Intrigues, outright deceits, politician “buying,” media manipulation, money laundering, murder, and subversion of the public welfare. These terms neatly and accurately summarize the “military industrial complex” - a sanitized term that means, in essence: “your government in bed with weapons peddlers and murderers.” I won’t go into the depressing statistics that reveal how the US is the number one arms dealer on Earth, how it has used more weaponry against other nations than any country on Earth in the past century, or how it spends more of its budget on developing and manufacturing the means to deal death and destruction than any other developed nation. Those facts and figures are out there. (But if you want to take a look, see link at article’s end). Alas, these sorry facts have been ignored for too long, and now, the US and the world is paying the price – big time.

Today, as Bush pounds Iraq, he does so in the name of “liberation,” “America’s security,” and “fighting evildoers.” He calls his strategy Shock and Awe. But these buzzwords and “buzz-philosophies” are merely slick corporate packaging for what Bush and his pals are really trying to obtain: Money, money, and more money. The first week of April, the Pentagon requested $80 billion MORE dollars for the war. They will without doubt get it. As they always do, and it will be lavished on defense contractors, just as $400 billion was lavished on them last year. Every week, a big fat chunk of the taxes taken out of every American’s paycheck goes into the pockets of weapons manufacturers, most of whom have cozy ties to the White House. The U.S. weapons industry is now the second most heavily subsidized in America (agriculture is first, with most of its dollars going to corporate factory farmers).

The Bush regime has been very, very good for these bottomless money pits. Arms sales in 2003 were the largest in two decades. From 2000 (pre-Bush) to 2003, the annual Pentagon budget has ballooned from $294 billion to $400 billion and is expected to hit nearly 1 trillion by the time he leaves office, should, God forbid, he be reelected.

The Bush weapons sales plan is a simple one: Use up all of the weapons you possibly can on a country not likely or able to put up a serious fight (after all, time is money – a week-long war is optimal, in the Bush play book). So how do you get an educated and reasonably sane population to go along with unleashing death and destruction on a weaker, poorer nation? Easy! Just create vague demons that will, in the public’s imagination, inflate the power and thus the perceived threat of the target nation It was this sort of distortion that caused the Salem villagers to actually hang a 5-year-old girl, a poor woman’s daughter, as a witch.

So, Bush creates a roster of “Evildoers,” each more monster-like than the one before. First, he attacks Afghanistan, invoking the specter of Osama Bin Laden as a near-superman of evil (remember how every crime, every danger was for awhile, ascribed to OBL- just as the Salem folk came to ascribe every ache and pain to “witches.” In the throes of such hysteria, no one stopped to even consider that the Saudis, not Afghans had been linked to 9/11.

Next, Bush goes after Iraq, inflating the already-known image of Saddam Hussein as a nasty dictator into near-Satanic proportions with a series of vague and unsubstantiatable, but lurid accusations. Despite intelligence reports that clearly, repeatedly stated that Iraq had no links to OBL, and had no known major weapons of mass destruction left (let alone trained on the US), surveys of the public repeatedly show that more than half of all Americans firmly believe OBL is harbored by Saddam Hussein and Iraq “has nukes.” Again, the Salem witch hunt syndrome. It is a syndrome born of a deep need to fear and loathe something or someone when things don’t go well or life is, in general, tough.

When I was writing on environmental issues in Maine, I did a story on the relatively new phenomenon of coyotes in the state (émigrés from the west). The state’s animal damage control coordinator described the irrational responses that people – mostly the rural poor, plagued by unemployment rates that run to 30% in winter - often had to these animals. These reactions were not based on reality, but on lurid stories they had heard someone relate sometime. One woman called the ADC office, hysterical, sobbing, hardly able to speak. The ADC chief was sure a rabid coyote had, at the least, cornered her in her kitchen! Turns out that her hysterics had been brought on by the sight of a coyote through her living room window as it trotted across a field about 300 yards away. Another time, he was called to small backwoods town to investigate a coyote story only to find that the “brave hunters” of the town had trapped the animal, then hung its body up in front of the local barbershop. As they walked by, some men would spit on the corpse or slug it. Unbelievable! The ADC chief’s theory: “In the old days, people had witches and big bad wolves to focus all their fears on. Now they have coyotes.”

