The $3 Trillion War in Iraq
Only two winners have emerged from the conflict: oil companies and defence contractors
With March 20 marking the fifth anniversary of the United States-led invasion of Iraq, it’s time to take stock of what has happened.
In our new book The Three Trillion Dollar War, Harvard’s Linda Bilmes and I conservatively estimate the economic cost of the war to the U.S. to be $3 trillion, and the costs to the rest of the world to be another $3 trillion - far higher than the Bush administration’s estimates before the war.
The Bush team not only misled the world about the war’s possible costs, but has also sought to obscure the costs as the war has gone on.
This is not surprising. After all, the Bush administration lied about everything else, from Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction to his supposed link with Al Qaeda. Indeed, only after the U.S.-led invasion did Iraq become a breeding ground for terrorists.
The Bush administration said the war would cost $50 billion. The U.S. now spends that amount in Iraq every three months.
To put that number in context: For one-sixth of the cost of the war, the U.S. could put its social security system on a sound footing for more than a half-century, without cutting benefits or raising contributions.
Moreover, the Bush administration cut taxes for the rich as it went to war, despite running a budget deficit. As a result, it has had to use deficit spending - much of it financed from abroad - to pay for the war.
This is the first war in American history that has not demanded some sacrifice from citizens through higher taxes; instead, the entire cost is being passed onto future generations.
Unless things change, the U.S. national debt - which was $5.7 trillion when Bush became president - will be $2 trillion higher because of the war (in addition to the $800 billion increase under Bush before the war).
Was this incompetence or dishonesty?
Almost surely both.
Cash accounting meant that the Bush administration focused on today’s costs, not future costs, including disability and health care for returning veterans.
Only years after the war began did the administration order the specially armoured vehicles that would have saved the lives of many killed by roadside bombs.
Not wanting to reintroduce a draft, and finding it difficult to recruit for an unpopular war, troops have been forced into two, three or four stress-filled deployments.
The administration has tried to keep the war’s costs from the American public. Veterans groups have used the Freedom of Information Act to discover the total number of injured - 15 times the number of fatalities.
Already, 52,000 returning veterans have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. The U.S. government will need to provide disability compensation to an estimated 40 per cent of the 1.65 million troops that have already been deployed.
And, of course, the bleeding will continue as long as the war continues, with the health-care and disability bill amounting to more than $600 billion (in present-value terms).
Ideology and profiteering have also played a role in driving up the war’s costs. America has relied on private contractors, which have not come cheap.
A Blackwater Security guard can cost more than $1,000 per day, not including disability and life insurance, which is paid for by the government.
When unemployment rates in Iraq soared to 60 per cent, hiring Iraqis would have made sense; but the contractors preferred to import cheap labour from Nepal, the Philippines and other countries.
The war has had only two winners: oil companies and defence contractors. The stock price of Halliburton, Vice-President Dick Cheney’s old company, has soared. But even as the government turned increasingly to contractors, it reduced its oversight.
The largest cost of this mismanaged war has been borne by Iraq. Half of Iraq’s doctors have been killed or have left the country, unemployment stands at 25 per cent and, five years after the war’s start, Baghdad still has less than eight hours of electricity a day.
Out of Iraq’s total population of around 28 million, 4 million are displaced and 2 million have fled the country.
The thousands of violent deaths have inured most Westerners to what is going on: A bomb blast that kills 25 hardly seems newsworthy anymore.
But statistical studies of death rates before and after the invasion tell some of the grim reality. They suggest additional deaths from a low of around 450,000 in the first 40 months of the war (150,000 of them violent deaths) to 600,000.
With so many people in Iraq suffering so much in so many ways, it may seem callous to discuss the economic costs.
And it may seem particularly self-absorbed to focus on the economic costs to America, which embarked on this war in violation of international law. But the economic costs are enormous, and they go well beyond budgetary outlays.
Americans like to say that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Nor is there such a thing as a free war. The U.S. - and the world - will be paying the price for decades to come.
Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics, is professor of economics at Columbia University and co-author, with Linda Bilmes, of The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict.
© Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2008
what part of the military/industrial complex are americans uninformed about? surely not the military……..god forgive anyone who would “dis” the military(unpatriotic!!!!)……….but the industrial part….
now, where to begin. eisenhower……….
“The war has had only two winners: oil companies and defence contractors.”
Not so. Biggest winner by far has been Iran. Iran now controls the hearts and minds of the entire region, and will enjoy a sympathetic and cooperative Iraqi government in the foreseeable future.
