Rolling Stone: an article that could end the war

[kpete]

Rolling Stone: an article that could end the war
by occams hatchet
Sat Aug 25, 2007 at 01:38:52 PM PDT

..............................

An article in the current issue of Rolling Stone does the best job I have ever seen anywhere in laying out in nauseating detail the workings of this criminal money-laundering scheme that some people have called "the Iraq War." In it, Matt Taibbi descends into - quite literally - the fecal underbelly of the world of Iraq war profiteering. Giving example after infuriating example, Taibbi relentlessly pushes the needle on his readers' Outrage Meters harder and harder against the peg, until finally one cannot read anymore without leaping up from one's chair and screaming out in sheer, visceral, well, outrage.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/25/163320/999

The Great Iraq Swindle

How Bush Allowed an Army of For-Profit Contractors to Invade the U.S. Treasury

--From Issue 1034

Operation Iraqi Freedom, it turns out, was never a war against Saddam ­Hussein's Iraq. It was an invasion of the federal budget, and no occupying force in history has ever been this efficient. George W. Bush's war in the Mesopotamian desert was an experiment of sorts, a crude first take at his vision of a fully privatized American government. In Iraq the lines between essential government services and for-profit enterprises have been blurred to the point of absurdity -- to the point where wounded soldiers have to pay retail prices for fresh underwear, where modern-day chattel are imported from the Third World at slave wages to peel the potatoes we once assigned to grunts in KP, where private companies are guaranteed huge profits no matter how badly they fuck things up.

And just maybe, reviewing this appalling history of invoicing orgies and million-dollar boondoggles, it's not so far-fetched to think that this is the way someone up there would like things run all over -- not just in Iraq but in Iowa, too, with the state police working for Corrections Corporation of America, and DHL with the contract to deliver every Christmas card. And why not? What the Bush administration has created in Iraq is a sort of paradise of perverted capitalism, where revenues are forcibly extracted from the customer by the state, and obscene profits are handed out not by the market but by an unaccountable government bureauc­racy. This is the triumphant culmination of two centuries of flawed white-people thinking, a preposterous mix of authoritarian socialism and laissez-faire profit­eering, with all the worst aspects of both ideologies rolled up into one pointless, supremely idiotic military adventure -- American men and women dying by the thousands, so that Karl Marx and Adam Smith can blow each other in a Middle Eastern glory hole.

Read the Story here:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16076312/the_great_iraq_swindle

[kenny blankenship]

1. What are you talking about? Capitalism is good!

Capitalism brings out the best in the human spirit. We are bringing individual property rights to Iraq.

[treestar]

2. Capitalism isn't bad in itself

It's perverting the needs to sell destructive crap - people believing they "need" a war.

We voted in the bastards and let them make the market for us all to pay for tons of weapons.

We have to vote them out. Capitalism itself, by itself, doesn't need war. That's why the warmongers need the government to force us to pay for their "goods." From that they need enemies, the USSR, terra, or whatever else they can think of.

[Disturbed]

4. This article will not stop the US Occupation of Iraq or

Afghanistan.

The majority of Rethugs & Dems support the US Occupation of Iraq for an indefinite time frame ; that includes Sen. Clinton. . There are various reasons for this. You can speculate as to those reasons. The US Occupation will continue & the Dems will keep funding it. There will be a draw down but at least 60K US Troops & 140K Mercs will remain in Iraq. US presence in Iraq will continue for decades.

[Journeyman]

11. I told friends & acquaintances who supported this fiasco at the outset. . .

(and they weren't all conservatives), that before it's over this catastroph@c will tear this country apart. And today -- even with some 70% opposed to it -- I believe that prognostication more now than I did at the outset.

[Joe Chi Minh]

88. You don't have much sense of history, do you?

[Toots]

104. I believe he has a very good grasp of history

Do you believe we will pull out of Iraq within the next fifty years? We have built over fourteen "enduring bases" there plus the largest and most expensive Embassy on earth. You think we will just abandon all of that? We are there for the duration and will instigate more trouble through out the region, such as in Iran and Syria. It is foolish to think otherwise IMO.

[Joe Chi Minh]

122. Ever thought that mebbe the fact that most Americans don't want that,

and the relatively very small number who do, are leading you to an outright economic depression (not recession), might bring about a whole 'nother outcome?

Anyway, if billions of tax-payers' dollars in the custody of the Neocons can simply vanish, do you think the Neocons would have agonised over the prospect of leaving a few extremely costly white elephants in Iraq - had they been mentally capable of envisaging such? Barbara Tuchman said War is the unfolding of miscalculations. She evidently couldn't have dreamt of the catastrophic civil miscalculations of the Neocons. Who could?

The number of the beneficiaries of the oil is so small, do you not think that maybe even if the neocons ended up owning it, it wouldn't stop the country's helter-skelter descent to economic ruin? So, the idea that any ELECTED government would persuade sufficient Americans to countenance American troops policing the installations in Iraq, doesn't seem the least bit feasible to me. Nor, for that matter, would the feasibility of a police state - which would be necessary to enforce their designs at home - enduring for any appreciable length of time.

There are a lot of imponderables concerning the outcome of the next few months, but it looks like a context between a despotic and chronically cynical oligopoly, and more or less honest elections, with a decidedly Socialistic outcome in the offing.

[dickbearton]

117. US occupation will not continue for decades...

The US military will not survive Iraq for even years without a
draft. The US economy is bankrupt and Iraq will only hasten
the collapse.

[OneBlueSky]

12. unregulated capitalism is thoroughly bad in and of itself . . . n/t

.

[kenny blankenship]

16. Capitalism doesn't need war- and kids don't need candy.

But they do like it.

[AntiFascist]

28. What does the War in Iraq have to do with capitalism, outside of...

the obvious oil piracy? Raiding the US Treasury in such a way is more like military socialism.