And, George Bush has Evildoing Muslims. The “demon” syndrome has worked very well for G.W:. A society of people half-crazed with vague fears, ready to attack anything that moves is just what he and the weapons and oil corporations need.

Oil corporations? Of course! While many Bush critics focus on the designs the administration may have on the post-war oil fields, what they are not seeing, right immediately before their noses, are the millions of gallons of gas and oil that is sucked up by war. A Bradley tank gets scarcely 2 miles to the gallon. Jet fighter planes and helicopters are also notorious gas and oil guzzlers, while B-52 bombers are energy black holes. No matter what the future may hold, the oil companies are making out like bandits as long as we are at war.

For people too sophisticated to be driven to hysteria by the “vague demons” tactic, the military complex has an alternative sales pitch: “Shock and Awe”. Pawned off on the public as a “brilliant concept of modern warfare”, Shock and Awe is merely pseudo-intellectual packaging for an excuse to unload the maximum volume of “warehouse stock” (ie weapons) in the shortest time. Sort of like having a phony “going out of business” sale or treating the public to a Forth of July fireworks grand finale. No military historian worth their salt has bought into the shock and awe line. One British columnist recently pointed out that in England, during the German Blitzkrieg, after the first night or two of pounding, Londoners adapted and went on with their lives, more defiant of Hitler than ever. Why should the Baghdad residents be any different? If anything, after centuries of war, and 11 years of constant “no fly zone” bombing, they would be inured to such an assault, in terms of “shock” or “awe.”

But the Bush administration’s multi-pronged high-pressure sales job worked, at least with Congress – who have proven themselves to be the most easily deceived Americans around – at least those who are not in on the scam with Bush (wouldn’t you love to know how many Congressional hawks have defense industry stocks in their “portfolios”?).. By allowing Bush to declare war, in any case, America may as well have handed the military complex not just one blank check, but a whole book of them. To give you an idea of how many weapons have been dumped in Iraq so far (April 2) : 5,700 bombs, 3,000 missiles, several million pounds of assorted ammo, nearly a dozen helicopters and jets, each worth tens of millions of dollars, at least one supertank and countless smaller vehicles – all of these things will be replaced by more expensive new items. There is no doubt about it, war is great business.

To make sure that it stays that way, the US government and weapons manufacturers have colluded to insure that the least stable areas in the world have access to the most weapons. Thus out of the 10 biggest outlets for US weapons, seven of them are in unstable areas: Kuwait, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Israel, South Korea, and Greece (it lies within striking distance of Bosnia, et al.). These countries less stable neighbors are abundantly supplied by blackmarket US arms, a multi-billion dollar annual business that is facilitated by the intentional failure of the industry to curtail it. Thanks to their US-made arsenals, these areas will remain destabilized. In fact, I think this whole US policy ought to have an official name: Strategic Destabilization.

The “Shock and Awe” bombs away plan serves two purposes: first, as detailed above, the unloading of billions of dollars worth of weaponry (shelf-clearing). Second is the total leveling of key elements of a country’s infrastructure so that this infrastructure must be rebuilt – rebuilt in the American corporate image. Anytime a war is fomented, the “reconstructionists” can smell blood and start to circle like jackals. Bechtel, Halliburton, and a list of other companies now specialize in making money off war and reconstruction and this war is no different. Halliburton, of which Dick Cheney was CEO from 1995-2000 is a giant squid with tentacles into every government money pot it can reach, legal or illegal. (Shareholders will, this spring vote on whether to begin an official investigation into the company’s illegal, perhaps treasonous trading with Iran.) But meanwhile, the company remains one of the most powerful single influences on the US government that exists: Halliburton did not advance because of Cheney – Cheney was put in place as vice president because of Halliburton. Thanks to their “personal rep” in the White House, the company has expanded even more.