Israel was a short-term winner, with the “war on terror” providing air cover for more aggressive actions by Israel locally, from Lebanon to occupied territories of Palestine. But, Israel is a big-time loser in the long run, with a major increase in threat now coming from a more volatile Iraq, more terrorists in the neighborhood, refugee crises, emboldened Iran, etc.
The war has had only two winners: oil companies and defence contractors.
No, there is a third set of winners, namely the people who voted for Bush, who called me a naive terrorist sympathizer on 2/15/03 as I marched down Euclid Avenue, and who can now take satisfaction in their prescience and patriotism.
Democracy does not work. Democracy means that a people must be ruled by the most ignorant and incapable among them, like George Bush, war president of the U.S.
Last week Bush trotted out the old line about war being good for the economy. (It was sickening to hear. Who was it that said, “Garbage rises to the top”?) I suppose that’s one of the strongest reasons for waging perpetual war. We can keep postponing repayment of our debts as long as the Chinese don’t mind. Ghawar is right that this democracy is not working, but I haven’t given up hope that it is a discredited system. Who knows what the world will be like 100 years from now? Maybe the coming revoloutionary changes will be to humankind’s benefit.
Along with the oil companies and defense contractors, the Iraq war “winners” to date include the spooks who have longed to eavesdrop and run clandestine covert ops on American soil like they do abroad, and the right wing militarist faction of the Republican Party’s newly-expanded base.
As the GOP gears up to rally behind McCain, look for big oil and the Pentagon’s clientele to provide the funds, Homeland Security to provide necessary intelligence about the domestic opposition’s plans and capabilities plus a few dirty tricks, and for more and more active duty (or recently discharged) military people stateside to turn out hyper energized for volunteer work alongside Karl Rove’s existing evangelical megachurch network.
The invasion and occupation of Iraq has always been about oil, Pentagon funding, and about fear mongering/flag waving for domestic partisan advantage for the right wing of the GOP here at home. The only person who might stop the train in its tracks in November, 2008 before the big wreck is Barack Obama, but he’ll get bowled over too if he goes wobbly on ending the Iraq war.
Joe Stiglitz’s book is exactly the sort of candid rationale Obama should advance in a general election campaign against McCain: this is not about surrender, it’s about sanity. Unless you end the occupation of Iraq (and do it sooner rather than later), the federal government’s massive deficits financing war abroad on our national credit card will reduce the American economy to second tier status pretty soon.
As Chalmers Johnson might frame it, military empire abroad, or a functioning democracy at home. Guns vs. butter. Take your pick.
Bill from Saginaw
Bill from Saginaw
Nobel prize winning economist Stiglitz says the true cost of the Iraq war is/will be 3 trillion dollars. The money must have come from somewhere, no? Methinks it came from the housing bubble mortgage loan business–
Why?
Paul Krugman the other day noted that outstanding mortgage loans on housing is 11 trillion dollars. That’s 11 trillion in money owed. Every month some of the money comes back as mortgage payments. That’s the cash that pays for the 3 trillion dollar war. That cash flow is now gone and there’s little money for anything. People get laid off, services are reduced and infrastructure deteriorates.
Cliff Notes summary: Iraq war expensive, money came from mortgage payments, housing market collapses–no more money/credit. We’re in deep doo-doo.
Smart thing for the Democratic nominee to say: Iraq War is not only killing the Iraqis but it’s killing us by causing our economy to implode!
Bill from Saginaw. I’m afraid Obama will get bowled over because he is too firm on ending the war. I think it’s a better strategy to appear somewhat moderate on the war. Chuck Hagel and Ron Paul, the anti-war Republicans got nowhere. John Edwards tried to go antiwar at the last minute; that didn’t help him at all.
Some very powerful forces are keeping this war alive. I would like to see Obama vehemently anti-war after the election.
The 2 winners of this war was the plan!
Ghawar March 12th, 2008 11:37 am:
“Democracy does not work. Democracy means that a people must be ruled by the most ignorant and incapable among them, like George Bush, war president of the U.S.”
Ghawar, I sense your disillusionment, but respectfully must disagree. “Democracy” is the process by which people get a voice in their own governance. In any country, democracy is a work in progress and in America, frankly the state of things is in an almost unbelievable state of disrepair; sycophant press, rigged voting, gerrymandering, exclusion of legal political parties from participating, bribery by lobbyists, mass disenfranchisement of minorities, politicized judiciary and the occasional assassination. That, however, is not democracy’s fault.