[ProudDad]

38. You're partly right

The U.S. economy is Socialism for the richest and most well connected...

Corporate capitalist rape and pillage against the rest of us.

[ptolle]

106. sobran

Joseph Sobran, one of the few conservative writers I respect much has said that war has all the characteristics of socialism that conservatives hate. Of course I think his statement is true to a degree, but based upon a misunderstanding or misinterpretation of socialism

[AntiFascist]

119. To the extent that half of our taxes go to the Pentagon....

and the Pentagon establishes so many no-bid contracts with war profiteers, how could this be viewed as any form of healthy, competitive capitalism? I agree with other posters who point out that "socialism" at the top, where private companies and government are tied together, will result in fascism. What is needed is tough regulation of government (with the 3 branches overseeing each other) and industry, but when the governing bodies themselves are corrupt and so much of the media participates, all we can do is wait for the system to collapse and replace the politicians with people who will do the right thing.

[Fovea]

115. "more like military socialism"

Or fascism, by its more accurate name.

[AntiFascist]

120. I just watched "Iraq for Sale: the War Profiteers" on the Encore Drama cable channel....

it is an excellent documentary that probes the extent to which no-bid contracts have been awarded to companies like KBR and Halliburton where the money has been grossly mismanaged, and illegal intelligence activies, including torture, have been contracted out to third parties - TITAN and CACI.

One of the details I found interesting was that we could have contracted many services out to the Iraqis who would have performed better, and it would have employed many who may have otherwise turned to fighting, and gotten them off of the streets. Our administration has to resort to tactics like torture in order to intimidate people and allow this gross profiteering to continue. This is exactly how a fascist regime would operate.

[jeffrey_X]

133. expanding the consumer base for US corporations?????

Are you kidding me? Is Starbucks open in Baghdad, yet?

[AntiFascist]

136. Not likely in the near future...

US troops are targeting Shiite civilians, and they likely would target our corporate establishments in return. The outlook for business in Iraq seems pretty grim.

[ProudDad]

36. The corporate capitalists go where the easy money is

and some of the easiest money is in war and war toys...

"capitalists" may not be inherently evil but capitalist corporations ARE...

Do away with corporate personhood, corporate ownership of our electoral process and our Airwaves and strengthen the power of workers and we may be able to achieve a just society...but not until...


I seem to remember we "voted in" a group last November who promised to end this war...ooops. I guess they're also too capitalist...

[Joe Chi Minh]

89. At least, you haven't all been conned into accepting the MSM's

version of 'corruption' as 'sleaze', unlike us in the UK. For you in the US, there will always be hope, as long as you continue to reject the MSM's worst euphemisms, such as that one.

[ProudDad]

129. corrupt capitalism

is a natural state...

[ktlyon]

95. If corporation have all the rights of people isn't corporate

ownership of other corporations slavery?

[ProudDad]

128. Yet another of

capitalism's inherent inconsistencies.


It's only true if they lose money... :evilgrin:

[defendandprotect]

51. Capitalism is "bad" in itself -- unregulated it's merely organized crime --

It's been one of the most successful systems for redistributing the wealth of nations to the few.

[RufusTFirefly]

59. Capitalism is neither "bad" nor "good", any more than a shark is

It's a shark's nature to prey on smaller fish and (occasionally) humans. It's not because sharks are evil. That's absurd. It's just because that's the definition of what a shark does. In the same way, those poster-child products of capitalism -- corporations -- aren't actually evil. They're just doing what corporations were supposed to do -- maximize profits at the expense of everything else. In fact, nothing but maximizing profits factors into their particular equation.

[rucky]

67. sorry, not giving corporations a pass that easily.

they are institutions composed of human beings. "Business" - just like religion - is a convenient excuse to act out the dregs of human behavior. Screw somebody over? It's business. Pollute Lake Michigan? Gotta keep business going. Corporations are supposed to compete for the favor of their consumers, not use lobbyists to set up a government-backed racket.

[AntiFascist]

123. Exactly, capitalism will only work well when there is competition...

Predatory monopolies and government no-bid contracts defeat the purpose and what you end up with is a perversion of the American ideal. Those at the top may profit for now, but they are being very shortsighted.

[ProudDad]

131. I'm afraid you have that wrong

"Corporations are supposed to compete for the favor of their consumers"

Nope, corporations are supposed to maximize shareholder equity -- PERIOD...


Not maximizing shareholder equity is the only thing corporate execs ever really go to jail for...


They don't have to care about the consumer and most don't.


On edit:
Capitalism will ONLY work when the capitalists are HEAVILY regulated by We the People and our representatives, where their profits are taxed to pay for the damage they cause instead of their costs being externalized, when their executives are liable for the crimes they commit and their alleged "person hood" if finally and completely expunged from our laws and customs.

[defendandprotect]

68. Sorry, but capitalism is "a ridiculous King-of-the-Hill System" . . ..

A "shark" is a lousey example . . .
try a typewriter --- it depends on whose writing the messages.

However, with capitalism you have what you may call an "evil" system . . .
It is intended to redistribute the wealth of the nation from the many to the few.

If you want you're life and your family's value to be judged by the yardstick of a dollar bill, then I think you have a rather low opinion of your own and your family's value.

Labor, of course, is undervalued -- however, without labor there are no profits.

Capitalism has failed about once every 20 years since the beginning of time --
By the way, it replaced feudalism -- both economic systems dreamed up by the Vatican.

Only REGULATED capitalism is even worth thinking about --
Unregulated capitalism is merely organized crime.

And we are coming to that "one owner" destiny very quickly --
monopolies are resuming.

Capitalism isn't about competition -- it's about killing the competition.

