Big surprise: money wasted
Tim Swanson,
March 17, 2009
While an argument could be made that all money spent on defense (war) appropriations is a waste, a new report shows that 20% of the money set aside by Congress to rebuild Iraq was “wasted” on shoddy craftsmanship and “excessive payments to contractors.”
In other breaking news, $900 billion has been spent destroying offices, kiosks, stores, cars, refineries, infrastructure and killing approximately one million employees of Arab-based enterprises.
But those were all terrorists and terrorist training facilities, right?
See also: Isn’t war good for the economy?
That is the Sound of Money Exploding
Military Handouts and Financial Aid in Africa
A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money
Andy
March 17th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
ALL the money the U.S. spends on “defense” is a waste. The only thing being “defended” is Washington’s imperial hegemony, not the territory of the USA or the lives of American citizens. It’s not like an army of Canadians are massing on the North Dakota border or something…..such an insane, destructive foreign policy America has.
Skulz Fontaine
March 18th, 2009 at 5:31 am
War good, existence bad!
SanFernandoCurt
March 18th, 2009 at 7:21 am
What?!! We’re rebuilding it?!! Is this one of those network news scoops in which some Green Zone jackass kicks a broken tile into the gutter and hollers “Iraq is revived!”?
GM
March 18th, 2009 at 7:56 am
“Defense” spending is actually far worse than wasted taxpayer money (though it is a big waste of money) because the ludicrous sums we spend (more than every other country in the world combined) encourage war and empire. This in turn creates a feedback loop of blowback, the moral and financial corruption of our society, and a never ending array of new threats to turn our supposed military (and intelligence) prowess upon. With a budget deficit of at least 1.75 trillion and perhaps the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression, you would think our leaders would be pushing for massive cuts in the “defense” budget. But this is not the case because the policial establishment and special interests have too much invested in the military-industrial complex to allow a significant reduction even given the dire economic straits we are in right now.
richard vajs
March 18th, 2009 at 9:57 am
America has developed a juvenile reverence for all things military. Our military personel are “accepted” as our bravest and best. You can’t even watch a NASCAR race without having to sit through presentations of color guards, some mawkish preaching about Je-suss blessing our brave troops, and to top it off, a flyover of military jet aircraft looking like they want to strafe the place. It is all so bizarre – can’t we move on from 9/11? or some jackass in a flightsuit (with a prominent codpiece) declaring Victory over some wretched third world country?
Andy
March 18th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Amen to that Richard. Why I can’t just watch a baseball game without an ear-shattering roar of jets flying over my head is beyond me. I’ll give the military one thing. They never miss a chance to brainwash the gullible American sheeple. Where were those fighter planes when we actually needed them on September 11th?
Lester Ness
March 18th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Genl. Westmoreland opined that life was cheap in Asia and lots of Americans seem to agree.
Lester Ness
Kunming
China
Lear k
March 18th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Talk about the progress that the US promised to bring to Iraq!
Baghdad’s water still undrinkable 6 years after invasion
Six years after the U.S. invaded Iraq , 36 percent of Baghdad’s drinking water is unsafe, according to the Iraqi Environment Ministry — in a good month. In a bad month, it’s 90 percent. Cholera broke out last summer, and officials fear another outbreak this year.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090318/wl_mcclatchy/3191674;_ylt=AtjHHTuN2l3ZQ74fUYF9QE5vaA8F
liberranter
March 18th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
It’s not like an army of Canadians are massing on the North Dakota border or something
Given the fact that most of the Imperial Legions are deployed abroad in defense of the Empire, including a preponderance of the National Guard forces of the border states, our northern neighbors probably would not only be able to cross the border unopposed, but would probably capture a huge swath of the northern Midwest before anyone could react. Fortunately for Amerika, however, the Canadians have enough problems of their own to deal with without the added headache of occupying the Lower 48. No fools, they, they’ll leave “invading and conquering” to our southern Reconquistador neighbors.
Andy
March 19th, 2009 at 3:33 am
The entire U.S. geopolitical imperial edifice is a house built on sand. Mexico SHOULD be much more important to America then far away countries like South Korea, Israel, or Georgia. But its not.
corkey
March 19th, 2009 at 4:15 am
Getting ready to fly over some stupid baseball game probably, Andy.
Whenever I watch the movie Braveheart and see the egocentric hypocritical Scottish clans that William Wallace had to deal with, it always kind of reminds me of 9-11 and our current rulers.
Nike
March 19th, 2009 at 5:43 am
“Genl. Westmoreland opined that life was cheap in Asia and lots of Americans seem to agree.”
True, but it’s not just Asians shown in that ‘light.’ Not that they’re alone in doing so, but the US government has a habit of portraying whoever their military is killing at that particular moment as subhuman. Yes, the Vitenamese people were suddenly shown on US television as barbarian ‘gooks’ when enough of them were slaughtered, the US papers rife with articles puzzling over the ‘mindset of the Asian’ and such – all to reassure us regular folk that the death of those people doesn’t really matter – not even to themselves or to their parents. But today, Muslim people – and most especially Arabs – are shown in the same light and for the exact same reason.
God Bless America.
liberranter
March 19th, 2009 at 8:05 am
Yup. “Alaric” and “Odacaer” are two names that keep coming to mind.
Lear k
March 19th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Hollywood has been dehumanizing and demonizing Arabs and Muslims non-stop since its existence.
richard vajs
March 20th, 2009 at 3:27 am
I agree. There was a silent movie star, Theda Bara that played evil vamps; rearranged the letters in her name spelled “Arab Death”. Also Valentino with the shiek business – always a threat to seduce Western women with “magic Arab powers”.
Corkey
March 23rd, 2009 at 5:07 am
And we are supposed to believe that Congress will competently manage and judiciously spend the leftover assets of AIG and other companies once they are taken over. OH, please !