“With Cheney in the White House,” reported Village Voice in March, “ Brown & Root [ a major Halliburton subsidiary] has flourished. In 2001 the Army's Operations Support Command awarded it an open-ended contract to assist army engineers and "provide for construction of base camps and their infrastructures, including billeting and dining facilities, food preparation; potable water and sanitary systems; showers, laundries, transportation; utilities, warehouses and other logistics support." No one knows how much Cheney's old outfit is making because the figures are classified." However, Corporate Watch estimates that a whopping 37% of all Halliburton's revenues now come from government business. It doesn’t matter what the job is – if there’s money in it, Halliburton will be first in line…as opposed to the hundreds of worthy smaller companies out there who never even get a chance to bid.

But, you may protest, “Didn’t I just read in the news how Halliburton isn’t going to be able to be part of the reconstruction after all?” That is exactly what you are supposed to think! Halliburton was only dropped from the short list of companies competing for specified areas of reconstruction. But this is only an issue of definition – a corporate style shell game in which what is really being done is hidden by a constant shuffling of “nameplates” (same office, different name, as they now say in bureaucratic circles). Thus, cleaning up oil spills and fires, old (going back to the first Gulf war) and new was not listed by the Bush “accountants” as “reconstruction.” Instead, this lucrative work has been “filed” under the heading of Army Corps of Engineers (spills and fire on land) and the Coast Guard (coastal/marine spills).

So, though Halliburton is not on the list of OTHER reconstruction chores, it has already “unofficially” landed the big fat oil cleanup contract via its “daughter company” Kellogg, Brown & Root. This “little contract” could, when all is said and done, be worth roughly TWO BILLION DOLLARS.

“On Thursday,” reports a March 6 MSNBC article, “the Pentagon said it had been working with Brown & Root Services, a subsidiary of Halliburton, to plan for oil disaster scenarios. The announcement took the cleanup industry by surprise, and while neither the Pentagon nor Brown & Root would elaborate on the planning, the cleanup industry clearly hopes they’ll be involved as contractors.

"What is known is that oil spills and fires inside Iraq could do significantly more damage — and cost significantly more to clean up — than those caused by Iraqi troops when they retreated from Kuwait 12 years ago.

Back then, the United States, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other countries estimated their cleanup costs at well over $100 million — a figure used to try to get compensation from Iraq. Private oil companies ran separate tabs — Saudi Arabia Texaco, for example, figured it spent $1.3 million in cleanup costs.

In addition, Kuwait is still cleaning up its desert and shorelines, estimating it could cost $1 billion to do it right. And Iraq’s neighbors estimate that monitoring and assessing environmental damage has cost them $1 billion. "

So, in true Enron flimflam style, as Bush and Cheney self-righteously proclaim that Halliburton is out of the reconstruction running, the company is probably already booking flights for execs to Kuwait – the ones who haven’t already set up shop there – to begin oil clean up. And I do mean clean up!

The only contractors allowed to bid on reconstruction in post-war Iraq have been hand-picked by George Bush. By the way, the Bush cartel are now trying to push through an initiative in Congress that would FORBID companies from any country that did not support the Bush war from bidding on any aspect of reconstruction! This is like telling the doctors in a hospital that unless they are willing to help beat the shit out of a guy, they have no right to the job of helping to patch him up once he makes it to the emergency room! This very move by Bush and Co. PROVES that they view war as a jealously guarded business opportunity! What utter, brazen arrogance!

Collectively, the top half-dozen construction companies involved in the bidding have given a combined $2.8 million in campaign contributions since 1999. Five companies are on the reconstruction short list - two of them are so close to the Bush administration they could, euphemistically, kiss it good morning each day: Halliburton (until recently) and Bechtel. The others are Fluor, Parsons, and Washington Group, all huge donors to the GOP/Bush cause. High atop Bechtel's board of directors sits George Shultz, secretary of state under President Reagan and Bush's father. Bechtel, which lavished $1.3 million on the GOP campaign in PAC and soft money, is currently being investigated for huge ($1 billion) cost overruns (which were covered by creative bookkeeping) in a Massachusetts project. But since when did cooking the books and screwing the public ever stand in the way of landing a juicy government contract?