[Joe Chi Minh]

91. You seem to have a disconnect between corporations and the psychopaths

and suborned sociopaths who have honed them for the most evil of purposes - maximizing profits at the expense of extreme human suffering and deaths on a global scale. Although always more recognisable in your own country, even if the deaths are premature, rather than brutal slayings on traditional battle-fields and foreign civilian populations.

[FreedomRain]

97. Corporate shark-hood? nt

[CrispyQ]

101. "nothing but maximizing profits factors into their particular equation."

That hasn't always been the case. Corporations are tools for people to use, not the other way round. Sadly, the global corporate behemoth is out of the bottle & wreaking havoc. I worry that the only thing that will reign this monster in is the complete destruction of our eco-system.

Here's an excellent article from the site of Reclaim Democracy:

Our Hidden History of Corporations in the United States
First published February, 2000

When American colonists declared independence from England in 1776, they also freed themselves from control by English corporations that extracted their wealth and dominated trade. After fighting a revolution to end this exploitation, our country's founders retained a healthy fear of corporate power and wisely limited corporations exclusively to a business role. Corporations were forbidden from attempting to influence elections, public policy, and other realms of civic society.

Initially, the privilege of incorporation was granted selectively to enable activities that benefited the public, such as construction of roads or canals. Enabling shareholders to profit was seen as a means to that end.

snip...

For 100 years after the American Revolution, legislators maintained tight control of the corporate chartering process. Because of widespread public opposition, early legislators granted very few corporate charters, and only after debate. Citizens governed corporations by detailing operating conditions not just in charters but also in state constitutions and state laws. Incorporated businesses were prohibited from taking any action that legislators did not specifically allow.

States also limited corporate charters to a set number of years. Unless a legislature renewed an expiring charter, the corporation was dissolved and its assets were divided among shareholders. Citizen authority clauses limited capitalization, debts, land holdings, and sometimes, even profits. They required a company's accounting books to be turned over to a legislature upon request. The power of large shareholders was limited by scaled voting, so that large and small investors had equal voting rights. Interlocking directorates were outlawed. Shareholders had the right to remove directors at will

--more at link: http://reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_accountability/history_corporations_us.html

[Blue Fire]

112. So the captains of corrupt corporations should have no greater empathy for their human victims

than a Great White dining on a seal pup? I'm sorry, but somethng is horribly screwed up here.

[krispos42]

113. Yes, something is screwed up

The captains of industry see the masses like the generals see the troops. They cannot or will not comprehend the numerous individuals that will be hurt when whey perform an operation. The organization is too vast for that level of empathy to exist.

At least, though, generals will tour hospitals and aid stations. When's the last time a CEO trolled through an unemployment line?

Regulated capitalism and a dab of socialism keeps this in check, for the most part. Otherwise it's just tyrrany of a different kind.

[Joe Chi Minh]

90. Spot on!

[ScottytheRadical]

71. You're wrong there....

Capitalism leads to perpetual war between imperialist nations and the countries they exploit for profit. Without the exploitation of other countries, capitalism as we know it cannot exist - it would have collapsed already under the weight of working-class rebellion. Capitalist profit is and of itself a measurement of exploitation - "profit" being simply the difference between the value of what a worker creates and what that worker is actually paid. A huge capitalist state like the United States can't exist without huge amounts of exploitation, and wars of plunder are occasionally needed when the exploitation of the domestic population isn't enough to sustain the bourgeis class...

[Yurovsky]

121. But when does it end?

Isn't the US going to eventually run out of countries to exploit? Or will somebody finally bitch-slap the US (China, EU, India, etc?).

I just don't see how this system survives as communications (internet, cell phones, and yes, even old-fashioned print/TV/radio) permeate every corner of the earth? They can't control ALL the money and ALL the forms of communication forever.

[JDPriestly]

72. The operative word for what is described is fascism not capitalism.

The capital in this case does not come from investors who are taking risks. The capital is coming from the government -- from those who are forced to pay taxes to the fascist corporate state. There is nothing wrong with taxing citizens to pay for government by the people. But it is very wrong to tax people to pay private corporations and enrich the wealthy and well-connected.

[Raksha]

74. When I first read your post I thought you said "pirate" instead of "private."

Re But it is very wrong to tax people to pay private corporations and enrich the wealthy and well-connected.

But you said "private corporations" not "pirate corporations." Okay, I stand corrected.

One of my better Freudian slips of the year!

[Dem_in_Nebr.]

96. "Cor-pirate" and "Cor-piracy"

are two of my favorite terms to describe what I see happening in the US Corporate world today.

[Joe Chi Minh]

87. Are unlimited, individual property rights (evidently at any cost to others) your idea of the

ultimate flowering of the human spirit? You are one sick puppy, make no mistake, Mr Blankenship; and/or very, very, very foolish.

[Uncle Joe]

3. Thank you for the thread, kpete

I don't time to read it all today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

5. Great article

Fantastic. However, thinking it will end the war is a bit optimistic.

[AllyCat]

17. Right. Most Americans won't take the time to read it and...

the powers that be, Dem or Repuke, don't care because they want to keep this going.

It all makes me sick, but nothing will change until we turn Congress over to the people. We need to get the DINOs and Repukes out and replace them with leaders who will do the will of the people and ignore the lobbyists.

[Joe Chi Minh]

93. kpete's words are enough to dissuade me from reading it. I'm already

simmering with anger most of the time.

[malaise]

6. Leave Marx out of this

clusterfuck.

[Joe Chi Minh]

92. Thank you.

[warrior1]

7. Great article

But who's going to stop them, the Democratic party? They don't even want to impeach them now, with all that we know.

[JDPriestly]

73. Did you read the story from the doctor who was accused of

murdering patients in New Orleans? People will read that story, and they will want Bush's impeachment after they read it. Bush failed in New Orleans. And there was no excuse. People will argue about the War in Iraq, but they can't argue about Bush's neglect in New Orleans. What a horrible man. There has not so much as been an inquiry on New Orleans as far as I know.

