War: Too Big To Fail

Troops lined up in formation, preparing to get on a plane bound for Iraq. (Photo: j. botter)

War: Too Big To Fail
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

Thursday 25 August 2011

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: 'Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear -
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.'

- Percy Bysshe Shelley

A pair of vitally important news reports were lost recently amid a blizzard of stories about the gyrating stock market and a rogue East Coast earthquake. The first came from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who announced that a deal had been struck to keep US forces in Iraq beyond the oft-publicized December 31st withdrawal deadline and into 2012, contrary to Mr. Obama's promises. Not long after, a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki came forward to say hold on, wait a minute, nothing along these lines has been agreed upon as yet, and negotiations are still ongoing.

Got that? Negotiations are still ongoing, which in all likelihood means that, sometime before December 31st, a deal will be struck between Al-Maliki and the US to keep American forces right where they've been for the last three thousand days. In fact, Panetta let it be known that the Pentagon is already laying plans to do exactly that. Panetta made sure to draw a line between "combat forces," which he claims will be withdrawn, and "training forces," which appear poised to remain into the foreseeable future. This will come as a great comfort to the troops who will not be coming home, as insurgent leaders have made it clear that any American on Iraqi soil after the withdrawal deadline will live life with a bullseye taped to their back...but who won't live long, if the insurgents have anything to say about it.

A few days after this announcement came a report from the UK Telegraph that is nothing short of staggering:



2024.

More than twelve years from now.

Seven congressional elections and three presidential elections from now.

I will be 52 years old before any consideration is given to withdrawing American military forces from Afghanistan, according to the elements of this "strategic pact."

America's war in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, more than ten years ago. America's war in Iraq began on March 20, 2003, almost nine years ago. Toss in the six months we have been engaged in the Libyan conflict, and what you have is the United States at war for a combined total of nineteen years...and now, according to reports, the Iraq withdrawal deadline has become thoroughly elastic, and the Afghanistan withdrawal timeline is about to be punted so far over the horizon as to become thoroughly meaningless.

Back when George W. Bush was in office, plenty of people were aware of how rich his family, friends and allies were getting off these conflicts. Dick Cheney's Halliburton, KBR, the Bush-affiliated Carlyle Group, Blackwater/Xe and many others were raking in the cash thanks to a harshly simple economic algorithm: every day of these wars, every ration eaten, every uniform donned, every bullet fired, every bomb dropped, every missile launched, every helicopter shot down, and every body bag filled translates directly into extreme profits for someone.

Mr. Bush is gone now, but that algorithm remains ruthlessly in place. War-oriented companies like DynCorp, Washington Group International, Aegis Defense Services, URS Corporation, BAE Systems, Renco, CACI, Bechtel, General Dynamics, General Electric, and Titan, along with oil giants like ExxonMobil and Chevron, have profited to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars off these conflicts, and are poised to continue doing so well into the future.

Think about that.

Nineteen combined total years of war, amounting to approximately seven thousand consecutive days of profiteering off the blood, bone and flesh of soldiers and civilians.

We have heard much about the idea that certain financial institutions are "too big to fail," and thus have been bailed out of the economic disaster zone they themselves helped to create, with little or no punishment for the perpetrators in the aftermath. While there can be no doubt that the actions of these essentially criminal enterprises have done great and lasting damage to the American economy, scant notice has been paid to the unimaginable expenditures we have thrown into a decade of largely fruitless warfare, and the brutal cost levied against the American people - most especially the soldiers and civilians who have borne the brunt of combat - all of which means obscene profit for a select few who you nor I will never meet.

War profiteering is nothing new. The Roman who invented the gladius forged the weapon that carved out a lasting empire, and probably died a very wealthy man. Here in 21st century America, however, the empire is crumbling not for lack of our war-making abilities, but because war-making appears to be the only healthy industry left in our economy. We are collapsing not despite war, but because of it. We are eating ourselves, and if the powerful ones behind Mr. Obama and Mr. Panetta get their way, we will be continuing to do so for years to come.

War in America is too big to fail, it seems.

In this, we forge our common doom.

http://www.truth-out.org/war-too-big-fail/1314198655

has become morally bankrupt.

..but nothing for schools or infrastructure at home...THAT'S the part that chaps my hide..

It reminds me of a very expensive scheme Thatcher used in England to cover up the high unemployment numbers as she fucked my country half to death...instead of being registered as unemployed you would be placed in a "jobs programme" where one day you unsrewed nuts and bolts, and the next day you would screw them back together..you would still collect the same amount of dole money, but you weren't "unemployed"...

In this instance we can't send monies directly to the war-profiteers, so we have the armed forces blow shit up and then have the profiteers rebuild it and charge us for it (with a hefty mark-up of course)...that way they "earned it"...

War- Vertical integration at it's finest.

