LittleJoe

Who's profiting from the Iraq war?

The companies listed below have collectively made over 24 BILLION dollars (over US$24,000,000,000) from the war in Iraq. You think there's not a lot of interest from these profit-hoarding entities to keep the war going? And you better believe they've got plenty of money to pay for lobbying.

This is from this MSN Money article. The data are pulled in large part from the Federal Procurement Data System. Thankfully, MSN Money has taken care of slogging through that system to glean the picture for us.

Top 10 money-makers from this WAR (click image to go to the article):

...and tied in with this, of course, are the huge profits being realized from Department of Defense contracts. Here's the top 7 (again, just click the image to go to the full article):

Read the MSN Money article. Then contact your elected officials and demand that they stop this senseless war. I did that earlier this week, and so far my only response is a form letter from Adam Putnam, telling me that he will not "shortchange our soldiers on the ground and hamper their ability to succeed".  Hmmm... I know several military personnel who have been to Iraq and to surrounding areas and would strongly disagree with Putnam's Bush-parroting position.

Thanks to my buddy JL up in the northwest for sending me the link to the article.

Record death count in Baghdad July

The Bushies and other war mongers are no doubt quite happy to see attention diverted to Lebanon ...and now to the breakup of a possible terrorist plot to blow up airliners.

Meanwhile, the mission in Iraq, long ago "accomplished", is anything but. I don't know at what point of chaos the Bush administration will be willing to admit that Iraq has deteriorated to civil war. The reality is that the Baghdad morgue counted the highest number of dead bodies since the US invasion began (according to this Washington Post article, the July 2006 count was 1,815 dead. Sadly, a record high number).

And sadly, rather than supporting our troops by bringing them home, Bush has quietly increased our troop presence.

PROOF: Invasion of Iraq forgone conclusion

"What the hell!  What are these guys thinking about? . . . Can't you get these guys back in the box?" - Secretary of State Colin Powell to General Hugh Shelton after Rumsfeld had brought up the possibility of attacking Iraq in a September 16, 2001 National Security Council meeting.

This and several other Quotes on Bush's Policies are posted on Thad Anderson's site (with references). So what's this have to do with "proof"?

Well, Anderson posted last March about a CBS story of 2002 talking about Donald Rumsfeld meeting with staffers the afternoon of Sept 11 2001 and trying to dredge up some way to use the murders and devastation of that day to justify invading Iraq. But Anderson didn't stop there. In July 2005, he filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Defense to get copies of the handwritten notes of Stephen Cambone - a staffer who was in the meeting with Rumsfeld. And 2 weeks ago Thad Anderson received the material from the DoD. Anderson has posted PDFs of the notes, and has also made these available on Flickr.

The fact is that the USA invasion of Iraq was decided ...I don't know when. But it was before 11 September 2001. It was a war waiting for a reason ...a reason that has been - and is still - lacking.

Falluja

I just read this eye-witness account of the Falluja battle. Words escape me. Read it.

Bush insults Americans' intelligence - again

George W Bush has no respect for the American people. He says absolutley anything and just plods along. I seriously believe the man has little ability and even less desire to distinguish between truth and fiction. The neo-conservatives pushing him along have contributed to Bush's lack of critical thought.

Well, his latest incredible statement came yesterday, when he stated that he's heard that "the right-track wrong-track in Iraq was better than here in America". Well, Mr Bush, if you believe that Iraq has a better future than America, by all means do not stick around here on our account. Good-bye!

Watch the short video of the latest ridiculous statement from Bush.