It’s your fault. I know Americans are loath to travel but if you do, check out one of the other many democracies on the globe. It’s like night and day. In real democracies, leaders have been known to resign for far less than what the Bush crowd is guilty of. I think it has something to do with morality, legality or just plain self-respect but whatever the reason, it goes to show that democracy does work. You don’t always get the government you want but everyone comes out a winner if we accept to play fair and not tilt the game to benefit the few, as seems to be the case in today’s America.
jstevens -
You got to be kidding! How could Barack Obama (or any other successful candidate) miraculously become “vehemently antiwar after the election” and expect to be able to end the war while being savaged from both the right wing by the GOP, plus all the Democrats and independents who voted him in because he campaigned as “somewhat moderate on the war”? The way you do it is tell the truth in the campaign, and trust that a bare 51% of the electorate will vote for peace rather than more endless, mindless, stage managed war.
Your tactic - run moderate on the war, against a candidate who’s running as a true believer in the war - is precisely the big, big mistake John Kerry made in 2004 against Bush. If the Democratic nominee stays vague and can’t solidly commit to actually ending the war, then all those independent voters forced to choose between four years of war led by a weenie vs. four years of war led by a warrior will vote for the warrior wannabe every single time.
Bill from Saginaw
Will someone please explain to me why impeachment precedings have not yet commenced? The historical facts speak for themselves that the laws of the U.S. Constitution were repeatably broken.
The articles of impeachment demand that the people begin precedings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movement_to_impeach_George_W._Bush
“With so many people in Iraq suffering so much in so many ways, it may seem callous to discuss the economic costs.
And it may seem particularly self-absorbed to focus on the economic costs to America, which embarked on this war in violation of international law. But the economic costs are enormous, and they go well beyond budgetary outlays.”
The economic and moral costs of this crime of historic proportions will last for generations. Here in the US it means poor education, decaying infrastructure, denied retirements. It may be the beginning of the end for us as a decayingdebtor nation.
In the Middle East, genarations of cancer, deforminty, poverty and political strife are the cost along with the grief and anger that will continue to destry and cripple lives.
The enourmity of this administrations crime cannot be overstated. Cheny, Bush and others MUST answer for thier crimes and the US must withdraw from the region and make reparations for decades. We can begin by taking the money we give to Israel and give it instead to Iraq — without strings attached.
How much of this present cost is causing the present economy to tank? The weak dollar and oil prices are causing me immense grief and show no signs of abating. “Our” oil companies care not one whit about the average family,
only about record profits.
C’mon folks, what do you want to do? I don’t have all the answers, but we have to do something in our own defense. Is this class war? Oh, yes it is!
We need to start taking the offensive side of it.
The US should bring the troops home and start making reparations, but this is a neocolonial oil grab and we won’t.
Iraq’s proven oil reserves are 115 billion barrels. Check my math. At $100 / bbl, isn’t that about $11.5 trillion? $3-6 trill already burnt! Not good, even if we completley annex Iraq and send all the oil money directly to the US treasury. Its almost half gone.
The sudden, and surely forced, retirement of Navy Adm. William Fallon has sent a chill through those in the know: This could mean that the Bush-Cheney administration plans to attack Iran.
Fallon was a major obstacle to this course of action, and now they have forced him out. Food for thought in the articles …
“Will Bush, Cheney attack Iran? When and why?”
PopulistAmerica.com
Populist Party of America
Feb. 2, 2007
http://www.populistamerica.com/will_bush_cheney_attack_iran_when_and_why
- - -
“Military Draft Needed for War With Iran and Syria?”
PopulistAmerica.com
Populist Party of America
Sept. 28, 2006
http://www.populistamerica.com/military_draft_needed_for_war_with_iran_and_syria
In addition to being angry with our political leaders, we shouldn’t forget the monopoly media who marched us into this war with flag graphic patriotism.
Once the war began, we never saw the true nature of war on our television screens. Bush has been allowed to lie and mislead the country about the costs, strategy, goals, and events on the ground because the monopoly media is completely compliant.
If we want to stop the terrible costs and chaos of war, we need to elect new leaders, but we also need to challenge our monopoly media system that puts more emphasis on protecting their ratings and profits than providing accurate information for use within our democracy.
I can’t wait for the convergence of the internet with our living room televisions. We need more than four channels of news, one channel for history, and a science channel that does more than just showcase weapons of war.
Americans — never the brightest folk — will begin to react only when their bank accounts are bombed out. They dutifully relinquished their jobs, pensions, savings, medical care, gasoline and civil right. Now take their food. Even the most docile, well-trained dogs will fight over food. Welcome to the new world order.
What bank accounts ?
Most Americans haven’t got enough in the bank to buy salt for their soup.
Only when their credit cards disappear will there be any signs of active brain function !
