War! What is good for? Never-ending profits! - Chris Floyd

[dutchdemocrat]

War! What is good for? Never-ending profits!

Monday, 19 September 2005

We've said it before and we'll say it again and we'll keep on saying it because it is the indisputable, undeniable truth: Bush and his faction waged war on Iraq for money. That's it. That's all there is to it. Yes, they wanted leverage over the oil. Yes, they had (and have) grand geopolitical designs that "required" the invasion. Yes, they had blinkered ideologues willing to use the blood and guts of 100,000 innocent people as raw material for their lunatic experiments. But behind all of this is the unbridled lust for ill-gotten, unearned loot -- loot on an unimaginable scale, loot which will augment their political power by several magnitudes and extend their malign influence on domestic and world politics for generations.

They have ransacked the Iraqi larder and stripped it of everything they could lay their hands on. They have transferred billions upon billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars into the hands of a few well-connected cronies, secret bagmen, soulless gun-runners and elite investors with nice clean fat white hands.

It is for this reason that George W. Bush sent U.S. forces into Iraq -- illegally, in the middle of the UN weapons inspection process that he himself had insisted upon. It is for this reason that he has caused the needless deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people, that he has brutalized, traumatized, overstrained and decimated the military forces of the United States. It is for this reason that he has gutted the American treasury, criminalized the American government and tyrannized the American people.

For money. Murder, for money. Easy money, greasy money, blood money. That's all there is to it, that's what the war in Iraq is all about. Anyone who tells you different is either deluded -- or hoping to get in on the scam.

Here now is the indefatigable Patrick Cockburn of The Independent on the latest outrage in this on-going epic rapine:

SNIP

http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=148&Itemid=1

[dutchdemocrat]

1. Snippets

What Has Happened to Iraq's Missing $1 Billion?

"Excerpts (but read the whole story): One billion dollars has been plundered from Iraq's defence ministry in one of the largest thefts in history, The Independent can reveal, leaving the country's army to fight a savage insurgency with museum-piece weapons...."

"Government officials in Baghdad suggest that the skill with which the robbery was organised suggests that the Iraqis involved were only front men, and "rogue elements" within the US military or intelligence services may have played a decisive role behind the scenes. Given that building up an Iraqi army to replace American and British troops is a priority for Washington and London, the failure to notice that so much money was being siphoned off at the very least argues a high degree of negligence on the part of US officials and officers in Baghdad..."

"The money missing from all ministries under the interim Iraqi government appointed by the US in June 2004 may turn out to be close to $2bn....A further $500m to $600m has allegedly disappeared from the electricity, transport, interior and other ministries. This helps to explain why the supply of electricity in Baghdad has been so poor since the fall of Saddam Hussein 29 months ago despite claims by the US and subsequent Iraqi governments that they are doing everything to improve power generation."

"The sum missing over an eight-month period in 2004 and 2005 is the equivalent of the $1.8bn that Saddam allegedly received in kick- backs under the UN's oil-for-food programme between 1997 and 2003. "



http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article313538.ece

[Village Idiot]

3. Apparently the Iraqi government is now...

calling for the arrest of two of Illawi's (from CPA) former cabinet ministers in conjunction with the investigation of the missing $1 Billion.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. You all realize that Cheney & Co. can't possibly believe that they'll

retire in the U.S. if they're guilty of all the things we suspect they are?

Has Cheney put a down payment on that house yet? It's a ruse, I tell ya, it's a ruse!