The Long Haul
April 21, 2005
"God help anybody that sits at this desk and doesn't know as much about the military as I do"
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower
BAGHDAD, Iraq [AP] - A commercial helicopter was shot down by missile fire north of the Iraqi capital Thursday, killing 11 people, including six American contractors, officials said.Bulgaria's Defense Ministry said the helicopter was downed by missile fire and the victims included a three-member Bulgarian crew.
A Toronto-based charter company said there were two bodyguards from Fiji on board, while Bulgaria's Transport Ministry said they were from the Philippines.
The Philippine mission in Baghdad said it had no information that any of its nationals were on the helicopter.
The six Americans worked for security contractor Blackwater USA, the U.S. Embassy said. The North Carolina-based contracting firm provides security for State Department officials in Iraq.
Two U.S. military officials in Baghdad initially said the helicopter was contracted by the Defense Department, but the U.S. Embassy later said that was untrue. It gave no information on the contractor.
It was unclear whether the civilian employees of Blackwater were under contract to the Pentagon or the State Department, U.S. officials in Washington said....
The deaths touched off a Marine assault on insurgents in the city.
According to Global Security.org there are at least 30 military facilities currently operating in occupied Iraq under the auspices of allied forces. Their layout suggests a "strategic crescent", from the northeast around Mosul down to the southeast, Basrah and the Persian Gulf. Months ago Global Security reported on the establishment of at least a dozen facilities that had all the hallmarks of permanent installations. Combine those with the sprawling twenty-first century air base in Qatar and you see the true scope of the empire's ambitions in the region. But Iraq is far from stable and the exact aims of the administration seem murkier now than ever.
The occupants of the helicopter were private military contractors--who are paid many times more than most members of the actual military--and their bodyguards. This helicopter was privately chartered, presumably at significant expense. The expense is even more significant when one considers Federal Reserve Chairman Allen Greenspan's testimony today before the House Budget Committee that federal budget deficits were really, really out of control.
You cannot continuously introduce legislation which tends to expand budget deficits because down the road the impact of an ever-rising deficit, especially as a percent of the GDP, creates some significant weakness in the structure of the economy... Addressing the government’s own imbalances will require scrutiny of both spending and taxes. However, tax increases of sufficient dimension to deal with our looming fiscal problems arguably pose significant risks to economic growth and the revenue base.
Greenspan's subsequent remarks appeared to suggest that cutting Social Security benefits was the answer, though he later denied that was his intention. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) were all over that one: "Social Security should not be a resource for negotiators over the federal budget deficit," AARP CEO William Novelli said in a statement.
Novelli is absolutely correct. The argument over crazy deficit spending begins and ends with military operations, their scope, their aims and their outcomes. But you won't hear Greenspan touching that one any time soon. Oil is too important, or rather, control of oil is too important. As it is, Americans have no idea what's going on but they do know the price of gasoline is really, really out of control.
For anyone concerned about rising gasoline prices or, maybe, just maybe the connection between those prices and deficit spending, I suggest taking a look at the BBC documentary Why We Fight.
Then maybe take a look at this:
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