Man, I was saying this back in 2003, and I sure as hell felt like I was the only one. The three main points of Iraq were: oil, bases, and wealth re-distribution. Virtually everything Bush has done in seven years can fit into one of those categories. In 2003, nobody was saying this and nobody was listening, but reading it in CommonDreams day after day in 2008 makes me feel like I’m on a Current Affairs for Dummies website.
This is old news to sell a book!
And the rich who got the tax cuts are the prime benficiaries of this taxpayer largesse.
Impeachment and prison terms may soon come for our great leaders. Food prices will make an impression on Americans that we cannot make with words.
It’s too bad that Americans are so ignorant and incapable of abstraction that they can understand the monetary cost of war only when they cannot afford to eat, and that they can understand the human cost of war only when they see piles of bodies - no, not strangers or ragheads, they must be the corpses of townsmen and family members to be recognized. But that’s the way it is.
But the point I really want to make, and quite seriously, is this: When the trials and sentencing finally do come, then I also want a REFUND of my money. We all know that this war is all about graft. About a third of the money winds up in the hands of two George Bushes and their buddies. I figure they have at least a TRILLION dollars in personal fortunes among them.
Now I really do want that money back. I am perfectly willing to see Bush et al. very harshly interrogated and even tortured in order to recover as much of our money as possible. A trillion dollars should not be forgotten about, and the friends and relatives of BushCo should not be free to enjoy our money whilst the principals - Bush, Bush, Cheney - pay their infinite debts to society.
Also, to hell with paying monetary reparations to Iraq. I want my tax money used for infrastructure and education in the U.S. I would be willing to compensate Iraq, however, by sending those troops who served in Iraq BACK to Iraq where they may work as laborers until Iraq has been restored. That is the extent of my support for the troops: I will approve of their unpaid manual labors for rebuilding Iraq.
I believe I would sleep well with these few simple resolutions to the mess in Iraq and the U.S.: Bush in jail, war over, money refunded by BushCo employees, troops to remain in Iraq with shovels, hammers and my patriotic support.
Warfare, domination and oppression may be minimized by proper balances of power. Balance of power stalemates the ambitions of two or more warmongering economies/societies; competition between political groups within a multi-party socio-political system may provide the same benefit; markets are another place where a stalemate is better than market domination by monopolists/cartels. Cooperation is absolutely preferred over competition except when competition enables balance of power which suppresses power concentration/abuse.
Balance of power has to be defined as least total damage plus greatest total benefit. So for example in a contest between the ideological right (elite interests) and left (public interests), balance of power is achieved when the left mostly but not totally prevails over the right because this minimizes damage and maximizes benefit to all.
In markets, balance of power is achieved by small independent producers prevailing over monopolists/cartels because the dispersion of economic power minimizes the oppression, theft, and destruction by concentrated power. In all cases of markets, states and ideological groups, balance of power has to be defined in terms of average benefit to all individuals, so populous groups should prevail over exclusive groups.
The Iraq war was enabled by economic, ideological, and geo-political imbalances, with markets dominated by monopolists when large numbers of small independent enterprises should prevail, with the ideological right dominating the left when the left should prevail, and with the US dominating other states when a geo-political balance of power should stalemate imperial ambitions. This is all common sense, everyone understands. Individuals should do their part to help achieve balances of power, by shifting individual exchange/association away from the power centers thus helping to disperse, destroy or stalemate all power concentrations, social, economic, political, military.
Not one wimper of complaint or disavowment about the war have I heard from Haliburton, Exxon-Mobile, or any other Oil corporation. Even though the Iraqi oil acquisition and legislation seems to be the only real point to the fiasco. The other message of the fiasco is that the US of I will inflict major hurt anyone that stands in their corporate way, even if it means considerable pain to themselves. The US of I has desired hegemony (and never democracy), in the Middle East to themselves now for so long, and now they have tried to crudely grab it. Let us not be sorry if they get their hands burnt, but make sure you are not going to be sorry again for failure to prevent another bunch of genetically retarded right wing retreads in the white house from stuffing up the world.
Im one to think we should solve earth problems before spending money to explore space. But imagine what could have been accomplished with 3 trillion dollars in peacetime space projects. Humans need to get their shit together, and head to space.
America’s dirty little secret is how large a role corruption has always played in its politics, both in domestic and foreign policy. Smedley Butler, the decorated Marine Major General, spoke out very plainly about the use of the Marines to directly protect U.S. corporation interests abroad, as well as corporate war profiteering during WWI. Each time some plausible excuse was ginned up to make it seem like a legitimate invasion (at least to Americans).
