Statement from Governor Howard Dean on War Profiteering

[Larkspur]

http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=10450&JServSessionIdr003=g9gyo1sku1.app195a&security=1&news_iv_ctrl=1301

"In 1940, Senator Harry Truman set off in his old Dodge to investigate accusations of war profiteering in the construction of Fort Leonard Wood in south-central Missouri. What he found appalled him -- millions of dollars being wasted due to mismanagement or funneled into the hands of a small number of large corporations at taxpayers' expense. Soon thereafter, Congress established what became known as the Truman Commission to root out war profiteering and establish oversight of defense contracts.

"But similar attempts at oversight in Iraq have been thwarted by the Bush Administration. When Congress voted to give this President an additional $87 billion for his war in Iraq, both the House and Senate agreed to attach a provision that would require the General Accounting Office to conduct ongoing audits of how our taxpayer money is being spent. Instead, the White House and Tom Delay strong-armed Senate Republicans into killing the provision.

"And now, in Iraq, the United States finds itself reliant upon massive corporations to protect and rebuild a country destroyed by war. And this time around, there is no Truman Commission to ensure that American taxpayers are not getting swindled.
<SNIP>

Guess we'll have to elect Truman-reincarnate, Howard Dean, to deal with war profiteering.

[wryter2000]

1. I would hope

I would hope that all the candidate would be saying the same thing.

[SeveneightyWhoa]

2. Wes Clark has already made such statements..

..regarding the military-industrial complex.

General Clark: "I think General Eisenhower was exactly right, I think we should be concerned about the military-industrial complex. I think if you look at where the country is today you've consolidated all these defense firms into just a few large firms, like Halliburton, and with contracts and contacts at the top level of government. You've got most of the retired generals are one way or another associated with the defense firms. That's the reason that you'll find very few of them speaking out in any public way. I'm not. When I got out I determined I wasn't going to sell arms, I was going to do as little as possible with the Department of Defense because I just figured it was time to make a new start. But I think the military-industrial complex does wield a lot of influence. I'd like to see us create a different complex. And I'm going to be talking about foreign policy in a major speech tomorrow, but we need to create an agency that is not about waging war but about creating conditions for peace around the world. We need some people who will be advocates for peace, advocates for economic development abroad, not just advocates for better weapon systems. So we need to create countervailing power to the military-industrial complex."

[ibegurpard]

3. so what?

good for Clark...good for Dean.

[wryter2000]

4. Yup

Nice touch using Eisenhower there.

[Rose Siding]

5. Only 1 Dem Senator showed up to vote against that 87 billion

Robert C. Byrd

The rest let the bill, stripped of the REQUISITE oversight, passed by a voice vote with the implied aquiesance of those afraid of appearing not to Support The Troops.

Do The Troops pay taxes? If so, they aren't being supported any more than the rest of us.

[realFedUp]

6. Behind closed doors

there was a lot of dealing...and we the American
people got cut out of the game.