Top defense contracting companies reap the benefits meant for small businesses --
"Thirty percent of all defense contract money reported as going to small businesses
and special minority-owned businesses has ended up in the hands of the top
defense companies, the Center for Public Integrity has found."
There are 20,000 "private security contractors" in Iraq: What do you call the people
who fill the gaps arising when the desire of politicians to make war often exceeds
citizens' desire to be sent to war?
The United States has detained more than 83,000 foreigners in the four years of
the war on terror, enough to nearly fill the NFL's largest stadium.
Did US troops use chemical weapons in Falluja? The answer is yes. The proof is not
to be found in the documentary broadcast on Italian TV last week, which has
generated gigabytes of hype on the internet. It’s a turkey, whose evidence that
white phosphorus was fired at Iraqi troops is flimsy and circumstantial(1). But the
bloggers debating it found the smoking gun.
A proposal prohibiting defense contractor involvement in human trafficking for
forced prostitution and labor was drafted by the Pentagon last summer, but five
defense lobbying groups [including Halliburton's KBR] oppose key provisions and a
final policy still appears to be months away.
Learn more about America's most sacred cow, how almost all politicians bow before
the idol of military power and how this is costing our country in deep and profound
ways.
A Zogby poll conducted when Bush was re-elected showed American voters actually
more worried about economic justice than abortion. Specifically, when asked to
choose the most urgent moral crisis, 33 percent of voters chose ‘greed and
materialism’ and 31 percent ‘poverty and economic justice.’ Twenty percent named
abortion.
