1/1/11

War Profiteering

Why did we invade Afghanistan and Iraq to begin with? Why don’t we declare the killing of Osama bin Laden a victory and bring all our troops home from both fronts? Why continue sacrificing our brave soldiers, displacing and killing tens of thousands of innocent civilians, inciting sectarian violence, shoving our cultural values down other people’s throats, wasting billions in bribes to corrupt foreign officials, incurring the anger and disrespect of the rest of the world, when it is obvious that our so-called War on Terror cannot be won militarily? Haven’t we seen by now that the only way to fight the low-tech, small-cell terrorism waged by Al Qaeda and other such groups is to turn over the problem to the FBI, Homeland Security or, more effective yet, to local police departments?

On the face of it, it would seem that our leaders in Washington are either crazy, blind or very stupid. But that’s not likely. There has to be logical explanation why they insist on fighting the War on Terror indefinitely. Savvy thinkers throughout history have noted that, stripped of all political, ideological, patriotic, religious and such high-minded rationalizations, the real reason behind wars is economic: The powerful want something that the less- powerful have but are unwilling to relinquish by diplomatic means, bribes, or threats, so the more powerful find some pretext, or create one if necessary, to take what they want by force. You can wager, then, that there are powerful people, or groups of people, in the U.S. and abroad, who stand to profit hugely by our “staying the course” in Afghanistan and Iraq. So instead of racking our brains trying to make sense out of those seemingly senseless wars, we might do as the savvy suggest and simply follow the money.

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