Noami Klein on the Privatization of War...

[Rogers]

Hessians Redux: Blackwater, U.S. and England
"It's strange that most of our American brethren have forgotten the Hessians, the mercenaries the British hired to fight against us in the Revolutionary War."...

"While most analogies have flaws in them, this one does not. At this point, according to the AP and Reuters wire services, the mercenaries of Blackwater outnumber our American troops in Iraq. Remember also, that we, as taxpayers are paying for these mercenaries to work for the benefit of Halliburton, Bechtel and other American companies who are ensconced in Iraq at our government's pleasure."...

"Tis a sad day, a day that President George Washington would condemn."
http://www.informationclearinghouse....ticle18429.htm

http://www.zazzle.com/blackwater_hes...34835824003415

[techi]

Yes, privatization is a key weapon key weapon used to loot 3rd world nations. Get them in over thier heads in debt... then the IMF bails them out but imposes conditionalities. The IMF conditions typically require that the country liberalize and open thier markets.

Words like "liberalize" and "open" sound great until you realize that the results are that the nations natural resources and infrastructure will be sold off(privatized) to multinational corporations which will then loot the hell out of everything. Picture Enron owning and running an entire nation(into the ground).

I think this has much to do with the sabre wrattling with Iran. Key elements of the Iranian market are very much closed to foreign investment and control. And a civilian nuclear energy program would make Iran more independant... harder to fall into a debt trap. The concern over Iran developing nuclear weapons is all a self-righteous sham.

One of my favorite shams is George Soros's fake left wing NGO's. Soros uses them to destabilize countries on a for profit basis:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/TAL307A.html

I remember that Human Rights Watch provided the first independant (and later proved incorrect) reporting on the Georgia-Russia conflict in 2008. HRW's reporting pointed the finger at Russia having started the conflict. That's great and all... until you realize that Soros is a major funder of Human Rights Watch -AND- Soros was a major funder of the Rose Revolution that brought the current Georgian government to power.

[techi]

"... according to the AP and Reuters wire services, the mercenaries of Blackwater outnumber our American troops in Iraq. Remember also, that we, as taxpayers are paying for these mercenaries to work for the benefit of Halliburton, Bechtel and other American companies who are ensconced in Iraq at our government's pleasure."...

Yes, claims of US troop reductions in Iraq are sham if said troops are merely replaced with private armies.

What hope is to be found in this change?

[Rogers]

N.E.D. (more commonly called "Project Democracy") is part of the reason behind the likes of Iran-Contra, Gulf-War II, and the current hawking of Iran.
NED and 'Project Democracy'
(by William Blum | January 2000)
http://www.friendsoftibet.org/databa...ence/usd5.html

Adam Curtis covers all of this in his excellent documentary series entitled, "The Trap".
The Trap - 3 - We Will Force You To Be Free
"Curtis also looked at the neo-conservative agenda of the 1980s. Like Sartre, they argued that violence would sometimes be necessary to achieve their goals, except they wished to spread what they described as democracy."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trap_(television_documentary_series)
http://video.google.com/videosearch?...is+trap&emb=0#

Neo-conservative Michael Leeden, the same guy involved in Iran-Contra and the Niger Forgeries, calls himself a "democratic revolutionary". Like all of his fellow Neo-Cons' he is an ideologue and a firm believer in expediency, i.e. "the ends justify the means". These guys aren't going away anytime soon, so you should expect more conflicts to come...

