The Following is an article that was just published
under my by-line at American Chronicle
CAPITAL CRIMES
AND CRIMES AGAINST CAPITAL
Bomb them back to the Stone Age, is a saying that
has been attributed to many over the years, including
Gen. Curtis LeMay during World War II and Georgia
Senator Richard Russell as an infamous exhortation for
America, early in the Viet-Nam War. It earned Russell
an Esquire Dubious Achievement Award and shredded what
was left of any presidential ambitions he may still
have harbored.
It sent shivers through those of us who actively
supported our intervention in that exotic, faraway
land that we had only known as Indo-China during the
1950s. It left us with the uneasy internal
acknowledgment that we were destroying things, living
and otherwise.
The saying is re-emerging in various circles with
this, our invasion of Iraq. It should give the wars
dwindling supporters pause for the lessons are there.
We are killing people and setting their civilization
back decades.
There are numerous, haunting images from Viet-Nam
that, lo these years later, remain seared into our
conscious. Who can forget the pictures of the little
girl, running, down the road, naked and screaming from
the bombs that had been dropped on her village? Then
there was the sobering clip of the American G.I.
setting a straw hut afire with a Zippo® lighter.
Finally, we had to confront the pictures from the My
Lai incident with bodies strewn in ditches, raising
the specter of the concentration camps of World War
II.
But so many of us swallowed it as a necessary but
unfortunate side effect of war, in the current
euphemism, collateral damage. We swallowed it
because we had swallowed the myth of stopping them
before they do what Hitler did. Remember, Neville
Chamberlain. and If not there, then Hawaii. were
the mottos of the gulled. Those have both been
exposed as lies but, no matter, Soviet and National
Socialism have been defeated, at a cost of millions of
lives and trillions of dollars.
The loss of human lives is the single greatest loss of
resources for any country. At this point, more than
3,000 Americans have been killed in Iraq. For Iraq,
that loss is as much as 650,000, which, in less than
four years, is just 100,000 less than the worst
estimate for the entire duration of Saddam Husseins
regime.
Im sure many have seen the television ad that starts
off showing a smiling, pleasant young man, with his
head and neck flexed slightly downward. As the camera
pans back, he is shown to be standing on two
prosthetic legs, reaching for two parallel bars to
learn to walk on them. Several people stand around to
assist him in case he stumbles. All of them smile,
too. A voice tells us that he lost them in combat.
Its an ad for the manufacturer of the prosthetics.
Some people make money from war, and not just the
people you might immediately think.
Even if we dont consider human lives, the most
important statistic, then what about the economic
costs? What do we hope to leave the survivors that we
leave in charge after weve liberated their
homelands? Nations reduced to rubble?
In spite of all the effort at obfuscation, the
economic process is simple and universal. In the
beginning there are people and land. People apply
their labor to land and capital results. In primitive
economies, its usually in the form of crops, game and
material for building shelter. Those products can be
either consumed, again in primitive societies eaten,
or used as fodder for additional capital production,
such as feed for livestock. As society progresses, to
produce other items.
After millenia, societies have advanced to the point
where far less of the total production is used for
immediate consumption, especially necessities. More
can be used for the production of other capital.
Thats the case in modern economies. In America
today, less than than 2% of the work force is involved
in agriculture, the most basic of labor endeavors. At
the turn of the twentieth century it was far more, if
I am correct, more than 40 percent.
Before this war, Iraq was fairly modern but obviously
nothing like Western Europe and America. It will
likely be fifty years before they have recovered
economically from what we have done. All that rubble
that we see on televison is infrastructure that took
years and decades, even centuries to build. Theyre
being destroyed. They were resources for the
production of more capital and wealth. To the extent
that freedom arises from economic prosperity, and
theres no doubt that prosperity is the single
greatest catalyst for human freedom, we have set back
the cause of liberty in Iraq and Afghanistan. That
must be the George Bushs version of liberation.
The devastation that was wreaked upon Europe by two
World Wars, left us with their own haunting images.
We still recoil at the sights of the concentration
camps and the corpses littering the countryside.
Bombed out cathedrals and other treasures of
antiquity, destroyed for many their connections to
their pasts.
Our own Civil War, actually The War for Confederate
Independence, set back the South for decades. For
some areas, it was well into the twentieth century
before they recovered. I once read that before that
conflict, Mississippi was the second wealthiest state
in the Union. I dont recall a time in my life when it
wasnt ranked as the poorest.
And now these lunatics in Washington are discussing an
invasion of Iran. Between Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan,
their populations are about 130 million in an area of
1.7 million square miles. For contrast, the
contiguous 48 United States have a population of about
298 million in an area of about 3.1 million square
miles. Its insanity to think that we can subdue such
an extensive region with its ancient ethnic
antagonisms that have resisted invaders for millennia.
The worst of them is Afghanistan which has chewed up
and spit out invaders from the time of Alexander to
the Soviet Union, whose demise it accelerated.
Is this what we wish to leave for the Middle East?
Will George Bush and his conned neo-cons just wave
their magic wands and have it all rebuilt and life
restored to the dead?
No. George Bush, et al will ring democracy to the area
if they have to kill all 130 million of them and
destroy a generation of young Americans in the
process.
Make no mistake about it. What George Bush is doing
qualifies as a war criminal who should have to face an
international tribunal. But what goes around, comes
around in international politics. Dont be surprised
if it brings us to the same fate it brought the Soviet
Union.
Roderick T. Beaman
The Crazy Libertarian
End the American Empire before it ends US.
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