Edwin Starr in 1970, had this hit song War.
This was of course during the apex of the phony war on Vietnam.
One line of the lyrics that resounded so well for this writer was:
.
.
War
Friend only to the undertaker
War
War
War-Good God, now
Now
Give it to me one time now
Now now
What is it good for?
The 2003 illegal and, may I include, immoral US invasion and occupation of Iraq opened up a Pandora’s box of terrible repercussions that to this day, nearly 17 years later, still resonate. Yet, for this empire, what it succeeded in doing was to gift various US corporations $50 Billion of reconstruction contracts. You see, what the grifter community calls the Long Con is to attack a country on false claims, destroy much of its infrastructure, occupy the damaged mess you created and make gazillions from taxpayer money. As the helicopter tail gunner in the film Full Metal Jacket exclaimed as he stood there, arbitrarily murdering civilians: Ain’t war great!
After the phony invasion in March of 2003 the bu…hit named Coalition Provisional Authority took money from the Iraqis and dished it out to a number of international corporations. They justified this robbery as compensation for ‘lost profits’ and ‘decline in business’ due to the ‘aggressive actions’ of Saddam Hussein since 1990.
My Yiddish speaking friends call that Chutzpah!
Believe it or not, US based companies like Sheraton received $11 million , Bechtel $ 7 million, Mobil $2.3 million, KFC some $ 321,000…. even Toys R Us got $190,000. OH, and Israeli farmers received $8 million…. and listen to this: They were not able to harvest fully due to the threat from Saddam’s regime. Plus, Israeli hoteliers and travel agencies received $15 million. I kid you not!
Now, while this was all going on, 500,000 Iraqi citizens lost their jobs, and soon after that over 50% of the workforce became unemployed. And people now ask why they want us the hell OUT of their country? When they ended the (so called) ‘War in Iraq’ in 2011, seven million Iraqis lived below the poverty line. Large amounts of Iraqi money were paid out to those infamous and humanitarian US corporations for local projects. Most were never completed, and corruption was rampant… by all parties concerned, Iraqi and American.
Sarah Anderson wrote a great piece on Global Research about how even the threat of war makes money for the top military contractors. Look below to see how the top 5 military contractors made a bundle right after the killing of General Suleimani:
*Resigned 12/22/19. **Resigned 1/1/19 while staying
What is needed in our fine nation is for we, the good and decent folks, to start demanding action. We must demand that the majority of our almost 1000 foreign bases be closed and personnel returned home. We need to make drastic cuts in this obscene military spending, whereupon 50% of our federal tax money goes down that rabbit hole. Take the savings, of treasure and US military lives, and fix our broken safety net… period! Oh, and how about we use eminent domain and nationalize all military contracting companies… at NON PROFIT! Maybe then Edwin Starr’s song would be a great reminder of what used to be…
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Philip A Farruggio is a contributing editor for The Greanville Post. He is also frequently posted on Global Research, Nation of Change, World News Trust and Off Guardian sites. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn NYC longshoremen and a graduate of Brooklyn College, class of 1974. Since the 2000 election debacle Philip has written over 300 columns on the Military Industrial Empire and other facets of life in an upside down America. He is also host of the ‘ It’s the Empire… Stupid ‘ radio show, co produced by Chuck Gregory. Philip can be reached at [email protected].