[The Wielding Truth]

8. Wouldn't it be nice to think this were not true?No corruption.

We can try and close our eyes, but the truth keeps rearing up. Ostrich santa clause mentality can't last forever.

[krispos42]

9. Holy shit

I knew it was bad. But this distills it into pure evil.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of the Iraq War in a nutshell. In the history of balls, the world has never seen anything like the private contractors George W. Bush summoned to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Collectively, they are the final, polished result of 231 years of natural selection in the crucible of American capitalism: a bureaucrat class capable of stealing the same dollar twice -- once from the taxpayer and once from a veteran in a wheelchair.

If catastrophic failure is worth billions, where's the incentive to deliver success? There's no profit in patriotism, no cost-plus angle on common decency. Sixty years after America liberated Europe, those are just words, and words don't pay the bills.

Is is TREASON yet?

[Gabi Hayes]

15. taibbi is one of the few real journalists left, and he loathes the poseurs.

that's one of the reasons you're unlikely to see him on TV

I wish wish wish wish he'd replace any of the myriad jackass stenographers Olbermann has on his show

I'd like to see Taibbi become a regular, but he's too disliked by all the cretins that KO pals around with...sad, but true

ever read this: Wimblehack

http://nypress.com/17/40/news&columns/feature.cfm

start there. it's several parts, and included in his excellent book, Spanking the Monkey, in which he's VERY hard on Dems, as well as media and repubs

[krispos42]

19. I subscribe to "Rolling Stone" and read all of his stuff

He is very good indeed!

[Gabi Hayes]

21. have you seen his stuff in The Beast, or the NY Press?

he HATES Tom Friedman, and takes his garbage apart with great relish

[krispos42]

31. No,just Rolling Stone.

Nice to see TF getting ripped up, though! :-)

[KT2000]

10. Lynch-pin of the permanent GOP

The livlihood of all Americans, dependent upon the contracts secured by corporations who must demonstrate their support of the GOP.
The people are serfs.

[Greyhound]

30. BINGO! n/t

:kick:

[jimshoes]

13. Can you even imagine being in on the

planning of the biggest scam of all time, planning a free for all on the US Treasury and getting away scott free. These cock suckers had to be giggling like school boys knowing the fucking fix (for the presidency no less) was already in. All they needed were the balls to pull it off. And if there's one thing these mother fuckers are not short on it's balls. Here it is six years in and they're still sucking money out of the treasury at a head spinning pace. It's obvious there will be no day of reckoning for these shit weasels as they continue to flip us the finger while stealing our money away from us.

[upi402]

14. Anyone selling rope? I'd like to hang myself

Just kidding... but maybe the Russian wasn't.

[donkeyotay]

18. "vision of a fully privatized American government"

How Bush Allowed an Army of For-Profit Contractors to Invade the U.S. Treasury

Damned straight. Serfdom's up. Even the bridges, roads and water are being privatized. And everywhere you look - from the mining disasters to the FEMA failures to the endless but profitable war - the GOPer private party prospers while our country is being destroyed. Iraq is an enormous failure for us, but just the tip of the privatization iceberg. We either start regaining our freedom right soon or it's over.

The bankers are getting bailouts, again, while they bankrupt people - oh, I mean peasants - and create more poverty, again. Same in NOLA - big bucks for Halliburton, but wee, the little people, can't get loans. Serfdom cometh.

It's not just the war that's wrong - even though it represents the hijacking of our government. It's the Republican revolution that is wrong. The selling of media, the legalized bribery where all legislation is about benefiting someone who paid big bucks for it. The opportunity costs of a defense industry that takes wealth away from more fruitful investments like bridge repair.

Arrrgh. I'll read the article.

[cyberpj]

20. K&R. "Iraq For Sale" - Another excellent expose on the rampant fraud by War Profteers:

http://iraqforsale.org/

Help educate others -
buy a copy and spread it around.

Or sponsor a viewing party.

Invite people who don't yet understand.

[Gabi Hayes]

23. naomi klein, 2004: still one of the best things written about Iraq....

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2004/09/0080197

[Gabi Hayes]

24. here

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=naomi+klein+iraq&btnG=Search

[cyberpj]

61. Thank you. Will bookmark this and come back to read more. nt

[mogster]

103. Whoa

That was the best read I've had for months, thanks :-)

[Jacobin]

22. If you want to see Taibbi use his scalpel on Thomas Friedman

http://newyorkpress.com/18/16/news&columns/taibbi.cfm

I think it was about five months ago that Press editor Alex Zaitchik whispered to me in the office hallway that Thomas Friedman had a new book coming out. All he knew about it was the title, but that was enough; he approached me with the chilled demeanor of a British spy who has just discovered that Hitler was secretly buying up the world’s manganese supply. Who knew what it meant—but one had to assume the worst

"It's going to be called The Flattening," he whispered. Then he stood there, eyebrows raised, staring at me, waiting to see the effect of the news when it landed. I said nothing.

It turned out Alex had bad information; the book that ultimately came out would be called The World Is Flat. It didn't matter. Either version suggested the same horrifying possibility. Thomas Friedman in possession of 500 pages of ruminations on the metaphorical theme of flatness would be a very dangerous thing indeed. It would be like letting a chimpanzee loose in the NORAD control room; even the best-case scenario is an image that could keep you awake well into your 50s.

So I tried not to think about it. But when I heard the book was actually coming out, I started to worry. Among other things, I knew I would be asked to write the review. The usual ratio of Friedman criticism is 2:1, i.e., two human words to make sense of each single word of Friedmanese. Friedman is such a genius of literary incompetence that even his most innocent passages invite feature-length essays. I'll give you an example, drawn at random from The World Is Flat. On page 174, Friedman is describing a flight he took on Southwest Airlines from Baltimore to Hartford, Connecticut. (Friedman never forgets to name the company or the brand name; if he had written The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa would have awoken from uneasy dreams in a Sealy Posturepedic.) Here's what he says:

I stomped off, went through security, bought a Cinnabon, and glumly sat at the back of the B line, waiting to be herded on board so that I could hunt for space in the overhead bins.

