When this government speaks, assume it’s lying. Won’t solve the problem, but you won’t be quite so angry when the lie is exposed and realize you’ve been had. Again. Fascinating article, but nothing new to those of us who never believed what we were told from the beginning.
When Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told reporters last December that he expected U.S. troops to remain in Iraq for another four years, he was merely confirming what any visitor to the country could have surmised. The omnipresence of the giant defense contractor KBR (formerly Kellogg, Brown & Root), the shipments of concrete and other construction materials, and the transformation of decrepit Iraqi military bases into fortified American enclaves—complete with Pizza Huts and DVD stores—are just the most obvious signs that the United States has been digging in for the long haul. It’s a far cry from administration assurances after the invasion that the troops could start withdrawing from Iraq as early as the fall of 2003. And it is hardly consistent with a prediction by Richard Perle, the former chairman of the Defense Policy Board, that the troops would be out of Iraq within months, or with Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi’s guess that the U.S. occupation would last two years. Take, for example, Camp Victory North, a sprawling base near Baghdad International Airport, which the U.S. military seized just before the ouster of Saddam Hussein in April 2003. Over the past year, KBR contractors have built a small American city where about 14,000 troops are living, many hunkered down inside sturdy, wooden, air-conditioned bungalows called SEA (for Southeast Asia) huts, replicas of those used by troops in Vietnam. There’s a Burger King, a gym, the country’s biggest PX—and, of course, a separate compound for KBR workers, who handle both construction and logistical support.
Suspicions also run deep both inside Pentagon circles and among analysts that the Department of Defense is pouring billions of dollars into the facilities in pursuit of a different agenda entirely: to turn Iraq into a permanent base of operations in the Middle East.
If true, this scheme is fraught with danger. The presence of U.S. troops is a powerful recruitment tool for the Iraqi insurgency—as well as a source of bitter anti-American feeling throughout the Middle East.
it’s call american Imperialism.
“When this government speaks, assume it’s lying. ”
Funny I use the same rule for the media.
After living through the evils of the Vietnam era I never thought I could ever be more revolted by the actions of the American Military-Industrial complex.
But I was wrong the dispicable and greedy coven lead by Cheney and his cronies has reached lows I thought impossible.
I have never been so ashamed to be an American. Dear God what have we allowed our government to become?
Here is a more general axiom: Follow the money. The media isn’t interested in the truth. They want to sell papers or get good ratings. If you want to know what the government is really up to follow the money. If you can’t follow the money assume the worst.
I have just one question:
Why no such story hits CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times? Are they all on the payroll of the Pentagon or the big contractors? Where are the todays Woodward’s and Bernstein’s?
And I love how JUST the republicans get the fallout for this. The war in Iraq is happening because both sides of the isle, republicans and democrats, are in the middle of playing bad/good cop with the american people. For decades, the American populace has been under this mindset that if one side is not playing the game correctly, then the other side must be. Neither side are for the American people. All congressmen are purchased by the elite, foreign interests, or any other corporation that has the ability to unemploy 5,000 or so American workers whenever they see fit. Congress doesn’t have our back, the president doesn’t have our back, and neither does the military. Nobody never did have our back nor will they ever as long as you keep seeing Lockheed Martin ads right before Meet the Press or ABC Morning news reporters taking field trips to Boeing factories to promote the military industrial complex’s propoganda machine.
Getting out of this war is not the problem. There will always be more ideologies to exploit. The problem is being able to take the power away from those who have the ability to wage war. Now that should be at the top of a true congress’s agenda.
#3, Hawkeye666,
Don’t forget how DHL got its start in the VietNam era. Go, CIA !
With Halliburton moving to Dubai, no telling what new miracles will happen.
Guys, check the DATE of the article !
By Joshua Hammer
March/April 2005 Issue
So, exactly two years later, what has changed?
Well, sending the Stanley Cup and the winning team down there, a rather interesting PR development.
If the Cup gets destroyed or taken hostage, Canada will never be the same again.
So we need to invade Canada next; to prevent them from trying to kill Americans by making the Stanley Cup radio-active and then somehow making all Americans give a crap about professional hockey.
Darn it #10….you’re ahead of us here in Canada….our secret plan was to invade you by using all the Canadian senior citizens who go to Florida and Arizona every winter as shock troops, get William Shatner to use subliminal messages in his dialog on t.v., and distract and dismay you with Celine Dion’s performances in Vegas. The gig is up.
Invading might be the only way to make us Canadians give a crap about professional baseball, btw 🙂
I have always suspected that the real reason for the war was to put it in their backyard (and make a crap load of money for ABR, Haliburton etc)
My bro-in-law just got out of the army after over 20 years of service, including a few terms in Iraq. About 3 years ago (before he got out and right after he had returned from a “visit” there), I asked him when he thought the US might leave, and he told me, “Are you kidding? They’ve built a base over there bigger than Fort Hood. They ain’t going anywhere anytime soon.”
Good one, John. I have yet to hear a good explanation from anyone on why 9-11 happened. It would have been nice to hear from Arabs about why the attack happened. The best I have heard was from Jim Rogers who was in Saudi Arabia after 9-11. Everywhere he went, he was asked about the U.S. troop presence in Saudi Arabia. The question he got was, “how would you feel if Arab troops were in your country?”. Because Saudi Arabia is home to Mecca, to Arabs, U.S. soldiers in Saudi Arabia are the equivalent of using Arab soidiers to protect the Vatican.
But we never heard that this was the real cause for 9-11. By keeping U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, we were in essence calling the Saudis pussies. Bin Laden, who thought his army singlehandedly beat the Soviets in Afghanistan, thought Arab manhood was threatened and decided to attack us. Almost all of these terrorist attacks have begun since we have occupied Saudi Arabia and as long as we are there, these attacks will in all likelihood continue.
KBR funded LBJ. They have a history of making their money sucking at the government’s teet. Instead of using money on this war of destruction, one wonders what would have happened had we used the money to develop a better nuclear program as France did or
an ethanol program like Brazil.
Imperialism isn’t anything new…just look at PANAMA. We’ve killed their democratically elected rulers to stay in charge and keep what we call “our possessions”. The corporations that run this country could care less what we think.
lol #11 – Subvert the american youth w/ that stanky-dank BC bud
oh, don’t be so sure these are not temporary bases. the way they are built means that (1) they are permanent; or (2) they are temporary, but extremely wasteful for the US tax payer, but highly profitable for the contractors.
both seem pretty believable. look what the US left behind in, say, Cam Rahn Bay in Vietnam. Our overseas adventures have a long history of pissing away money like it was going out of style.
#17: Good point. I remember those movies of the dumping of choppers and planes items into the ocean off carriers or whatever rather than take them home. Also remember a guy I knew who was in Vietnam who told the story of how his base accidentally got a double order of millions of dollars worth of brand new electronics equipment. Rather than ship it back, etc, they were ordered to dig a hole and bury it all.
Late post, oops, oh well. For any people still wondering why we’re in Iraq, long ago we knew Iraq, Iran, and SA were gonna start selling oil for euro’s. The dumb government that took away the gold standard now has an oil standard. Once oil is sold for something other than dollars, american money is worthless. I’d expect a war with Iran and SA soon too. Damn this government. Damn it to hell.