...when he said that we would be over there for a hundred years...How sad is it when the crusty old fool that yells at clouds turns out to have been more prescient (and honest) than the Nobel Peace Prize Winner we elected instead...

Just another errand boy for the powerful.

Don't worry, the cadret will be here shortly to tell you're wrong and to step in line or we will get the same thing from someone with an R behind their name.

Since the end of WWII we have fancied ourselves the benevolent "leader of the free world" and shackled ourselves to the notion that we are to be the comic book heroes fighting for freedom and democracy. When, in fact, we have most often fought, killed, died, and finally bankrupted ourselves fight for the opposite.

We haven't elevated ourselves to the position of angels with swords, but to the world's best armed gang of bullies. The PR wars in Iraq and, especially, Afghanistan, haven't proved how strong we, but how inept and weak we are.

We keep them going because our "leaders" are too cowardly to admit defeat and quit.

There isn't anything to be won in these wars. Nothing. And, yet we persist in wasting lives and fortune in them.

Our leaders have become like the Japanese military at the end of WWII willing to sacrifice everything in order to save face.

Spot on.

Saving the face of a military oligarchy.

We need to shout that from the rooftops.

The Europeans that I know all know that these occupations are a Fool's Errand, but they don't understand why our political leaders are willing to bankrupt their own people, and keep sending young Americans to die, to keep this scam going. Then I need to explain that our politicians have absolutely no loyalty to anything except amassing more wealth. That takes a minute for them to process, but then I see the light of a very somber and grim understanding. And it's sad.

You say, and rightly, that there is nothing to be won in these wars. For the average American, absolutely. For the Military Industrial Complex, perpetual war means perpetual no-bid government contracts for bullshit overpriced worthless malfunctioning war crap.

of a song from the Vietnam War era -

"Military madness was killing my country
Solitary sadness comes over me" - Graham Nash

I am beyond being disgusted with the United States. We are in the grip of the greatest criminals in our country's history.
It looks as if there is little that can be done about it. When I read about the biggest U.S. embassy (costing $700 million dollars or more) being finished up in Baghdad along with all of the huge military bases there I was sure that we were never really leaving Iraq and it looks like the whole Middle East is grist for our resource wars. The American people are fed bullshit by our corporate media as they are asked to send their sons and daughters off to these endless "wars" to serve the Corporate State. They are also told that all of the "austerity" measures planned by the Rethuglicans and their Blue Dog "colleagues" are necessary for our economic survival. We are the victims of the greatest economic theft in history and as my comedy hero, George Carlin, said "Nobody seems to notice and nobody seems to care." Bread and circuses has morphed into TV and mall shopping. And now we are asked to accept the idea of perpetual war. Remember that a U.S. Central Command has already been established in Africa and that will be our new region of militarism after we have secured a region of the world that a State Dept. representative once referred to as "the ultimate prize".
The words of Marine General Smedley Butler were never more true - "War is a racket". Now the corporate sacking of Libya can begin.

:toast:

"I wonder who they are, the men who really run this land.
and I wonder why they run it with such a thoughtless hand.
What are their names and what streets do they live.
I'd like to ride right over this afternoon and give them
a piece of my mind about peace for mankind.
Peace is not an awful lot to ask."

I couldn't agree with you more! Empires have a tendency to end badly and it's truly disheartening to see our alleged "leaders" commit the same mistakes that countless others have committed before them throughout history.

Unlimited funds for empire and austerity for the rest of us. Essentially, that's the message coming from the president and Congress.

Apparently, from the federal government's perspective, things aren't bad enough yet. The Congress/President/SCotUS are so far removed from the lives of the rest of us, they simply don't care - out of sight, out of mind.

The Obama administration has been pressuring Iraq to allow US troops to remain in Iraq past the withdrawal date negotiated by Bush - http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/03/1002875/-White-House-pressuring-Iraq-to-allow-troops-to-stay-past-deadline

All the while the president smiles at us on TV and tells us how the war is ending and the troops are coming home.

So sad.

I had hoped going after war profiteers would be part of the change I voted for in 2008.

But the war and financial fraud profiteers are a lot stronger than the millions of us who voted for change.

Thank you for this. While I enjoy and have a high regard for all of your writings, there are some that I just appreciate far more than I can express. This is definitely one of them.

I have been reading the wide range of opinions about Libya on DU .... some informed, some less so .... and find myself thinking that while there are both pros and cons, that it is still a reliance on war. And that a US President such as Barack Obama is a more slick "war president" than those before him does not change the sad reality that violence is our nation's greatest export.

Again, thank you, Will Pitt. This is another example of the Top Level that DU offers. Your contributions are appreciated.

Thank you, sir.

What happens when everyone in the country and the world understands what Will said here? It isn't rocket science, and the evidence has been right in front of our eyes for years. It gets more obvious all the time as the rationalizations pass their expiration date. All it takes is someone like Will Pitt having the nerve to say in public what so many of us have been thinking.

