subcontractor happens to be in their backyard, and that if they don’t, it’s going to mean a huge loss of jobs in their district, and they all know that it’s political suicide to ever defend a plant/base closure in your own district. War is good for business, especially when your business is war, and regardless of their political direction, a lot of people benefit from a wartime economy.
