Now We Know What Shock and Awe Was Really About

[Solomon]

Did you hear Paul Bremmer mutter "tens of billions of dollars" today. We're talking tens of billions over and above the four billion per month spent on the military there. Now why is that?

Do people realize that when we say it will cost tens of billions to rebuild, that those tens of billions will be going in someone's pocket?

Now we know what the target of all that bombing really was. How bout the water system, the electrical system, the power system,etc.

Yessir. Gonna cost a whole lot of money to rebuild the "infrastructure".

How can people stand the stench?

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. Of course.

The dollars are gonna flow to Halliburton (as in Kellogg, Brown & Root), Bechtel and other big repuke campaign contributors. Isn't that what this whole exercise was about? Damn a few hundred getting killed. What was that old war movie called? "They Were Expendable"???

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. Yes, and I heard on the news today

that a branch of Haliburton got the contract to expand Guantanamo in a *non-bid* contract.

The Busheviks are like Ferdinand Marcos, convinced that the purpose of heading up a government is to make themselves and their friends even more obscenely rich than they already are.

[ewagner]

3. Add to that

Just heard on CNN, Newsnight w/Aaron Brown, that IMF is raising eyebrows about the US deficit. Especially when it is reaching record heights without money for Iraq included . They included clips of Rummy's famous it's unknowable (how much it will cost, and Wolfowitz implying that the cost is sustainable by the Iraqi economy in a "relatively short period of time".

Note to Wolfie: Define relatively

Assholes!

[Solomon]

6. What Gets Me Is

didn't we not too long ago watch Afghanistan bankrupt the Soviet Union? Oh, excuse me, I remember now, we convinced ourselves that it was Ronald Reagan who defeated the Soviet Union, not the tar baby that was Afghanistan.

Think about it, Afghanistan is nowhere near as developed as Iraq. If Afghanistan could bankrupt the Soviet Union with a guerilla war, what makes us think that Iraq would not bankrupt us as well? Especially since we're in a guerilla war in Afghanistan at the same time.

[fabius]

7. How long before we have to restructure...

...to meet the IMF straightjacket? Third World here we come!

Bonus, we'll be real competitive working for $3 per day.

[berry]

8. Oh my, if the IMF were to get on our case---

and tell us to cut social services and programs (yes that's what they go around the world doing) in order to get our credit-worthiness back, a lot of countries that have suffered "IMF shock" could be forgiven for laughing.

Of course, the IMF is American (and Europeans). And so maybe this is some of the back-room-power guys throwing a hint out there--that there are limits to what they will tolerate from BushCo*. Interesting.

I like the suggestion above of just writing big checks to every Iraqi and getting out. But I have always wondered why construction has to be done by the multinational giants. Eg., why US military bases around the world had to be constructed by Bechtel. Why not contract locally? In fact, I think they do. They subcontract to get most of the work done, but are able to skim LOTS off the top. I think this is what is happening in Iraq too. There must be lots of local companies (I don't KNOW this, but it seems likely--does anyone else know?). And all their work on the pipelines and oil wells and electricity grids--I wonder what the Iraqis are being paid, and what the "managers" are being paid. And what the profit margins are. It's not as if there aren't talented, skilled Iraqis--I wonder how they feel about the capability of their new bosses.

I've wondered too about who got the contract to train the 30,000 or so new police officers. I think they're doing it in Hungary because the trainers didn't want to live in Iraq and be targets. I do know that a lot of slimy people who are closely connected to the GOP (like Wackenhut and DynCorp) have made huge fortunes in the "security" business--police, jails, intel, spies, etc. I do also wonder what new police methods they'll be teaching--hopefully not like the School of the Americas....

[bicentennial_baby]

10. Here's the article

if you missed it:

IMF slams U.S. over budget


Global lending agency says government assumptions too optimistic, not doing enough to fix deficits.
August 27, 2003: 6:16 AM EDT



MILAN, Italy (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund is set to reproach the United States for being too optimistic in its assumptions on government spending and revenues and lacking a coherent budget plan, according to a summary of a draft report.

The report "criticizes the U.S. government's excessively optimistic assumptions regarding the development of overall state spending and revenues and the lack of a medium-term concept to consolidate budgets and reform the social insurance system," the draft said.

The draft, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, also says monetary policy-makers in industrial nations should continue to support the economic upturn.

News of the IMF report comes a day after a congressional budget agency forecast a federal budget deficit of $480 billion in 2004, a record shortfall that could pose problems for President Bush as he seeks re-election.

Bush administration officials have said that budget deficits of that size are temporary and manageable and will shrink as economic growth accelerates in the United States.


http://money.cnn.com/2003/08/27/news/economy/imf_deficit.reut/index.htm

[never cry wolf]

13. Maybe to the repukes that would be a side benefit

"gee, we didn't really want to cut those social servies and programs but that mean old IMF made us."

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. How many billions are they talking about?

Why are we spending US tax dollars rebuilding another country. Oh yeah, cause we spent the last 12 years blowing it all up. Until GWI the Iraqi people had a resonable decent standard of living for the most part. Now we are going to spend over 2 MILLION DOLLARS PER PERSON, PER YEAR. Why don't we just write each Iraqi a check for $2,000,000 each and then get out of their country and leave them be. We will all be better off in the long run.

[dfong63]

9. sanity check

Now we are going to spend over 2 MILLION DOLLARS PER PERSON, PER YEAR.

$2.0e6 is clearly wrong. i think it's closer to $2.0e3 per person per year. still way too much.

[KC21304]

12. As someone else on DU said today,

remind Bush he said " it's your money ".

[Melsky]

5. Oh well, we might as well do something with our surplus money

it's not like we have a crumbling infrastructure in this country.

/sarcasm

[bobthedrummer]

11. The real Shock and Awe was cost effective

http://www.dodccrp.org/shockIndex.html