Forget the Cinnabon. Name me a herd animal that hunts. Name me one.

This would be a small thing were it not for the overall pattern. Thomas Friedman does not get these things right even by accident. It's not that he occasionally screws up and fails to make his metaphors and images agree. It's that he always screws it up. He has an anti-ear, and it's absolutely infallible; he is a Joyce or a Flaubert in reverse, incapable of rendering even the smallest details without genius. The difference between Friedman and an ordinary bad writer is that an ordinary bad writer will, say, call some businessman a shark and have him say some tired, uninspired piece of dialogue: Friedman will have him spout it. And that's guaranteed, every single time. He never misses.


Thomas Friedman sliced and diced like only a sushi chef could have done. It is glorious and gory.

[Gabi Hayes]

25. thanks for link. I was too lazy to find it. I mentioned this above. beat you

by one minute

HA!

[Gabi Hayes]

27. here's a good one. never saw it before, on Newsweek/deep throat

http://www.freezerbox.com/archive/article.php?id=343

I've seen some horseshit in my time, but I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like last week's Newsweek cover story on Deep Throat, by Evan Thomas.

The Thomas piece is remarkable on a number of levels, not the least being its frank and undisguised hypocrisy: Evan Thomas was one of the figures involved in the Koran-toilet-unnamed-sources fuck-up, and so an article written by him that denounces as unpatriotic the "legacy" of America's most famous unnamed source is humorous from the outset.

Thomas halfheartedly attempts a revisionist history of Watergate, arguing that the scandal was just an ordinary power struggle in which Nixon's part was that of a Capra-esque outsider president trying, quite reasonably, to assert his independence from an entrenched Democratic Party bureaucracy that was the Washington legacy of FDR. Thomas makes it sound like all Nixon was trying to do was break big-government gridlock. This is hilarious stuff, but it pales in comparison to the meat of the article.

Having titled his piece "The Meaning of Deep Throat," Thomas actually delivers his conclusion -- the "meaning" -- in the middle of the article:


''Watergate did not just spell the end of the Nixon presidency. It started a chain reaction of investigations and prosecutions that eventually exposed all manner of secret wrongdoing by the FBI and the CIA... the effect of these investigations by the press, the courts, and congressional committees was profound. Battered by failure in Vietnam and the exposure of the CIA's "crown jewels" (its most hidden and deniable covert operations), the military and intelligence community became deeply demoralized in the late 1970s. From the highest levels to the lowliest commands, the watchword was caution.''

[Jacobin]

62. He is a remarkable and extraordinary writer and journalist

He'll never make the 'big time' on mainstream media, thank god. They would never tolerate him telling the truth, and especially so eloquently

[AzDar]

26. K & R .....

:kick:

[phusion]

29. "playing football with bricks of $100 bills"

I knew it was bad...but not this bad!

So what do we do??

[OzarkDem]

34. Keep our powder dry?

:eyes:

[ProudDad]

39. An oldie but a goodie...

In The Vaults Where The Dry Powder Is Stored

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/8/5/6268/11245

[JerseygirlCT]

32. The question is: will anyone do anything about it?

Will anything change?

I'm feeling disheartened that there's any hope.

[GeorgeGist]

33. Now, now ...

you know full well that the American Dream is Ownership.

[WillyT]

35. Big K & R !!!

:bounce::kick::bounce:

[WillyT]

40. Great Line Here:

<snip>

Before coming to Iraq, Custer Battles hadn't done even a million dollars in business. The company's own Web site brags that Battles had to borrow cab fare from Jordan to Iraq and arrived in Baghdad with less than $500 in his pocket. But he had good timing, arriving just as a security contract for Baghdad International Airport was being "put up" for bid. The company site raves that Custer spent "three sleepless nights" penning an offer that impressed the CPA enough to hand the partners $2 million in cash, which Battles promptly stuffed into a duffel bag and drove to deposit in a Lebanese bank.

Custer Battles had lucked into a sort of Willy Wonka's paradise for contractors, where a small pool of Republican-friendly businessmen would basically hang around the Green Zone waiting for a contracting agency to come up with a work order. In the early days of the war, the idea of "competition" was a farce, with deals handed out so quickly that there was no possibility of making rational or fairly priced estimates. According to those familiar with the process, contracting agencies would request phony "bids" from several contractors, even though the winner had been picked in advance. "The losers would play ball because they knew that eventually it would be their turn to be the winner," says Grayson.

To make such deals legal, someone in the military would simply sign a piece of paper invoking an exception. "I know one guy whose business was buying ­weapons on the black market for contractors," says Pratap Chatterjee, a writer who has spent months in the Mideast researching a forthcoming book on Iraq contracts. "It's illegal -- but he got military people to sign papers allowing him to do it."

The system not only had the advantage of eliminating red tape in a war zone, it also encouraged the "entrepreneurship" of patriots like Custer and Battles, who went from bumming cab fare to doing $100 million in government contracts practically overnight. And what business they did! The bid that Custer claimed to have spent "three sleepless nights" putting together was later described by Col. Richard Ballard, then the inspector general of the Army, as looking "like something that you and I would write over a bottle of vodka, complete with all the spelling and syntax errors and annexes to be filled in later." The two simply "presented it the next day and then got awarded about a $15 million contract."