And every once in a while an event happens which brings the deep-rooted corruption into plain view (e.g. the JFK assassination, Jack Abramoff scandal, etc.), but otherwise it is completely ignored. Now it seems quite obvious to observant people, thanks largely to the illegitimate war in Iraq, and in a way we owe “W” for blowing their cover. Unfortunately, with the press so controlled and cowed, there have been no serious consequences for the organized criminals.
This is what happens when we employ a herd of corrupt psychopaths to run the country.
How did Bin Laden get left out?
HIs investment: some plane tickets, food and lodging for the 9/11 hijackers, box cutters, some videotapes.
His return: The US spends $3 trillion and destroys its reputation in the process.
The ROI is huge, it beats the ROI of any lottery ticket winner or defense contractor.
Even higher if Bush starts a war with Iran (what? you mean wars get started just because we dropped bombs on them? who could predict that? no one told us we’d need a million more troops).
al Qaida is Sunni. Iran is Shiite. Ka-ching! Extra bonus for al Qaida, we’re clearing the map of possible al Qaida adversaries. Iran has twice the population and four times the area. $6 trillion would be a very conservative estimate. It assumes no other nation will be affected, and how likely is that? It also assumes an end to war, which we will have demonstrated won’t be occurring in our lifetimes.
If only I could get that kind of ROI on a penny. I’m not greedy. Just a penny.
It is a measure of the sickness of this country that this article cannot be published by a US newspaper.
I don’t disagree with you, Bill S. However, Obama’s campaign is a lot different than Kerry’s. Kerry didn’t speak out against the war until he had already lost. Obama has already established himself as anti-war, and by far the most anti-war of the three remaining candidates. We have to learn something from Kucinich, Nader, Paul, etc. A candidate must be somewhat coy or will continue to be trounced by the pure evils.
Riverman 101 wrote:
“but science does tell us that in the top 1% of logic intelect is nearly all men.. and that is even backed up with some more evidence of nearly all men are inventors… and nearly all men are prohets
chess games one can see how nature has made the design.. women were given ingredients to have children and work with them men .. NOT the warrior males or the risk taking males or the greed type males were given high logic to tell the wife what to do and how to raise the kids correctly… the woman was given femininity t bring warm comfort to the kids and given a better memory intelect than the man in order to remember what he says for the family..
there is a DESIGN here by nature and GOD and science is NOW finding this OUT!!
again christ had the highest logic of all.. and he understood the importance of lower logics OBEYING the higher logics… that is why he says to obey the prophets and him.. also tells the wife to obey the husband cause christ knew the ingredients in husband and wife…
the greed evil is using the lower logics just like the serpent did with EVE… and we must NOT go along as adam did and please eve BUT correct instead if NOT the same destruction correction PAIN WILL COME!!!”
————————————————————-
Aw come on, Riverman. The first statement, that “the top 1% of logic intelect(sic) is nearly all men…” Not even close. I am a member of an international logic group: 60% women, 40% men. And I am not even going to get into the correct spelling of prophets.
Jesus never, ever said you must obey the prophets. And the comment about wives obeying thier husbands comes from 1 Timothy which, according to biblical scholars was not written by Paul, as assumed, and most certainly is not a Jesus quote. Anyway, Paul is not Jesus.
Woman bashing began about 5000 years ago. The early church “fathers” (circa 4th century) expunged everything (or most everything) about the divine feminine. They declaired that the Holy Spirit, previously always genderized as female, as male. The divine feminine, the Goddess, was in exile. Some people say that Jesus cannot return until the Goddess returns from exile.
Here is what I think: We need to divest ourselves of the male/female dichotomy. Divisiveness is not a viable option in our near future. Our future requires a oneness: The union of the divine feminine and the divine masculine. We are one.
Fallon going is ominous. Very ominous! The crazies in Israel and America must be elated. Nothing stands in their way now. Nothing!
The American people are under control, 300 million of them are too frightened to protest in meaningful ways. The rest of the world looks on in horror, too scared to pull the plug on America in case it brings down the world financial system which the wealthy everywhere are all profiting from.
We, the people, wait like sheep in a paddock at the slaughter yard, while a handful of crazies take over our world and decide our future.
Why do we let them?
www.dangerouscreation.com
To paraphrase Senator Dirksen, a trillion here and a trillion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money. Ours.
A verse for riverman!