So what are we going to do about it?

I am convinced that the most important thing now is to do a serious update of King's planned "Poor People's Campaign." We have poverty in economic terms, caused by the war machine. Yet the poor have the greatest sense of community in this nation. More, those "rich" folks who capitalize on both foreign war & domestic poverty are the very definition of spiritually bankrupt human failures.

Not a march or rally. An occupation for those without job options, homes, insurance, or food. Hope for those feeling hopeless.

I have tried to say much the same as Will did here. He just was spot-on, and hit the nail on the head. And -- exactly as you say -- he expressed EXACTLY what so many think and feel.

You can steal from the dead, slide
The rings and watches from their hands,
And with the self-same elegant Rolex sweep
Their reputations, partners, plans.

You can steal sparks from the restaurant dead.
On the battlefield tablecloths,
With honey words and silver spoons.
Diagram the war-your genius strokes-
To some wide-eyed girls and your brother’s boys.

You can steal from the silent dead,
By pressing more silence on their heads.
You can finesse their stolen lives
In post-war bedrooms, after-dinner jokes,
Into your great victories on their losing slopes.

And if in some friends’ faces,
Or Sunday lunchtime doze, they look
At you accusingly. It’s not the dead.
It’s just part of you stirring.

They won’t come back.
You can steal from them.
You can steal from them
‘For evermore.’

Michael Brett

What could go wrong?

Thanks for the thread, WilliamPitt.

during WWII. That is the difference.

from this thread. War without end. Amen. We were suckered by a bagman for the MIC/PTB three years ago but it makes little difference. This will go on until this country is a bankrupt ruin. Because there is money to be made from it.

Thanks Will. You are one of the best we have. :patriot:

...they are ALL over that thread with their canned talking points..

If it wasn't so tragic...

Maybe I haven't been paying attention, but I haven't seen the angry banana in far too long.

Cheers, old friend.

:toast:

Even the banana belched his agreement. :)

:kick:

we 'conquered' the Native Americans for their land now we're pulling the same stunt in the Middle East.

Andy Warhol defined art as "anything an artist does."

We seem to define war as "anything an army does."

The Confucians advised that "Good governance begins with calling things by their right names."

I suggest that the name "war" does not rightly apply to the things the US military has been doing post-WWII. When we speak of "war" these days, we often run into conundrums and dissonance -- "Did we actually lose in Vietnam?" or "How do we know what 'victory' is in Iraq?"

Rather, we could take a clue from Harry Truman, who too-rightly described the conflict in Korea as "police action." This comes much closer to what an empire does when it is carrying out the business of empire -- policing the periphery. Policing doesn't have an end; it's an ongoing function.

And to be clear about the term "empire," we can use it to mean "a nation that projects power beyond its borders in such a way that wealth flows from the periphery toward the center." Every empire in history has had its own unique style, but this is what they all have in common.

:(

Americans are hooked on a feeling that we are at war somewhere.

Most Americans love the idea of American Empire and ignore the costs.

We have spent more killing the enemy than we have keeping our people healthy.

they also believe their god has Dominion even over mathematics. at some point, long since past, tolerance of intolerance reaches a point of diminishing returns to the point of threatening the foundations of all freedom for everyone on earth. we need to get together and figure out what to do.

our government has been over thrown by people who believe that wealth and power is proof of gods favor of a man, so it is a sin to tax them, it is also a sin not to bow down to them, "ie:God's Great Plan" the poor are being punished by god so it is a sin to help them, ie: destroy the New Deal Legislation. the poor must submit to the Divine right of the rich. Trickle down economics isn't about money. what trickles down is only God's Blessings for submitting to his great plan.. and of course submitting to the will of the rich, part and parcel of each other.

the GOP is a Theocratic Cult, they cant negotiate against god's will. they cant raise any tax of any kind except on the poor. there are a lot to choose from ..the bottom 80% American's hold only 7% of America's financial wealth.. that is why there is a recession.

Agree with the piece. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, just smarter and with a Ted Bundy smile.

saved the scum that's choking the best of US to death. An amazing legacy!

there is no excuse for that, and the history might not judge lightly of us, as a people.

:shrug:

that is, IF there is such a thing as "history" left in the aftermath.



Not In My Name, that's all I gotta say.

War profiteering has got to come to a screeching fucking halt; we don't even have another choice as a species.


Sad to see the US anti-war movement in such a chaos/disarray/pathetic shape.

I have never been so disappointed in the democratic party than I am right now...

And we will be protecting corporate interests around the world with our armies and navies.

Quit whining

Reminds me of Caligula.

As they drink the blood of our soldiers and the innocents over there.

I say we starve the bastards.

There will be no more resources for useless eaters who do not contribute to the patriotic wars to extend the world wide campaigns for the homeland!