War is a racket, but its good for business.

Costs of War: 225,000 Lives and up to US$4 Trillion from Watson Institute on Vimeo.

"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class thug for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents." Major General Smedley D Butler, USMC 1898–1931

Not many of us are familiar with the term, “Lobbying Forward”. We all know what lobbying is; it is the euphemism for bribery. Corporations hire lawyers, many of them former politicians, who bribe the remaining politicians to pass laws favorable to their employer or industry. The bribes also go to encouraging the politicians to send the taxpayer’s money their way.

Well “lobbying forward” is the term for defense salespersons in occupied Afghanistan or Iraq who “promote their gear directly to U.S. troops”, Business Week informs us. It describes those salespersons lobbying for business in a “forward” area or war zone. Don’t ask me where this description originates. Defense contractors like Harris, Oshkosh and Navistar International send these sales guys in to the war zone where they can figure out first hand ways they can improve the tools of the trade. By improving radios in the field, Harris has been able to “win over commanders” and sell more than 10,000 radios at $30,000 apiece. BW adds. “This unglamorous side of the business is where a lot of the money is made.” While missiles, planes, tanks and other such hardware come to mind when we think about defense contractors, small product opportunities “can lead to big profits for the defense contractor.” Ah, sweet commerce.

US capitalism is the world’s largest arms dealer by far selling more weapons of mass destruction than the rest of the worlds nations put together. It is the driver of the arms race par excellence and the emerging economies will be forced to increase arms expenditure as a percentage of their GDP if they want to compete on the world market. The thugs that profit from the US defense industry sell to both sides ensuring that no one buyer gains the momentum, no one buyer that it isn’t certain will defend Wall Street’s interests abroad, like Israel for instance.

Sometimes this backfires like in Afghanistan where every Taliban official was on the payroll of the US government until 1999. Bin Laden, an old friend of the Cheney’s Bush’s and other wasters, was a proud recipient of US taxpayer’s money and weaponry that has been used to kill the young US workers the rich people send to fight their wars for them.  There is much potential for plunder in Afghanistan alone as the Afghan security fund has about $13 billion allocated to it. We can’t afford to build schools, hire teachers or provide millions of us with a job though. A recent report out of Brown University estimated that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq along with the undeclared war in Pakistan is costing the US taxpayer $4 trillion and will take 225,000 lives, both civilians and soldiers, mostly poor people who have not threatened the US in any way whatsoever. “The current number of war refugees and displaced persons -- 7,800,000” the study says, “is equivalent to all of the people of Connecticut and Kentucky fleeing their homes.” US foreign policy that leads to this human misery is at the heart of anti-American feeling and the root of terrorism.  "body counts" are not important unless its American's in the eyes of the Pentagon.

One of the reasons these incredibly unpopular wars are continuing is that the burden in the US is falling on a small percentage of US families. If we had the draft there would be massive protests I believe. Also, with the improved body armor, fewer US troops are dying but the numbers of injuries, especially double amputations are extraordinary. The study points out that just over 6000 US troops have died but the level of injury and mental illness especially is unknown at this point, “New disability claims continue to pour into the VA, with 550,000 just through last fall.” The study reveals.

Matthew Madgzas

I remember feeling such hatred for the likes of Rumsfeld and other mass murderers when that young Iraq veteran, Matthew Magdzas killed his pregnant wife, his three year old, his dog and himself in Superior Wisconsin. What must have been going through his head? War is not like Hollywood. All we do know is hat he was a victim of the policies of those that sent him, the people who profit from it but who's children rarely if ever go; we have an economic draft.  That young man took a son from his parents a daughter from hers and grandchildren from both of them.  The media at first were "unsure" as to the motive for the murder suicides. That could only be said by someone who has no clue about what it means to be in a war. Killing people or seeing your friends killed is not normal, it destroys us as humans, makes us sick.

The number of refugees and civilian deaths of the victims of the predatory US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is staggering but difficult to assess. Folks may remember General Tommy Franks who remarked, “We don’t do body counts.” Some have put the loss of Iraqi life as high as one million when you include the US led sanctions. There have also been as many as 600,000 refugees flee the country according to some reports.

Don't show us much of this on US TV. Might make us think

But the salesmen search for the high returns. Sales calls “start in the US” Business week says of the pitch by the defense contractors, “starting eight to 10 months before you deploy.” It pays off. One company, Alliant Techsystems won a $68.8 million contract for its advanced grenade launcher named, “the punisher”. The company’s approach to sales is described as “business development on steroids.”. With cuts in offense spending ahead it is likely the sales environment will get tougher. Perhaps there’ll be a remake of Glengarry Glenross, a sort of Glengarry Glenross 2 that takes place in a remote outpost in Afghanistan with salesmen heading out to the field to sell their wares to active combatants. But defense cuts won’t stop business, they will only make, “..competition for contracts more intense and ‘forward lobbying’ a necessary part of doing business." Business Week concludes

If you haven’t already seen them see:
The Ground Truth
Sir No Sir
The Tillman Story (about Pat Tillman’s death at the hands of US assassins)