Krugman: Who's Sordid Now?

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/30/opinion/30KRUG.html

It's official: the administration that once scorned nation-building now says that it's engaged in a modern version of the Marshall Plan. But Iraq isn't postwar Europe, and George W. Bush definitely isn't Harry Truman. Indeed, while Truman led this country in what Churchill called the "most unsordid act in history," the stories about Iraqi reconstruction keep getting more sordid. And the sordidness isn't, as some would have you believe, a minor blemish on an otherwise noble enterprise.

Cronyism is an important factor in our Iraqi debacle. It's not just that reconstruction is much more expensive than it should be. The really important thing is that cronyism is warping policy: by treating contracts as prizes to be handed to their friends, administration officials are delaying Iraq's recovery, with potentially catastrophic consequences.

It's rarely mentioned nowadays, but at the time of the Marshall Plan, Americans were very concerned about profiteering in the name of patriotism. To get Congressional approval, Truman had to provide assurances that the plan would not become a boondoggle. Funds were administered by an agency independent of the White House, and Marshall promised that priorities would be determined by Europeans, not Americans.

Fortunately, Truman's assurances were credible. Although he is now honored for his postwar leadership, Truman initially rose to prominence as a fierce crusader against war profiteering, which he considered treason.

[LittleApple81]

1. Sordid to the max. But here at DU we have known that all

along. And everybody should have known a long time ago. But repugs really want to trust Bush*: nobody had the ability to do the work as Bush*'s friends, don't ask questions that is treason!

[Brucey]

2. Is war profiteering still a crime?

Just wondering. This admin seems to get away with crimes anyway. Reminds me of Nixon who said if the president does something, it's automatically not a crime!

[La_Serpiente]

3. Did anyone see the David Brooks column?

Did anyone see the David Brooks column on the New York Times? He sounds like a dipshit. Says that we're a fringe element when we really aren't. He sure is playing his cards wrong. Watch out David Brooks....we're coming for you next. He's such a hypocrite too. He says that we're acting like bafoons and that his gang didn't protest that loud during the 90's. WHAT A FUCKING HYPOCRITE...THEY IMPEACHED THE FUCKING Clinton....what a hypocrite.

[david_vincent]

4. Does anyone else remember an old movie called A Hatful of Rain?

It had a subplot about war profiteering. I think it was based on a successful play (shows you how old it is).
Surely someone, somewhere, has written a book about profiteering during WWII. General Motors would have to figure prominently in any such account. As for cronyism, Howard Hughes started going off the deep end into paranoia during the war because his designs were repeatedly passed over and contracts influenced by cronyism went to sandbaggers like GM instead.

[madrchsod]

5. was that the movie about

someone making defective airplane parts? i remember the name "hatful of rain" but can`t remember what it was about..

[madrchsod]

6. "rolling,rolling,rolling on out"

"when the money keeps rolling out you don`t keep books
you can tell you`ve done well
by the happy gratefull looks...
rolling,rolling,rolling on out" from "evita"

[Uzybone]

7. not as lonely a voice anymore

but Krugman is still one of the best.

[MoonAndSun]

8. You are so right, Uzybone,

Krugman was one of the lone voices for so long, but now many others are joining in. He is a very humble man from what I saw on his interview with russert, but he is also a very courageous man to have put up with all the rightwing attacks on him.

[starroute]

9. War profiteering in World War I was where the BFEE started

http://www.tarpley.net/bush1.htm

The U.S entered World War I in 1917. In the spring of 1918, Prescott's father, Samuel P. Bush, became chief of the Ordnance, Small Arms and Ammunition Section of the War Industries Board. The senior Bush took national responsibility for government assistance to and relations with Remington and other weapons companies.

This was an unusual appointment, as Prescott's father seemed to have no background in munitions. Samuel Bush had been president of the Buckeye Steel Castings Co. in Columbus, Ohio, makers of railcar parts. His entire career had been in the railroad business--supplying equipment to the Wall Street-owned railroad systems.

The War Industries Board was run by Bernard Baruch, a Wall Street speculator with close personal and business ties to old E.H. Harriman. Baruch's brokerage firm had handled Harriman speculations of all kinds.

<snip>

Percy Rockefeller and Samuel Pryor's Remington Arms supplied machine guns and Colt automatic pistols; millions of rifles to Czarist Russia; over half of the small-arms ammunition used by the Anglo-American allies in World War I; and 69 percent of the rifles used by the United States in that conflict.

Samuel Bush's wartime relationship to these businessmen would continue after the war, and would especially aid his son Prescott's career of service to the Harrimans.

Most of the records and correspondence of Samuel Bush's arms-related section of the government have been burned, "to save space" in the National Archives. This matter of destroyed or misplaced records should be of concern to citizens of a constitutional republic. Unfortunately, it is a rather constant impediment with regard to researching George Bush's background: He is certainly the most "covert" American chief executive.

[priller]

10. And crony capitalism continues to make them rich

For the Bush gang, government is just an easy non-competitive way to make millions. Why get messy with all the marketing and selling and competing when you can make backroom sweetheart deals and get paid from the bottomless government coffers?