Stomp & Powder (Two part MALE female lyrics)
I ‘M WILLING TO GIVE UP MY STOMP AND RULE
IF YOUR WILLING TO GIVE UP YOUR POMP AND POWDER
I’m willing to give up my decadent nest
If your willing to say I’m best
I’M WILLING TO CHANGE MY SWAGGER
AND DUMP MY EVIL DOPPELGANGER
IF YOU ARE WILLING TO WARM MY NEST
I’m willing to forego red meat
If you want me to be your sweet
I’M WILLING TO STOP THE KILLING
IF YOUR WILLING TO START THE CARING
I’m willing to nurture, love and snuggle
if your willing to turf that five cornered bungle
I’M WILLING TO GIVE UP MY TOYS
BUT CAN’T BUDGE ON THE FIVE CORNERED FORTRESS
AND YOU WILL HAVE TO DO WITH SYNTHETIC DIAMONDS
THAT’S JUST AS PRETTY AND HARD!
I don’t need no diamonds I don’t need your chromosome
you and your war mongering days are done
I don’t need you.
What do you mean? Many Americans will finally have the freedom to walk. Many Iraq’s will be freed to meet Allah. In both countries the people will be free to obey one of several corporations.
Stiglitz is right, except that the winners of this war are not just oil companies and war-profiteering defense contractors; Islamic extremist groups have had a recruiting bonanza, Venezuela’s Chavez and corrupt, brutal Middle East potentates are riding high, and Iran’s influence in the region is at its highest since the Shah’s departure. Russia and China are re-emerging as superpowers and rivals to the US, and have gained immensely from the US’s alienation of much of the world. And the big losers? The Iraqi and American people.
If you watch Iraq For Sale you’ll see Halliburton’s Cost Plus program helped spread the booty pretty well…also, Why We Fight is a good depiction of how well spread out military spending is within each Congressional district in general.
If there is a silver lining to the cloud filled
skies over our stormy seas, I wish someone would point it out to me before I collapse into
total despair.
“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
I am an Australian and I believe that the Declaration of Independence is one of mankind’s greatest documents because it is a statement about what a government needs to be for it’s people and authorizes its people to rebel should a government fail to maintain those standards.
Anyone can make a mistake, even a government but the invasion of Iraq was not a mistake. It was a deliberate grab for wealth and power and what is unique about this one is that no one has been charged with treason and executed for it - yet.
What’s more, this was not just an ‘American’ crime. And while Pennsylvania Avenue is a good place to start, you need to stop viewing it in terms of xenophobic nationalism and start looking at the global criminals who have no nation other than the banks of Switzerland and the media corporations they control.
An Australian friend
Who cares about a little debt and a few dead people? The debt is only a G___D______piece of paper with a three and 12 zero`s after it. The people all died for a worthy cause or they just got in the way.
The important thing is the oil that we need for our SUV`s and our farm machinery. The best thing is, thanks to our war, fuel has only gone up $2 a gallon. Who could complain about that?
You want to see a photo which visually captures Stiglitz’s observations as well as President Eisenhower’s warning about the growing power of the Military Industrial Complex? While engaged in a raging war for oil, with gas prices going up, and nearly treasonous war profits going to Lockheed-Martin (and other war contractors), notice how the lights of SUPERAMERICA are fading in the background.
Click: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/coleen-rowley/blue-lights-fading-of-sup_b_82061.html
Good comments jlocek123. Democracy is not the problem, it’s the solution… if we can figure out how to get it back!
Alex Nosal — the way to get it back is not clear, but certainly advancing our understanding of how they seized control is important to fighting back. The odds are ~ 4:1 in our favor, based on estimated numbers, but the plan is to adjust that ratio very soon. The true depth of evil is beyond normal pessimistic and ranting crazies ability to conceive of.
One almost needs to be a very experienced mental health professional to wade through the material, but believe you me, it will be worth knowing! This is about cutting edge psychology that has been suppressed, by you can guess who
Beside individuals cleansing themselves, we need to get the balance of free thinkers to realize how the psychopaths do it.
You will be shocked, and then it starts to make sense, in a twisted disgusting manner. The reason so much of America is drop dead dumbfounded is a gradual co-opting of our innate competitive culture (over a 100 yr arc) into shivers down the spine immoral acts (condoned by majority).
Essentially they’ve re-made America in their own images, and made it necessary for most to act psychotically to keep their heads above the water.
Cee Miracles March 12th, 2008 SAYS READ
Read WITHOUT CONSCIENCE, The Disturbing World of The Psychopaths Among Us” -
Robert D. Hare, Ph.D., before the Psychopaths among us not only
continue disturbing the world, but maybe destroy it.
At least we’ll have some understanding of how this all happened as we’re being blown away.
Where are you, Rambo?
Cee Miracles — You’re so terrifyingly right!
