Originally posted by ngtm1r
Odd, considering I've heard you prattle on about Iraq being about American companies making money off Iraqi oil. Perhaps you don't see the inherent contradiction?
Funny thing about this situation. If the US wanted to, we could make the Chinese economy go crashing through the floor, because it's become dependant on exports to the US. So have several other countries. So ultimately, if the debt crushes us, we're taking the rest of the world down too.
No, there's no contradiction, because the American government (and people) are one, and American companies, or the type that are likely to profit from Iraq (large military hardware and service outfits and energy companies) are another. You see, its quite ingenious. The government can't just
give public money to its friends, so they go through the following process instead:
Joe Citizen pays taxes, which go to finance the war. He is in essence getting his taxes raised, because even though taxes remain more or less the same, social programs get cut to pay for the war. So, something beneficial (social services) get decreased, with no
useful increase to compensate. Then, military contractors profit from the war (selling bombs, guns, tanks, ammo, food for soldiers etc) and occupation (which is good for business), while at the same time other companies, though these often turn out to be the same ones, get contracted to rebuild. In the process of rebuilding, they make even more money. The whole deal is sweetened through no-bid contracts and large-scale inefficiencies.
So, at the end of the day, war is a way in which public funds are given to private companies (well-connected ones anyway) at rates disproportionate to the services they actually provide.
It quite possible for the American people to get shafted (de facto tax hikes, debt burden for years to come, dead sons and daughters), while small section of the American population, "defense contractors" and other multinationals, make out like bandits.
