what joe doesn’t know
This morning’s NY Times OP-ED article What I’d Be Talking About if I Were Still Running quotes Senator Joe Biden decrying how the US is ignoring terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan while funneling all it’s military efforts into Iraq:
In six years, we have spent on Afghanistan’s reconstruction only what we spend every three weeks on military operations in Iraq, says Biden.
Well Senator, get a clue. (Or maybe Biden should be excused for confusing rhetoric with reality.) All of the speeches about fighting terrorism are pretext for foreign invasions to satisfy military contractors and multinationals.
As long as terrorists attack the US, the US government will reap the benefit of being able to ‘retaliate’ — this means they can invade any country they can muster enough propaganda against (for instance, Iraq). The benefit of this arrangement cannot be overstated. In a peaceful world the feds are forced to deal with domestic issues, which often means assisting citizens. This is the last thing most feds want.
A big percentage of President Bush’s buddies and backers are oil companies. They have every reason to be pleased with this administration’s performance. Oil profits are at an all-time high.
Should oil be discovered in Afghanistan, you can bet our national priorities would change overnight. But meanwhile, keeping potential future terrorist attacks simmering in the pot is a big asset to foreign policy hawks’ future plans. That’s why the feds funding formula favors Iraq.