P.S. Who mentioned Israel?
http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/p...Ledeen_Michael

[yodajazz]

N.E.D. (more commonly called "Project Democracy") is part of the reason behind the likes of Iran-Contra, Gulf-War II, and the current hawking of Iran.
NED and 'Project Democracy'
(by William Blum | January 2000)
http://www.friendsoftibet.org/databa...ence/usd5.html

Adam Curtis covers all of this in his excellent documentary series entitled, "The Trap".
The Trap - 3 - We Will Force You To Be Free
"Curtis also looked at the neo-conservative agenda of the 1980s. Like Sartre, they argued that violence would sometimes be necessary to achieve their goals, except they wished to spread what they described as democracy."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trap_(television_documentary_series)
http://video.google.com/videosearch?...is+trap&emb=0#

Neo-conservative Michael Leeden, the same guy involved in Iran-Contra and the Niger Forgeries, calls himself a "democratic revolutionary". Like all of his fellow Neo-Cons' he is an ideologue and a firm believer in expediency, i.e. "the ends justify the means". These guys aren't going away anytime soon, so you should expect more conflicts to come...

P.S. Who mentioned Israel?
http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/p...Ledeen_Michael

The strange thing to me is the the Contras of Nicaragua were trying to over throw a legally elected government. Yet no one in the media makes the point that just a few years ago the US government thought it was cool to subvert democracy. But now we pretend that spreading democracy is our noble goal.

I might be wrong, but back in the 80's when the Soviet Union went into Afghanistan, it was to support a democratically elected socialist government. Of course then it was also cool for the US to arm radical Muslims. But aren't people who arm radical Muslims supporting terrorism? I'm so confused!

[notdrunk]

The strange thing to me is the the Contras of Nicaragua were trying to over throw a legally elected government. Yet no one in the media makes the point that just a few years ago the US government thought it was cool to subvert democracy. But now we pretend that spreading democracy is our noble goal.

I might be wrong, but back in the 80's when the Soviet Union went into Afghanistan, it was to support a democratically elected socialist government. Of course then it was also cool for the US to arm radical Muslims. But aren't people who arm radical Muslims supporting terrorism? I'm so confused!

In the late 1970s, the Sandinistas overthrew the Debayle government. The Contras came about right after the Sandinistas overthrew the Debayle government.

The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was not a democratic nation. A military coup created the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. They model themselves after the Soviets and other Marxist nations. Interestingly, the KGB assassinated the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. The official excuse was that he was a CIA agent; however, he was not a CIA agent.

[techi]

The strange thing to me is the the Contras of Nicaragua were trying to over throw a legally elected government. Yet no one in the media makes the point that just a few years ago the US government thought it was cool to subvert democracy. But now we pretend that spreading democracy is our noble goal.

I might be wrong, but back in the 80's when the Soviet Union went into Afghanistan, it was to support a democratically elected socialist government. Of course then it was also cool for the US to arm radical Muslims. But aren't people who arm radical Muslims supporting terrorism? I'm so confused!

I think the general logic in these cases is pretty much "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". The Soviets were the Evil Empire, thus the enemies of Soviet allies were deemed to be freedom fighters. Suporting Freedom Fighters was stated to be in the vital interest of the United States because the Evil Empire was considered a significant threat.

After the fall of the Soviet Union these groups lost thier Freedom Fighter status. No more Evil Empire meant no more Freedom Fighters and no more vital interests at stake. At least till 9/11 when we got a replacement for the Evil Empire.... the Evil Terrorist Network known as Al Quaeda.

Of course, a simpler and more accurate rational in all these cases would be that "power does what power wants". And the War on Terrorism gives us cover to do just about anything that we are capable of doing.

[techi]

Now Blackwater's looking to train NGO's and Faith Based Organizations....

Blackwater Offers Training to 'Faith Based Organizationns'
By Jeremy Scahill

http://rebelreports.com/post/1896421...to-faith-based

[Ben]

[yodajazz]

The idea that it would be easier for the US to deal with smaller regional groups was part of the reasoning put forth by PNAC (Project for a New Amercian Century) in the mid-late ninties. Some of the major players in that group were Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfield, who of course had major positions under George W.

Also the agrument that private industry is always more efficient than government is a key conservative concept. Hopefully people are learning that private companies handling public issues for thier own profit creates the problem of greed possibly subverting the public good. We have the living example with the Iraq war.

Thanks for the link. I'll have to keep up more with Naiomi Klein.