Mission Accomplished

by Tim Castleman

This Saturday marks one year since George Bush declared "Mission Accomplished".

The Mission was to engage the United States of America in a long term war to feed the war machine and stimulate the Economy. I predicted this during the campaign in 2000. I may not have written it down, but in my heart I knew that if George Bush got elected we would surely be at war within a year. Remember, the dot com bust was fresh; the economy was in the tank. NASDAQ had slid from its dizzying mark above 6000 and has remained back in the 2000 range ever since. Team Bush needed an Economic engine fast, and nothing is faster than ramping up the war Economy.

Someone said "Follow the money" - and the money trail leads through the likes of Halliburton, Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, EXXON, Shell-Texaco, BP, Bechtel and a myriad of corporations worldwide. Actually, in some ways America is getting a bum rap because investors from all over the world, including Saudi Arabia, Japan, and even the former USSR are all reaping huge profits on arms and support materials to keep these wars going worldwide.

One day last year I dialed a number published in an article that connected me to a worker at a large defense contractor - well, bomb builder. I asked her how it felt to be a party to the mayhem caused and perpetuated by their products. Predictably, she jumped to the defensive mode and excused it by stating they were building things to protect our troops. I said that the best way to protect our troops, and America, would be to keep them here instead of sending them out rampaging all over the world to conquer and destroy.

It is important to understand how much of western cultures prosperity is tied to the Military Industrial Complex, and to recognize that millions of families depend on that income to perpetuate the "American Way of Life" they have grown accustomed to.

There are a precious few democrats that are willing to say no to this. The majority understand the economic connection, and to retain their positions ignore morality and pander to the corporate world. This is a spiritual sickness of the soul. A symptom is the love of money. Wealth corrupts and requires compromise. The Economy is the first priority in every issue considered by these souled out politicians. Even when debating the pros and cons of going to war, the number one consideration is always about how it will affect the Economy. Accustomed to compromise and half truth, it becomes second nature to veil the truth with a layer of middle-of-the-road pap to appease the public, while the real deals are made in secret meetings with corporate executives.

This explains why George Bush was able to stand up and declare HIS Mission Accomplished. His mission was to ramp up the war machine, which stimulated the Economy. Capitalists love him because their families are prospering. Most American families have two or more cars to drive. Many have boats and campers to insulate them from the natural world when the go out to play. Most have complete control over the temperature in their cars and homes, and cheap petroleum has created demand for televisions to be built into the headrests of vehicles that look more and more like living rooms on wheels. Many have TWO homes to occupy, one for just a few weeks out of the year, and they will drive their mobile living rooms right past homeless people begging for pennies and living in cardboard boxes on their way to worship with other capitalists in fancy buildings that are also only used a once or twice each week, then locked and protected by security forces to stand empty the rest of the time.

The Mission was Accomplished. The Economy is improving.