If you have read any of the McClatchy reporting on the Iraq conflict over the years, it sounds as if they never ever ever left the Green Zone nor did they pay any attention to the daily reports from the HQ. Instead they interviewed the dissidents and reported faithfully all that the dissidents told them as if it were Gospel but they refused to report what the US had to say.
They did the same in this country. McClatchy reported every word from Medea Benjamin and Cindy Sheehan as if Gospel and ignored any counter-protests. They also failed to report on the background and financing of the ANSWER, Code Pink, Move On Org or any of the other organizations involved in anti-war protests. Did you never wonder how Medea Benjamin and Cindy Sheehan were able to fly all over the country on a daily basis and show up every place that there were protests? Did you think that the airlines or the privates air transport companies donated all the tickets for them to fly all these places. Do you think their trips to Cuba and other countries were also donated for nothing? Yet McClatchy had absolutely nothing to say about any of that. Tell me then why I should put any stock in what this McClatchy News correspondent had to say about anything other than the price of bottled water in the Green Zone. studio wrote: > http://www.watan.com/en/feaute/611-sherwood-ross-chicago-.html > Who are Iraq war's winners and losers? > by Sherwood Ross > CHICAGO > Thursday, 20 August 2009 06:09 > > “On my last day in Iraq,” veteran McClatchy News correspondent Leila > Fadel wrote August 9, “as on my first day in Iraq, I couldn’t see what > the United States and its allies had accomplished. … I couldn’t > understand what thousands of American soldiers had died for and why > hundreds of thousands of Iraqis had been killed.” > > Quite a few oil company CEO’s and “defense” industry executives, > however, do have a pretty good idea why that war is being fought. As > Michael Cherkasky, president of Kroll Inc., said a year after the Iraq > invasion boosted his security firm’s profits 231 percent: “It’s the > Gold > Rush.” > > What follows is a brief look at some of the outfits that cashed in, > and > at the multitudes that got took. > > “Defense Earnings Continue to Soar,” Renae Merle wrote in The > Washington > Poston July 30, 2007. “Several of Washington’s largest defense > contractors said last week that they continue to benefit from a boom > in > spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan…” > > Merle added, “Profit reports from Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics > and > Lockheed Martin showed particularly strong results in operations in > the > region.” More recently, Boeing’s second-quarter earnings this year > rose > 17 percent, Associated Pressreported, in part because of what APcalled > “robust defense sales.” > > But war, it turns out, is not only unhealthy for human beings, it is > not > uniformly good for the economy. Many sectors suffer, including > non-defense employment, as a war can destroy more jobs than it > creates. > > While the makers of warplanes may be flying high, these are “Tough > Times > For Commercial Aerospace,” Business Week reported July 13. “The sector > is contending with the deepening global recession, declining air > traffic, capacity cuts by airlines, and reduced availability of > financing for aircraft purchases.” > > The general public suffers, too. > > “As President Bush tried to fight the war without increasing taxes, > the > Iraq war has displaced private investment and/or government > expenditures, including investments in infrastructure, R&D and > education: they are less than they would otherwise have been,” write > Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes in The Three Trillion Dollar War. > > Stiglitz holds a Nobel Prize in economics and Bilmes is former > assistant > secretary of the US Department of Commerce. They say government money > spent in Iraq does not stimulate the economy in the way that the same > amounts spent at home would. > > The war has also starved countless firms for expansion bucks. > > “Higher borrowing costs for business since the beginning of the Iraq > war > are bleeding manufacturing investment,” Greg Palast wrote in Armed > Madhouse. And when entrepreneurs -- who hire so many -- lack growth > capital, job creation takes a real hit. > > We might recall too, the millions around the world who filled the > streets to protest President Bush’s impending attack on Iraq and who > have quit buying US products, further reducing sales and employment. > > “American firms, especially those that have become icons, like > McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, may also suffer, not so much from explicit > boycotts as from a broader sense of dislike of all things American,” > Stiglitz and Bilmes wrote. > > “America’s standing in the world has never been lower,” the authors > said, noting that in 2007, US “favorable” ratings plunged to 29 > percent > in Indonesia and nine percent in Turkey. “Large numbers of wealthy > people in the Middle East – where the oil money and inequality put > individual wealth in the billions – have shifted banking from America > to > elsewhere,” they said. > > Because the Iraq war crippled that country’s oil industry, output > fell, > supplies tightened, and, according to Palast, “World prices leaped to > reflect