Unqualified US Kings Placed in Baghdad Palaces-- Sucking Down US Taxpayer Dollars --Avoiding Solutions

Imperial Life in the Emerald City:
Inside Iraq's Green Zone
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
(excerpt from Amazon)

An unprecedented account of life in Baghdad’s Green Zone, a walled-off enclave of towering plants, posh villas, and sparkling swimming pools that was the headquarters for the American occupation of Iraq.

The Washington Post’s former Baghdad bureau chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran takes us with him into the Zone: into a bubble, cut off from wartime realities, where the task of reconstructing a devastated nation competed with the distractions of a Little America—a half-dozen bars stocked with cold beer, a disco where women showed up in hot pants, a movie theater that screened shoot-’em-up films, an all-you-could-eat buffet piled high with pork, a shopping mall that sold pornographic movies, a parking lot filled with shiny new SUVs, and a snappy dry-cleaning service—much of it run by Halliburton. Most Iraqis were barred from entering the Emerald City for fear they would blow it up.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews and internal documents, Chandrasekaran tells the story of the people and ideas that inhabited the Green Zone during the occupation, from the imperial viceroy L. Paul Bremer III to the fleet of twentysomethings hired to implement the idea that Americans could build a Jeffersonian democracy in an embattled Middle Eastern country.

In the vacuum of postwar planning, Bremer ignores what Iraqis tell him they want or need and instead pursues irrelevant neoconservative solutions—a flat tax, a sell-off of Iraqi government assets, and an end to food rationing. His underlings spend their days drawing up pie-in-the-sky policies, among them a new traffic code and a law protecting microchip designs, instead of rebuilding looted buildings and restoring electricity production. His almost comic initiatives anger the locals and help fuel the insurgency.

Chandrasekaran details Bernard Kerik’s ludicrous attempt to train the Iraqi police and brings to light lesser known but typical travesties: the case of the twenty-four-year-old who had never worked in finance put in charge of reestablishing Baghdad’s stock exchange; a contractor with no previous experience paid millions to guard a closed airport; a State Department employee forced to bribe Americans to enlist their help in preventing Iraqi weapons scientists from defecting to Iran; Americans willing to serve in Iraq screened by White House officials for their views on Roe v. Wade; people with prior expertise in the Middle East excluded in favor of lesser-qualified Republican Party loyalists. Finally, he describes Bremer’s ignominious departure in 2004, fleeing secretly in a helicopter two days ahead of schedule.

This is a startling portrait of an Oz-like place where a vital aspect of our government’s folly in Iraq played out. It is a book certain to be talked about for years to come.

Who Is Really Arming Iraqi Insurgents?

The most recent surge in finger-pointing at Iran reminds us of the four fingers pointing back at the US and Great Britain according to every source especially the bestselling book, Arming Iraq. Of all the weapons being used in Iraq by people on all sides it is fair to say a huge majority were made in America and provided en masse over many years.

Bush is yet again, a hypocrite as his dad armed and trained rebels in Nicaragua in the war that "didn't happen". Reagan and Bush exchanged weapons for hostages with Iran and now both directly and indirectly have done it again, Bush is crying that Iran is helping the people about whom they care; but worse, we are the ones that put the most weapons in their hands to kill American soldiers. But, hey, war makes money for gun makers.

We can also be sure much of the single $12-Billion stack of cash which is still unaccounted for, was inevitably used to pay for weapons that are being used against US soldiers. One of many smokescreens, this current propaganda campaign regarding Iran's arming insurgents, is just another distraction from looming questions about financial corruption and irreversible failed policy. I would like to say "Good money after bad" but it's all bad and an extraordinary waste of US taxpayer dollars, but worse the things that are sorely needed in the US: Education, health care and peace missions that re-establish the US as an exemplary, peaceful nation.

When America gets over its denial it will not only seek to end the war but will face its role in intentionally undermining itself in order to create a cycle of war profits for companies like Halliburton. So far, most agree the war before, during and after will go down in history as a Fiasco.

Eventually, we will have to stop blaming "them" and take the blame ourselves as voters and those responsible for failing speak out; for failing to demand accountability and for allowing the robber barons to steal us blind while killing people of all nationalities including ours. Of course, as history repeats itself, the US selling arms to its enemies was ignored before; it will be ignored again. If the war doesn't end and weapons we make and sell continue to kill us, we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

Why We Fight (2006) Complete

This is the complete documentary film, Why We Fight.

What are the forces that shape and propel American militarism? This award-winning film provides an inside look at the anatomy of the American war machine.

Is American foreign policy dominated by the idea of military supremacy? Has the military become too important in American life?

Is the US government in the business of encouraging war around the world, just to sell arms?

This goes back to once General, President Eisenhower's warning about the military industrial complex.