The deal charged Custer Battles with the responsibility to perform airport ­security for civilian flights. But there were never any civilian flights into Baghdad's airport during the life of their contract, so the CPA gave them a job managing an airport checkpoint, which they failed miserably. They were also given scads of money to buy expensive X-ray equipment and set up an advanced canine bomb-sniffing system, but they never bought the equipment. As for the dog, Ballard reported, "I eventually saw one dog. The dog did not appear to be a certified, trained dog." When the dog was brought to the checkpoint, he added, it would lie down and "refuse to sniff the vehicles" -- as outstanding a metaphor for U.S. contractor performance in Iraq as has yet been produced.

<snip>

Same article.

:banghead:

[alfredo]

37. K&R

[KurtNYC]

41. Facism is Capitalism in decay. eom

[ProudDad]

130. Fascism is capitalism's inevitable final destination (n/t)

[Gloria]

42. Is this the same person who tailed John Kerry and pretty much

mocked him, if I recall correctly? Didn't he show up on the Daily Show, too?

If so, I'm glad to see he's moved on to some of the real issues we have to deal with...

[Robbien]

43. This is one of the most disturbing articles

Not that I haven't heard any of this before, but everything all in one place clenches one's stomach and makes the blood boil.

I am going out and buy a copy of Rolling Stone and keep this story handy. Rolling Stone should be commended for publishing this article.

[WillyT]

44. If I Could Recommend This About 50 More Times, I'd Do It !!!

Wonder if the rest of the press will ignore this story too?

:mad::nuke::mad:

[IDemo]

45. Ditto. And yes, they will ignore it. n/t

[Robbien]

48. I see that dKos also has the story up

and it has hundreds of recommendations over there too. That's good.

Everyone needs to read this. Really.

[WillyT]

50. The Web Has It, But The News... Not So Much... Yet !!!

Web: http://www.google.com/search?q=The+Great+Iraq+Swindle&hl=en&start=0&sa=N

News: http://news.google.com/news?q=The+Great+Iraq+Swindle&hl=en&um=1&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&scoring=n

At least according to a Google snapshot.

:shrug:

Let's see if it gets mentioned on any of the Sunday Shows.

[graywarrior]

46. Like I am not pissed enought already.

Like we all didn't figure this was going on. Grrrrrrrrrr.
This needs to be kicked to kingdom come.

[WillyT]

47. Your Wish, Is My Command !!!

:kick::kick::kick:

[NastyDiaper]

49. War on the Treasury: A Kleptocracy Exposed.

And the cherry on top? It was all deficit borrowing.

We fuck up everything for our kids, and hand them an iou they will need to be paid in Yen.

Oh but impeachment? That's off the table.

[defendandprotect]

52. Do they mention how the $ gets to the top? Swiss bank accounts . . . or what???

I'll have to read the story later --
but I've long been of the opinion that secret Swiss bank accounts are a threat to every democracy --

[jkoehler]

53. Can you imagine how Truman would be treated?

For years anyone who has tried to investigate and hold accountable private war contractors have been labeled "unpatriotic" and accused of "emboldening the enemy" by the Bush administration. The "traitors" are removed from their government positions and run out of town. The sad fact is that many Americans have been aware of this criminal activity for years but have been powerless to stop it or even raise it as a serious issue. Meanwhile, the $90 billion appropriations bills just keep getting approved and the checks sent out. Where is all the money going? The truth is that the American people and even most members of Congress don't have a freaking clue.

[defendandprotect]

54. Add to this the Donald Vance/Whistleblower story by Deborah Hastings . . .

which ties into this story and the Bunnatine Greenhouse testimony which was IGNORED, IMO --

PLUS . . . you have to guess that this is pretty much what has also been happening with DRUGS from the Golden Triangle/Thailand -- VN . . . to Afghanistan . . . . to upper levels of government and police enforcement.

And many deaths in the military which look like whistleblowers dying.

[immoderate]

55. Apparently, Iraq is a giant money laundry...

I've been thinking this for a while. :think: It all makes sense if you don't call it a war, but a heist.

Cheney, with his Halliburton connections, not to mention his "deferred salary" (he earns it every day) and his stock options, just wrote himself a check that puts the treasury "all in." How can this be legal? :shrug:

--IMM

[Elspeth]

56. This article has to be placed in the hands of EVERY member of Congress

Now.

[Raksha]

69. This article needs to be placed in the hands of every CITIZEN!

Is there any chance of doing that? I bet Rolling Stone would allow mass reprints if they stood a chance of ending the war and bringing down the Bush administration. Nobody could read this stuff without being outraged! Copies of this article should be in every waiting room, coffeehouse, laundromat, beauty parlor and doughnut shop in the country, with permission to make reprints and redistribute included.

[Beerboy]

57. It's a little late in the day to become outraged over bureaucracy.

This thing is on autopilot now unless Congress cuts off the funding. I keep wondering why they won't, there must be something in it for them. Does the average citizen see a benefit to any of this? I sure don't, but I really don't have much of a choice but to keep funding it, as long as I have my job.:-(

[Botany]

58. Dick Cheney's tree has born fruit

under H.W. he worked on out sourcing pentagon operations to private
businesses

under Clinton he went to work for one of the out source firms

Under W his firm reaps the profit.

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

and right now those billions control the media, shut down progressive radio,
and rig elections.

[frogcycle]

60. Wow. Just WOW!

Much of the information has been exposed in bits and pieces but this guy does one hell of a job of summarizing the entire clusterfuck.

I am off to compose an Algae Award!

[Neecy]

63. Terrific article

There's more about Custer Battles and other grotesque contractor misdeeds in Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran. It's a must-read, although you have to have a strong stomach to plow through one Bush administration fuckup after another.

[Colorado Progressive]

64. 1/3 of the way through the article and crying. Will finish tomorrow.

:cry:

[spag68]

65. My only comment is

WHY DOE'S THIS SURPRISE ANY ONE.