I’ve just finished the web version of a similar book:
This is ALL about the formal study of evil, was initially killed for
US distbn by Mr. Zbigniew Brzezinski in a very cunning way, but the
author re-wrote the whole document.
The psychopathically flawed Polish Communist structure and
mechanisms of Stalin provided the raw material for this important work
of the causation of our current situation of how geo the inferior has
stolen the farm out from under US.
A very excellent web site is stocked with much of the crucial material, for free, including excerpts from Hare’s research and
The link to Political Ponerology … is in the upper left column of links
Namaste
… … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … & … ML King … … Inspiration … … … … …
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world »
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed »
« We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself » — MLK
How do you spell treasonous lying scumbags
George Bush
Dick the asshole Cheney and Condasleeza Rice, Rumsfield
all of these sub human scumbags should be brought up on charges of treason during war time and treated appropriately under the law, waterboarding is not illegal, let them try it,
these basterds should not still be in office they should be charged with the millions of murders they are responsible for.
Its time for justice, Wexlerwantshearings.com
The american judicial system is as fu–ed up as the rest of these monsters. Our children and their childrens children will pay for their crimes for the rest of their life. Every asshole in the RNC Really Nasty Criminals should be stripped of every thing they own and it should be put in a fund for all our dead young brave soldiers killed in their fabricated and lied gined up war. F them all, and royally they shitted on our constitution, or way of life, and our country they deserve to be treated the way they have treated every american. Save the mercy for those who deserve it. Its time for a trial at the haig, and now.
Thank you for your sentiments, djwolf March 12th, 2008 10:02 pm. Maybe you can take Rupert Murdoch into custody while we deal with Bush. Yes, I agree, we are facing an international criminal syndicate, a rich boy and killer network of billionaires, and all of them must be brought to justice.
While the military/oil industry complex is factually dominating the world, Monsanto modifies genetically the biological world for the only sake to charge royalty of things which are universal property meaning that they belong to no one.
The worst of all is that those genetically modified organised don’t benefit anyone except Monsanto.
Kill one of ours, we will kill a thousand of yours. This is the Nazi-logic used AND APPLIED by the current fascist power-wielders of America. It is also Nazi-logic driving, of all things, Zionists of Israel and America (AIPAC). And the innocent are just in the way- in Iraq, in the world, in our own country. Just so many pawns to be blown away for the prize.
Of course, what this administration means by ‘one of ours’ is not the American people anyway. Bush doesn’t give one fat fart about the ‘people’… his ‘base’ is something else. And their economy is wonderful, so long as “Oceana” is at war. And it soon will be at another war, again, with Iran. Keeping it going! Mission accomplished!
It is just a pure realpolitik game to them. The power-players at the top are in it for their own egos. That they have the power of life and death over millions, that is their endgame, their drug, their rush. Bigger than any king’s power drug of the past.
They don’t care in any way, shape or form that the war costs three trillion dollars and more of the stupid taxpayers’ money. It may as well be thirty trillion, so long as they can skim most of it for themselves and their cronies. Lorena Helmsley was right. Only the little people pay taxes, and pay in lives, in the end.
And this administration certainly doesn’t give a shit its wars have cost several million lives illegally murdered in Iraq and Afghanistan and sixty thousand ruined American soldiers’ lives. Nor do they give two figs that the results of its decisions are greatly diminished standards of living in all these countries, including the USA.
The bastards in DC have burrowed their way, like the parasites they are, into power over decades. They suck at America like tapeworms in America’s intestines. They can be there for years and years, until they finally grow so numerous and fattened that they clog the bowels and kill their host. We are at that stage now.
These political tapeworms have names like Dick Cheney and George Bush and Don Rumsfeld. They have names like Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer and Henry Kissinger. They have hijacked America for their own purposes, doing so with their unending stream of lies and dissembling and flagwaving and distortions and psychotic logic and ultra-violence.
They have managed to turn the dream of a good and decent and caring America that started to arise in pre-Reaganite times into the nightmare of a Nazi America that runs roughshod on the world… and on its own people. And then they have the audacity to say they that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people does not work. After infiltrtating the government for the last forty years and making it dance to their own perverted tune. Of course the people’s government doesn’t - under their despicably depraved rule, in which the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights has been reduced in their eyes to ‘just a goddamned piece of paper” (Bush) - on which Bush can wipe his ass.
Why the people don’t rise up and smash this evil administration, and the evil Republican party that spawned them, I am at a loss to understand.
