The Business of War

Like many others, I have long believed that the Iraq war is and was all about oil. But now I realise that this oft-repeated mantra actually misses the point. Oil is only valuable because it fuels the US economy. The war and everything else George W. Bush has done since coming to power is actually all about MONEY. It's a subtle distinction, perhaps, but it makes it easier to understand the motivations driving the Bush neo-cons. It also provides a scarey insight into what might happen if Bush is given four more years to wreck havoc on the world.

The Bush administration has long been accused of excessively intimate connections with Big Business. Their close connections with companies like Enron, WorldCom, Halliburton and Bechel have come under close scrutiny from many critics. Others have accused Bush administrators of running the country like a business, US Inc, rather than providing meaningful government initiatives and social programs for US citizens.

(When you look at how rich these guys are, it doesn't seem to make much sense that their primary motivation is to make even more money. I mean, what's the point? Where will it end? But that kind of thinking explains why I am here scribbling an inconsequential blog while they are having power breakfasts on their yachts. I assume they do not have the time or inclination to pause and reflect on their primary motivations. Never mind. Perhaps on their death beds...)

As the surprisingly insightful Christian Science Monitor website reports, a large part of the bill for the war in Iraq will be going to private contractors. According to Peter Singer, an analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington and author of the new book about the growth of the privatized military, "Corporate Warriors," the last decade has seen a ten-fold increase in the US military's use of private contractors. There are now nearly 10,000 private military contractors working in Iraq, performing a wide range of tasks including training a new Iraqi military, protecting the Baghdad and Basra airports, and feeding and housing US troops. Thousands more are spread across the globe in places like Afghanistan and Columbia.

Riverbend, my new best friend in downtown Baghdad (smile), reports how her cousin's very experienced Iraqi engineering firm failed to win a bridge-building contract after estimating their costs at $300,000. The Iraqi's lost the bid to a US company that will be charging $50,000,000. Similarly, Ted Rall recently reported how the previously discredited and near-bankrupt WorldCom was given the contract to provide a new mobile phone network in Iraq. Companies like WorldCom regularly provide services like telephony and satellite communications to US soldiers in the field, often at extortionately high prices.

Who cares, right? The Government's paying for it... But what does that mean? We are told that US taxpayers will ultimately be footing the massive bills for the war. But will they really? Or will the Iraqi puppet government ultimately sign off on all these costs, plunging their once-rich people into even further debt? Naturally, the US will be happy to accept payment in crude oil shipments over the next few decades or more...

Now Bush is campaigning for re-election and brushing off criticism of his economic policies. "There are good times ahead," he tells the cheering crowds. While critics point to failed trillion-dollar tax cuts and a soaring deficit, Bush quotes cleverly-selected statistics which have been massively inflated by war-time costs. In other words, the US is profiteering from war. And if wars can make you money, you can bet there will be more of them soon.

It is the sort of thing that makes you sympathize with the colourful protesters who regularly try to blockade meetings of the G8, IMF and other global institutions. If Western-style democratic capitalism is supposed to be a model for the entire world in the 21st century, it had better start to be truly democratic and it had better produce a more meaningful objective than just money, money and more money for the mega-rich.