Where the Bush administration is concerned, even incompetence or inappropriate background are no impediment to winning billions in work. Here's a case in point: Dynport (a thinly disguised subsidiary of DynCorps, now the 13th biggest DOD contractor in dollars) :

"Last year, " reports Cryptome.org, "the Pentagon hired a systems contractor called Dynport, headquartered in Reston, Virginia, to develop and make a number of different vaccines for troops. The smallpox-vaccine contract calls for three hundred thousand doses, at a cost of $22.4 million, or seventy-five dollars a dose, with delivery now scheduled for 2006. (The date has been pushed back at least once already.) This amount of vaccine could be made in about fifteen flasks the size of soda bottles. There are 2.3 million people in the armed forces, and they have several million more dependents. "Three hundred thousand doses is not enough vaccine to protect anyone -- not even our troops. It totally ignores the fact that smallpox is contagious," one military man said. "These guys ought to be buying tank treads and belt buckles. They know nothing about vaccines." ... Army General Philip K. Russell, M.D., who gave the order to send biohazard troops into Reston in 1989 to deal with a building full of monkeys infected with Ebola said, "Many of us are afraid that Dynport won't deliver the goods without wasting an inordinate amount of money." " (Of course spending - and wasting - money, taxpayer and stockholder money, is what Bush buddies (Ken Lay, et al) do best.)

But the Dynport story is a bedtime tale compared to the companies involved in the anthrax "industry." Bush gave BioPort the sole right to produce the anthrax vaccine in 2001, a company heavily rumored to have been funded in large part by his father's corporation, the Carlyle Group. The most important players in BioPort include former British Prime Minister John Major and U.S. Admiral Wm Crowe, who has been accused of selling anthrax to Saddam Hussein. BioPort was given the contract despite their failure THREE TIMES to pass a DHS inspection.

Vaccine production is one of the most lucrative "pharmaceutical" enterprises going right now and vague, ongoing threats of bioterrorism are an essential part of the business plan.

In the past few years, "war contractors" have not been waiting for reconstruction, but cashing in on the action, literally. "During the Persian Gulf war in 1991, one of every 50 people on the battlefield was an American civilian under contract," states Apec News, "by the time of the peacekeeping effort in Bosnia in 1996, the figure was one in 10. No one knows for sure how big this secretive industry is, but some military experts estimate the global market at $100 billion. As for the public companies that own private military contractors, they say little if anything about them to shareholders."

The number of such contractors has burgeoned in the Bush administration. Many military folk are extremely skeptical of the presence of so many private corporations in a war zone. Reports Apec: "In war, while providing functions crucial to the combat effort, they are not soldiers. Private contractors are not obligated to take orders or to follow military codes of conduct. Their legal obligation is solely to an employment contract, not to their country."

In other words, when the going gets tough, the contractors may get going – as in abandoning their posts or, at the very least, getting dangerously in the way.

Bottom Line? With war the most lucrative possible business for Bush's friends, you can bet the phony Bush "ranch" that this administration will make damn sure business stays good - and thus that the U.S. stays at war.

Background reading:

”Cheney’s War,” Village Voice, March 20, 2003

”The War on Terrorism’s Gravy Train,” Corporate Watch, May 2002
http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=2471

The Anthrax Vaccine Scandal,” Buzzle.com
http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/10-15-2001-5360.asp?viewPage=1

”The Demon in the Freezer,” Cryptome.org

http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:p6U3B8xFS0UC:cryptome.org/smallpox-wmd.htm

”Oil Spill Industry on Iraqi Standby,” MSNBC , March 6
http://www.msnbc.com/news/874853.asp#BODY

“America’s For-Profit Secret Army,” Apec-news, October 2002
http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:bslWeGlMsEMC:mooix.net/auto/pipermail/apec-news/2002-October/000156.html

“War Could be Big Business for Halliburton,” Global Policy.org
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/natres/oil/2003/0323business.htm

“Return of the Military-industrial complex?” Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0213/p02s03-uspo.html

“War and the Military-Industrial Complex,” Asia Times
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/EA31Aa03.html