Partly it is because of the unrelenting stream of shit the public gets from the corporatized media, that has made the word ‘liberal’ a curse word over the last thirty years. While the real truth is, that it was the liberals that founded this nation, that fought on the Union side against slavery and the terrorist secessionists, that created the world’s first national park preservation/CONSERVation system, that battled against fascism/corporatism in Europe and Asia, and that saved America from the Capitalist Rape that caused the Great Depression. And that truly made modern America, which once upon a time used to be a bright, shining beacon of idealism to the world.
Whereas the current gang of thieves calling themselves ‘conservatives’ and neo-con(men)are just into pillaging America for what they can get for themselves. They are really just snake-oil salesman and carny-barkers who will fuck your children if you give them an opening; like Rush Limbaugh and his private jet in which he can safely travel to Dominica for child-sex prostitution and more hillbilly heroin (oxycontin).
The innate feeling of most Americans that ‘people are good’ and that ‘compromise is the answer’ has betrayed them into giving these criminals the benefit of the doubt, like naive suckers preyed upon by those who take advantage of sympathy and empathy and honesty and friendliness.
When Bush gave his little jig at the White House press briefing the other day, before endorsing McCain, I was struck by its similarity to the little jig Hitler did in learing Paris had fallen. And I realized in seeing this, that our own dream of our own ‘Paris, city of light and enlightenment’ has fallen too. When will our own liberators come. Soon, I pray.
Impeach!!!
the source of the fiasco is in the American culture of conflict over cooperation. In all aspects of life : economy, society, international relations, relations between people, family, communities, Americans always chose force to resolve any issue. It seems preferable to the American psyche, that there be a winner and a loser in any dispute or in any relationship. This obsession or worship of competition is learned, nurtured and protected. Other models of human behavior are not respected nor are they even experimented with. This doctrine or dogma of savagery insures that Americans are incapable to do anything positive in the world except in regards to destroying something that aught to be destroyed for the benefit of all. When there is nothing around to destroy “positively”, Americans cannot do what they are programmed not to do, so they continue to go about destroying, in many ways.
Recognize the destroyer nature in your mindscape and you can put into question your reflexes and that of your society. Only then can you begin to propose an alternative to “destruction” as a way of life.
FVHorn — Your words are powerfully true, and I believe that I can answer your question of
As I mentioned above (please read about Ponerology, the study of evil and how societies can fall from within)
Here’s a Amazon search list of relevant Ponerology books to better understand how this has occurred:
Namaste
… … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … & … ML King … … Inspiration … … … … …
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world »
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed »
« We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself » — MLK
Cross-posted from From femme fatale March 13th, 2008 11:02 am
Riverman: You’re hilarious. I’m assuming that horribly misspelled, completely inaccurate, and absurdly biased rant was meant to be a caricature of the ignorant, sexist, “bottom-tier” white man who gets all his “facts” from biased web sites and probably sexually abuses his own daughters. Awesome! It was totally believable. However, ignoring your wildly amusing side journey, it would be refreshing to see the main-stream (translate–feces-clogged sewer) media covering the material in Haider Rizvi’s article with the same enthusiasm that they’ve jumped on the supposedly “rascist” comment of Ms. Ferraro. Oh well, that wouldn’t help them elect their man.
What democracy? What we have long had in this country is an oligarchy consisting of the rich and powerful. They decide who the candidates are, who will win, what we can watch on TV and read in the papers, what medicine will be available to us at what price, and what goods will be offered for sale and how much we will pay for them. They have been dissolving jobs by the thousands, starving mass transportation, and developing every open space they can get their hands on. They do not care if our air and water are poisoned, nor do they give a second thought to the future generations in this country who will bear the brunt of the folly that is going on now. I fear for my grandkids.
To ensure another Republican presidency, the oligarchy engineered the Democratic primaries so that either Hillary or a black man will be the opponent–a guaranteed landslide for the Republican, no matter who it is. How often did we hear the Hillary/Obama chorus from the media, as if no one else were running? John Edwards was so frozen out that the camera angle kept him out of the picture for most of the last debate. We lost the opportunity to have the best candidate to run against McCain. A continuation of the ruinous Bush policies and one hundred years in Iraq should be enough to deter people from voting for him. They have an irrational hatred of Hillary, and the majority of them will not vote for a black man, so they will vote for McCain. (Even if they didn’t, the oligarchy would find a way to rig the election, just as they did in 2000 and 2004. The people who own all three branches of government can do anything they want.
Stiglitz took the words right out of my mouth. Thank you to Common Dreams for publishing this, and thank you Professor Stiglitz for your insights. Keep up the good work–when your work is sharply criticized by the right-wing echo chamber, remember you’ve got allies here in the U.S. and everywhere else on the planet.