Iraq and other

I've been completely disgusted with our government with going to war against Iraq. Namely because I never believed the Weapons of Mass Destruction lie or the al Qaeda link and couldn't believe anyone did believe that drivel. I just figured it was a way to get the administration's buddies, or base as Bush was quoted saying in the Moore movie, rich with oil and rebuilding contracts. But I just finished reading America's Secret War by George Friedman and finally I have found a plausible reason for doing what we did. Still can't say I neccessarily agree with it or that there wasn't perhaps a better way that a more talented foreign policy person/group could have pulled together. I'll have to cogitate on this one awhile.

But we are in a mess in the world, due in part to the way we behave in the global arena, and if this book is anywhere near the truth then I finally feel like the US government isn't completely bonkers. What the book says is that we were losing ground rapidly with the Saudis, Iran, and others including Syria with regard their willingness to help out with the al Qaeda problem. They thought we were militarily weak. This is big news to me, but seems to make sense when viewing our actions over the last couple decades through the eyes of warlike people. So in the book's view, we had to do something and that was a show of strength, as well as put ourselves into a position of power (bases in Iraq).

It was a good read, I finally feel I have a tenuous grasp on what the heck may be going on, and who some of the players are and what might be the reasons for some of their actions. I should read more.

Then I picked up my latest copy of Utne Reader, a "Readers Digest" of sorts of the other press - non-mainstream and non-conservative. It can be a bit out there if you're not used to some of the concepts that are floating about, but it is a good collection of stories to get an alternative view. In that there were a couple interesting snippets. One was that the top 400 income earners in the United States make more money each year than the entire population of the 20 poorest countries in Africa. This is as reported in the Guardian and the Multinational Monitor.

The next thing was about an economic hit man (John Perkins) who worked for the World Bank and World Trade Organization, and multinational corporations. He wrote a book about this titled Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. To quote from Utne's story, he "was paid to create unrealistically rosy forecasts of economic growth, which he and his colleagues would use to lure poor countries' leaders into accepting massive loans from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and other international leaders." Think what the result is: they can't pay back the loans because of forecasts were bogus, hence they are owned by these organizations and corporations. The countries are exploited and trod upon. The citizens suffer because all the cash the country may have is going towards debt service.

As long as corporations' only duty is to maximize profits for its shareholders, we have a broken system that cannot work. Corporations have no conscience. Maybe some do, or some individuals within them do, but overall, I would say not.

Mr Perkins also throws out a number saying 24,000 people die of hunger each day. I don't know - what is going on?

We want peace? There'll be no global peace as long as there is such inequity.