The Iraq War ... Its economics, stupid !

I hate war - In fact, several of my early posts were oriented around the Iraq war.

From a very early age, children (predominantly boys) are exposed to a culture that glamourizes war - Movies, mythology (Mahabharatha/Iliad/etc), toys and religion (in some places).

Most children grow out of it.
Some don't, and that is the source of the world's best and worst.

I have realized one thing though - The billions of dollars that are being spent on the Iraq war arent really being "wasted". The war is just a mechanism to transfer money from the poor to the rich in the US. And although there are other ways to do it (unfair taxation, force-feeding of commercialism etc ...), war is the perfect vehicle for it.

What else could fire up factory workers in Alabama, living on the verge of poverty to make personal sacrifices and accept increased financial burdens ? War makes the patriotic poor (a generalization) willing to give up their hard earned money, more easily than anything else.

Of the billions of dollars being spent, a great deal of it is re-entering the US - However, the money now belongs to a few large corporations instead of the millions of Americans.

Tell me, under which other circumstances would "ordinary" Americans sit back and accept such a blatant redistribution of wealth ?

Of course, the insurgency has thrown a spanner in the works ....

Comments

Anonymous said…
Too bad that this artificial widening of the "wealth divide" works only as long as other countries want to use the Dollar and/or buy Dollar bonds. Once they move to the Euro, reality hits home and all those trade deficits start making a dent. You're looking at short term gains instead of long term.

Very soon, the OPEC is going to start using Euros/barter system for oil trades.
Ideamani said…
Your comment on the Euro isnt relevant to this topic - But, personally, I dont see the Euro relacing the dollar as the preferred transaction currency in the next several years. The OPEC has just started accepting the Euro for payment, its not going to move to exclusive Euro-based transactions for a loooong time (maybe never).

And although Japan and China could ask for their bonds to be liquidated in Euros, its Catch 22 for them, as if they do that, and the US cant repay the loans by printing more money, the US economy will tank and so automatically will China and to a large extent Japan's.

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