[mwb970]

76. DOE'S? /nt

[frogcycle]

66. Taibbi wins Algae Award

http://www.algaeawards.com/
Select MS Media

[HowHasItComeToThis]

70. EXACTLY!!!!!

FORWARD THIS ARTICLE TO ALL YOU KNOW.

[pingzing58]

75. All of this information is not new. But Taibbi puts it together well!

[BigBearJohn]

77. This administration is fucking the American public with a 15-inch dildo

and all we can say is, "will you still love me in the morning?"

Excuse me while my brain implodes.

:grr: :banghead: :nuke:


(I think I will email this article
to Keith Olbermann... maybe he could
dedicate an entire show to it)


On edit, I am sending this to EVERYONE
I know... my complete address book --
and I pray everyone elses does the same!

[Syrinx]

78. READ IT FOR REAL! SOAK IT IN!

MOST. IMPORTANT. ARTICLE.

-- EVER.

It's not just about the war.

IT"S ALSO ABOUT FASCISM!

You've got to do something for me.

PLEASE. PLEASE.

Send this article to everyone in your address book!

THEN PUT SOME NEW PEOPLE IN YOUR BOOK!

I've read it a few times.

I now recognize it is a true masterpiece.

THAT MUST ME WIDELY DISSEMINATED.


in case you lost the link, the one-page version:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16076312/the_great_iraq_swindle/print

[BigBearJohn]

79. I think we need to make this a MASSIVE DU project. ALL HANDS ON DECK

Imagine if EVERYONE on DU jumped in and emailed
this to EVERYONE in their address book?

Hell, I am tempted to make copies and distribute
them at super markets. Leave them on windshields
of cars even. Man, am I pissed.

[WinkyDink]

100. I have done things like that. Store/restaurant rest-rooms, hee.

Also, to e-mail to EVERY NEWSPAPER in your area, editors, writers, whomever.

[MelissaB]

94. Just sent it to my friends.

:kick:

[Raksha]

125. Thanks for the link to the printer friendly version.

I saved it as a MS Word document and added page numbers, with the idea of making my own reprints to spread around the neighborhood. A couple of questions, though: Why wasn't the author's name included on either the 5-page online version of the article or the 1-page printer friendly version? I know the author is Matt Taibbi from other sources, but his name doesn't appear anywhere in the Rolling Stone article that I can see. Also, is there a short bio of him somewhere that I can add at the end of the article for people who aren't familiar with his work?

[Syrinx]

80. EVERYONE SHOULD K&R THIS

LET THIS THREAD BREAK THE ALL-TIME "RECOMMENDED" RECORD!

THIS IS A BIG ARTICLE!!

[BigBearJohn]

81. Everyone should send the link to Keith at [e-mail]

If 5,000 DU-ers send the link to Keith,
it may be dramatic enough for him to
do a show, maybe even a 3-part series
on it. I wonder if he has the balls
to tackle this subject?

[Syrinx]

82. Done!

I hope everyone follows your lead. Hey let's make the FOOTBALL edition of Countdown Sunday night!

[madrchsod]

83. sad thing is that nothing is going to change

if a democrat gets the presidency. well the amounts might not be so perverse but the it will continue. no one listened to ike ,did they...

[Myrina]

84. ... gee, some of us have said that from the beginning ...

.... what's taken the MSM so long to figure it out ? :sarcasm:


And now that there are calls for a "new strongman" to lead Iraq, you can bet that in 15-20 years when the buduget deficit is gone and there's a nice surplus similar to the Bill/Al treasury checkbook balance of 1/1/2000, the GOP cretins will decide that we need to "liberate" Iraq (or some other country) again.

That huge sucking sound you hear will be the national infrastructure (again) and all our children/grandchildren's futures going out the door to the war profiteers. :(

[Senator]

85. Only Impeachment Can "End The War"

Sorry, "reality-based" lefties. But our side is as addicted to "more information" as their side is to violence.

There is no uprising coming based on a cure of our side's diagnosis of the American People's ignorance. They know plenty -- they are already up.

It is the "objection" (accusation) that is missing.

No accountability for any of this can even begin unless and until that occurs.

Failure to impeach is complicity -- approval -- exoneration for the regime (on all counts).

--

[deutsey]

86. It's a great article (and I love Taibbi in general), but it won't end the war

Many people don't even read any more, unless it's People or O or something along those lines. And you'll never see reporting like this on corporate news media.

How many other masks have already been pulled from the hideous face of this war and hardly anyone outside of the virtual universe we frequent has blinked an eye?

[Octafish]

134. Some people have been on to their gangster asses for a long time.

Besides you and a bunch of good DUers, one good name springs to mind:

Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, USMC

War Is a Racket

The two-time Medal of Honor recipient names names, like Brown Brothers Harriman Bank, Prescott Bush's firm, way back in the 1930s.

Too bad we didn't listen. The mass media (Butler pegs them as, even then, "owned") Some read, though. Fewer write.

[iamahaingttta]

98. I've said this a thousand times...

...and I'll say it another thousand times. Want to end all this? It's very simple:

Stop paying your fucking taxes! Starve the federal beast until and unless it is used for actual government services. A taxpayer revolt won't stop it, but it will get their attention. You might get into some trouble, but if enough people do this they won't be able to get us all. This is the least effective form of revolt.

Stop using your fucking credit cards!! Interest payments are how the rich get richer. Stop borrowing their money to buy cheap plastic crap that you don't need, and then paying them back with interest. This game is set up in such a way that the rich are getting usage fees for you to use the money that you've earned. Stop playing their game. You don't really need that new toy.

Stop buying stuff from criminals!!! Pay more attention to what you purchase and from whom. And do it loudly! Make sure that the bastards know that you will never buy their crap, and why. Tell lots of other people why as well. they really hate that, and sometimes they even change their business practices if it means no more customers. And for god's sake, stop using the excuse of convenience! I don't know how many times I've heard people say, or read right here on DU excuses like "Wal-Mart is the closest store to my house. I have to drive an extra half hour and pay more to go somewhere else!" Go ahead, dig your own grave, fool!

