Does anyone remember the \u201ccakewalk war\u201d that would last six weeks, cost $50-$60 billion, and be paid for out of Iraqi oil revenues?<\/p>\n
Does anyone remember that White House economist Lawrence Lindsey was fired by Dubya because Lindsey estimated that the Iraq war could cost as much as $200 billion?<\/p>\n
Lindsey was fired for over<\/em>-estimating the cost of a war that, according to Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, has cost 15 times more than Lindsey estimated. And the US still has 50,000 troops in Iraq.<\/p>\n Does anyone remember that just prior to the US invasion of Iraq, the US government declared victory over the Taliban in Afghanistan?<\/p>\n Does anyone remember that the reason Dubya gave for invading Iraq was Saddam Hussein\u2019s weapons of mass destruction, weapons that the US government knew did not exist?<\/p>\n Are Americans aware that the same neoconservarives who made these fantastic mistakes, or told these fabulous lies, are still in control of the government in Washington?<\/p>\n The \u201cwar on terror\u201d is now in its tenth year.\u00a0 What is it really all about?<\/p>\n The bottom line answer is that the \u201cwar on terror\u201d is about creating real terrorists. The US government desperately needs real terrorists in order to justify its expansion of its wars against Muslim countries and to keep the American people sufficiently fearful that they continue to accept the police state that provides \u201csecurity from terrorists,\u201d but not from the government that has discarded civil liberties.<\/p>\n The US government creates terrorists by invading Muslim countries, wrecking\u00a0 infrastructure and killing vast numbers of civilians. The US also creates terrorists by installing puppet governments to rule over Muslims and by using the puppet governments to murder and persecute citizens as is occurring on a vast scale in Pakistan today.<\/p>\n Neoconservatives used 9\/11 to launch their plan for US world hegemony. Their plan fit with the interests of America\u2019s ruling oligarchies. Wars are good for the profits of the military\/security complex, about which President Eisenhower warned us in vain a half century ago.\u00a0 American hegemony is good for the oil industry\u2019s control over resources and resource flows. The transformation of the Middle East into a vast American puppet state serves well the Israel Lobby\u2019s Zionist aspirations for Israeli territorial expansion.<\/p>\n Most Americans cannot see what is happening because of their conditioning.\u00a0 Most Americans believe that their government is the best on earth, that it is morally motivated to help others and to do good, that it rushes aid to countries where there is famine and natural catastrophes. Most believe that their presidents tell the truth, except about their sexual affairs.<\/p>\n The persistence of these delusions is extraordinary in the face of daily headlines that report US government bullying of, and interference with, virtually every country on earth. The US policy is to buy off, overthrow, or make war on leaders of other countries who represent their peoples\u2019 interests instead of American interests. A recent victim was the president of Honduras who had the wild idea that the Honduran government should serve the Honduran people.<\/p>\n The American government was able to have the Honduran president discarded, because the Honduran military is trained and supplied by the US military. It is the same case in Pakistan, where the US government has the Pakistani government making war on its own people by invading tribal areas that the Americans consider to be friendly to the Taliban, al Qaeda, \u201cmilitants\u201d and \u201cterrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier this year a deputy US Treasury secretary ordered Pakistan to raise taxes so that the Pakistani government could more effectively make war on its own citizens for the Americans. On October 14 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordered Pakistan to again raise taxes or the US would withhold flood aid. Clinton pressured America\u2019s European puppet states to do the same, expressing in the same breath that the US government was worried by British cuts in the military budget. God forbid that the hard-pressed British, still reeling from American financial fraud, don\u2019t allocate enough money to fight America\u2019s wars.<\/p>\n