All war, all the time

or, I guess I'm not the only one to notice ...

...it struck me that the true genius of the Bush regime and its neo-con allies is that they have created a self-perpetuating privatized killing machine. There are always those who will profit from war and do their best to lobby for war. But Bush has taken this hallmark tendency in a capitalist society a step further by creating a veritable patronage system that requires sustaining these wars and occupations indefinitely. The Erik Princes of this world will now be a constant political force pressing the nation to maintain a substantial garrison in Iraq, Afghanistan, and everywhere else where a buck can be made.

Whoever sits in the White House after January 20, 2009, or which party controls the Congress, will matter little without bold action against the new permanent war economy. Without radical change this new militarized patronage system will continue to chug along. There are simply too many people and corporations making too much money to give it up. Halliburton's in Dubai now, and with Blackwater, Triple Canopy, and Dyncorp providing the muscle, Bush and Cheney have accomplished the dream of Ronald Reagan's CIA Director William Casey: To build an "off the shelf, stand alone, independent" entity to run American foreign policy free from the constraints of the Congress and the American people*.

The next President is not going to know what the hell is going on over there with all of those "cut outs" and front businesses and shell companies and money launderers and arms merchants and private security firms fused with the privatized U.S. intelligence services and military. Lots of luck trying to reel in these privateers and freebooters ...

the rest of it after the click ...

My comment: Of course, it helps to have read Vonnegut.

* Read, "free from the constraints of the Constitution" and answerable to no one, no law, and no jurisdiction.

In Rome, new emperors were often chosen by the private armies they could muster. Rome fell. It deserved to. It helps to read a little history now and then, too.