the shortfall." > > What’s more, Palast pointed out, after the Iraq invasion the Saudis > withheld more than a million barrels of oil a day from the market. > “The > one-year 121 percent post-invasion jump in the price of crude, from > under $30 a barrel to over $60, sucked that $120 billion windfall to > the > Saudis from SUV drivers and factory owners in the West,” he said. > > Count the Saudis among the big winners. > > The oil spike subtracted 1.2 percent from the gross domestic product, > “costing the USA just over one million jobs,” Palast reckoned. > Stiglitz > and Bilmes said the oil price spike meant “American families have had > to > spend about 5 percent more of their income on gasoline and heating > than > before.” > > Last year, the Iraq and Afghan wars cost each American household $138 > per month in taxes, they estimated. Count the Joneses among the big > losers. > > Palast wrote, “It has been a very good war for Big Oil – courtesy of > OPEC price hikes. The five oil giants saw profits rise from $34 > billion > in 2002 to $81 billion in 2004…But this tsunami of black ink was > nothing > compared to the wave of $120 billion in profits to come in 2006: $15.6 > billion for Conoco, $17.1 billion for Chevron and the Mother of All > Earnings, Exxon’s $39.5 billion in 2006 on sales of $378 billion.” > > Palast noted that oil firms have their own reserves whose value is > tied > to OPEC’s price targets, and “The rise in the price of oil after the > first three years of the war boosted the value of the reserves of > ExxonMobil oil alone by just over $666 billion… > > “Chevron Oil, where Condoleezza Rice had served as a director, gained > a > quarter trillion dollars in value…I calculate that the top five oil > operators saw their reserves rise in value by over $2.363 trillion.” > > Who’s surprised when Forbes reports of the ten most profitable > corporations in the world five are now oil and gas companies – > Exxon-Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Chevron, and Petro-China. > > “Since the Iraq War began,” Matthew Rothschild, editor of The > Progressive wrote, “aerospace and defense industry stocks have more > than > doubled. General Dynamics did even better than that. Its stock has > tripled.” > > An Associated Press account published July 23 observed: “With the > military fighting two wars and Pentagon budgets on a steady upward > rise, > defense companies regularly posted huge gains in profits and rosier > earnings forecasts during recent quarters. Even as the rest of the > economy tumbled last fall, military contractors, with the federal > government as their primary customer, were a relative safe haven.” > > Among the big winners are top Pentagon contractors, as ranked by > WashingtonTechnology.com as of 2008. Halliburton spun off KBR in 2007 > and their operations are covered later. Data was selected for typical > years 2007-09. > > 1. Lockheed Martin > 2. Boeing > 3. KBR > 4. Northrop Grumman > 5. General Dynamics > 6. Raytheon > 7. SAIC > 8. L-3 Communciations > 9. EDS Corporation > 10. Fluor Corporation > > --Lockheed Martin, of Bethesda, Maryland, a major warplane builder, in > 2007 alone earned profits of $3 billion on sales of nearly $42 > billion. > > --Boeing, of Chicago, saw its 2007 net profit shoot up 84 percent to > $4 > billion, fed by “strong growth in defense earnings,” according to an > Agence France-Presse report. > > --Northrop Grumman, of Los Angeles, a manufacturer of bombers, > warships > and military electronics, had 2007 profits of $1.8 billion on sales of > $32 billion. > > --General Dynamics, of Falls Church, Virginia, had profits in 2008 of > about $2.5 billion on sales of $29 billion. It makes tanks, combat > vehicles, and mission-critical information systems. > > --Raytheon, of Waltham, Massachusetts, reported about $23 billion in > sales for 2008. It is the world’s largest missile maker and Bloomberg > News says it is benefiting from “higher domestic defense spending and > US > arms exports.” > > --Scientific International Applications Corp., of La Jolla, > California, > an engineering and technology supplier to the Pentagon, had sales of > $10 > billion for fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2009, and net income of $452 > million. > > --L-3, of New York City, has enjoyed sales growth of about 25 percent > a > year recently. Its total 2008 sales of $15 billion brought it profits > of > nearly $900 million. Its primary customer is the Defense Department, > to > which it supplies high tech surveillance and reconnaissance systems. > > --EDS Corp., of Plano, Texas, purchased by Hewlett-Packard in May, > 2008, > had 2007 sales of nearly $20 billion. Its priority project is building > the $12 billion Navy-Marine Corps Intranet, said to be the largest > private network in the world. > > --Fluor Corp., of Irvine, Texas, an engineering and construction firm, > had net earnings of $720 million in 2008 on sales of $22 billion. > > The good times continue to roll for military contractors under > President > Obama, who has increased the Pentagon’s budget by 4 percent to a total > of about $700 billion. > --- > The military industrial complex is doing just fine. > It's nice to live in a police state where so many people care about > what you're doing, or make sure you have nothing to do. > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