Get used to privatization! The greedmeisters want to privatize everything on the planet. They want to charge you and I usage fees for everything that we do, every breath we take and each heartbeat, if they could. Get used to it, this will not go away quickly. Then, do something to twist this system to our benefit. It's time to "privatize socialism" as it were, in order to remove the profit from the hands of the greedy. Unions were meant as worker's collectives, it's time to build more consumer's collectives. Things that used to be government entitlements, will now have to be private. Don't wait for someone else to do it, build your own credit unions, health-care collectives, group retirement plans and the like. Do it so that you are not giving huge profits to corporate entities to hold your money for you. Because they always figure out a way to screw you out of it!

I think it will be one of history's great ironies if the fascist fuckers force Americans into a 21st century neo-communism due to their greed and hubris. In fact, I'm betting on it and for the thousand and first time, I'm saying it...

--------------------------

Addendum - Hi Agent Mike!

:hi:

Yes, Agent Mike, I wrote above advocating that people stop paying their federal taxes! Why? To put YOU out of a job. You see, Mike, it's not that I'm one of those "the gubmit will NEVER get MY money EVER for ANYTHING!" kind of people, I just won't give them my money to use in the name of evil. And everything this current government does, Mike, is pure evil! I don't mind paying taxes if it goes to education and infrastructure and the like, but for war profiteering? Sorry pal. I've been grossly underpaying since 2001. Fuck you, Agent Mike!

:hi:

Agent Mike? Read the Rolling Stone article, and tell me you disagree with me. Go ahead, Agent Mike, I DARE you! Maybe after you've read it you'll go out and get a REAL job and finally become a PRODUCTIVE member of society! I won't hold my breath.

[WinkyDink]

99. I've said it as my refrain: Bushco IS the MOB. Not "like" the Mob; IS.

TAKE OVER a legitimate enterprise (think small and get a trucking company; think big and get the UNITED STATES---if the SCOTUS is corrupt enough); LOOT IT; LEAVE.

It was on track to work so well here, Bushco expanded into the Middle East (and no doubt elsewhere, under the radar)(Bonus: ancient artifacts/treasures).

MONEY is the raison d'etre for NCLB (brother Neil's IGNITE! swindle).

MONEY is the raison d'etre for the push for Social Security privatization.

MONEY is the raison d'etre for allowing natural disasters (Katrina, e.g.) to have their merry way (re-building contracts; land-sales on the cheap).

Unchecked POWER is the MEANS, but MONEY is the entire MOTIVE.

You can bet Bushco is licking its chops over Cuba.

[Joanne98]

102. That's really damming! I hope it makes the public screaming mad.

I want ALL that money back!

[Gman]

105. The next time someone says private business is more cost effective than government

throw this in their faces.

[snappyturtle]

107. Thanks kpete! K&R n/t

[Tab]

108. Now the stories are coming out

And leave it to Rolling Stone, a frickin' music magazine to lay everything out.

We have to go to Comedy Central for our news, and Rolling Stone for our extended analysis.

Who'da thunk we'd come to this?

[AllyCat]

109. Don't forget Vanity Fair! Fashion and society magazine gives

us investigative journalism on everything from Sibel Edmonds to Christopher Hitchens' God isn't Great.

If you haven't read it, give it a try on any month.

[Tab]

114. I don't have access to fashion mags, but I believe you

And the New Yorker - supposedly a literary and social magazine for New York - often does the best stuff thanks to Seymour Hersch.

What's wrong with this picture?

Oh well, at least SOMEONE'S printing this stuff. Oddly, maybe these are the best places because they probably get a wider readership.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

111. The Coalition Provisional Authority stuff has been laid out in previous major news articles. But it

bears repeating over and over until people get it, until it sinks in.

[Auggie]

110. As long as the remain so profitable wars will continue to come

[ourbluenation]

116. everyone I know will be getting a copy. a big K and R from me.

:kick:

[calimary]

118. K&R! Another good find, kpete!

Thanks for posting this. We need ALL EYES to see this one.

[The Stranger]

124. K&R

[Raoul]

126. No Surprise here..

Read the article and can only say I'm not the least bit shocked or surprised because I was 'Michael Moorized' a long time ago. In his magnificent 9/11 documentary there is a very brief but eye opening scene that said it all. A group of fat cats and lobbyists were at a get together and one of them said "there's gonna be ALOT of money to be made over there" - meaning Iraq of course. That said everything. And anything else said regarding the reasons for the illegal war is pure bullshit.

[catrose]

127. I talked to a former soldier

E6 I think his grade was. He'd spent 15 years in the military and bailed before the current insanity--I don't know if he's beyond his recall date or not. I asked him why military families were needing public assistance and charity, and he said that this war is different--he'd seen a few--that basically they're sending soldiers to fight and charging them to fight it. Can't vouch for the truth of this, but it makes sense, given the current administration.

[many a good man]

132. Glory hole??? I can't email this to anybody

This is the triumphant culmination of two centuries of flawed white-people thinking, a preposterous mix of authoritarian socialism and laissez-faire profit­eering, with all the worst aspects of both ideologies rolled up into one pointless, supremely idiotic military adventure -- American men and women dying by the thousands, so that Karl Marx and Adam Smith can blow each other in a Middle Eastern glory hole.

IMO this one sentence ruined an otherwise great article. A lot of people I know won't read past those idiotic words.

[BigBearJohn]

135. EDIT EDIT EDIT

Then do this:


This is the triumphant culmination of two centuries of flawed white-people thinking, a preposterous mix of authoritarian socialism and laissez-faire profit­eering, with all the worst aspects of both ideologies rolled up into one pointless, supremely idiotic military adventure -- American men and women dying by the thousands...