Shafted

No weapons of mass destruction, no links to Al Qaeda, and now we know that they knew it all along.

So why did they invade? Did they feel like they were on a roll after “pacifying” Afghanistan? Did the son want to finish what the father had begun?

Or did the boardroom buddies identify an opportunity to make unlimited billions out of the American people?

All President Bush had to do was go to Congress and ask for the cash. Ask and ye shall receive. And in the process the military-industrial complex bleeds the US Treasury dry. But that’s not possible is it, for the Treasury is a bottomless pit of money. Just add it to the deficit tab.

So where does this money go? Forget about the New World Order. It’s the same old world of robber barons who are continuing to play us for fools while lining their pockets. Governments provide the conditions for war. The armaments industry provides the weapons. And if they both belong to the same club – watch out!

Note that whenever there is a war, academics crawl out of the woodwork to pronounce the war “just” or if they don’t like the perpetrators it’s a “violation of international law.”

And as long as it’s “just,” everything’s OK. The massacre of civilians is “regrettable” however collateral damage is a fact of life. The leveling of cities is necessary, to “eliminate terrorist sanctuaries.” Morally justifiable? Absolutely! “They started it and we need to protect ourselves.”

Without the smart bombs, the cruise missiles and all the rest, the scope of the destruction would be of a much smaller magnitude.

In the words of the gun lobby: “Guns don’t kill people, people do.” But in the words of anyone with a brain: “If you don’t have explosives, you can’t blow anything up.”

It is for this reason that the bomb producers must be made responsible for the products they manufacture.

A suicide bomber without a bomb is just an idiot. A government conducting a “just” war is all rhetoric and hot air, without tanks, artillery and missiles.

Those who are making billions of dollars profit from the manufacture of these advanced weapons should be made liable and pay for the rebuilding of houses and infrastructure that their weapons destroy, compensate the victims, as well as reimburse the Red Cross and governments providing humanitarian aid.

Just like the publican who juices up drunks and allows them to drive away from his bar, it is the armaments industry that converts a man with a stick to someone who can obliterate entire towns just by pressing a button.

The geniuses who created the war in Iraq came up with a brilliantly elegant sequel. Reconstruction. While half of Bush’s buddies fleece the Treasury to bomb the crap out of the dump, the other half grab the rest of the loot to rebuild it. Talk about shock and awe!

In order to establish some kind of equilibrium, armaments manufacturers should pay 95% of their profits into a compensation fund which can be drawn upon by the powerless victims of these global hooligans.

What you cause to be destroyed you must rebuild, at your own expense.