-Caveat Lector-
http://truthout.org/docs_03/040603H.shtml
The War's Dirty Secret: It's About Changing United States, Not Iraq
Steve Lopez
LA Times
Sunday 30 March 2003
Much to her surprise, the federal government is promising to do
everything Los Angeles Congresswoman Maxine Waters has spent years
fighting for.
Education for the neediest souls will be transformed, quality
health care will be guaranteed, damaged roadways and bridges will
be rebuilt, and millions of dollars will be spent to spur new
business.
Waters just never figured the beneficiaries would be residents of
Iraq.
A few weeks ago, when I spent several hours with her in Washington
as the start of the war approached, Waters had begun to fear the
worst.
"I'm very worried about the long-term impact," she said, predicting
that as the cost of the war grows, states, counties and cities will
get stiffed.
Waters wasn't talking about the weeks and months ahead, but the
years and decades to come. The cost of the war and rebuilding Iraq,
she said, could drastically limit what government can do.
The effort to turn Iraq into a democracy, in other words, is making
the U.S. less of one. Our opposition party has disappeared,
corporate interests dictate public policy, and the feds may be
rummaging through your e-mail.
There's a dirty secret no one has told you, and here it is: This
war is not about changing Iraq, it's about changing America.
Unless you're lucky enough to be an investor in one of the
corporations that will win multimillion-dollar contracts to rebuild
Iraq, you may be hurting when the cost of the war and a new era of
deficit spending put even more of a drag on the economy.
If you don't earn enough to hit the jackpot on President Bush's
proposed tax cuts, you're just going to have to fend for yourself.
The whole idea is to train you to expect less and to feel patriotic
about it.
If things get really bad, you can always move to Iraq.
"I think it's terribly arrogant and overly ambitious for this
president to think he can invade that country, turn it into a
democracy, and use American taxpayer dollars to build an
infrastructure that still is not built in some parts of this
nation," Waters said.
"In addition to that, he wants to go ahead with tax breaks for the
wealthiest people in this country."
To clarify, Waters isn't against sending American dollars to other
countries.
"I believe in foreign assistance, and I think the richest nation in
the world should certainly help our neighbors in other parts of the
world," she said. "But I dislike the idea that we tear up Iraq
first, bombing it to smithereens, and then we go back and put in
the water systems, the health-care facilities and the other things
we've torn up."
Last week, Waters and the rest of the country got the first bill
for Operation Iraqi Freedom when the president asked Congress for
$74.7 billion to cover war-related costs. Empire-building isn't
cheap.
"That's probably going to underwrite about one month's cost of the
war," said Waters. "And it's just the tip of the iceberg."
Waters got nervous when she saw Halliburton, Vice President Dick
Cheney's former company, grab one of the first rebuilding contracts
before we'd even begun knocking things down. To help prevent a
feeding frenzy by corporations with political connections, Waters
introduced two amendments.
The first would have put a four-year hold on the awarding of
military contracts to companies that helped draft the Iraqi war
policy or employed high-level administration officials.
It was shot down like a sputtering Scud.
Waters went back to the drawing board and came up with a softer
amendment.
"This time I just said, 'OK, let's say the person who's worked for
that company in the last four years can't do the negotiating. He'd
have to recuse himself from that discussion.' Now that's as simple
as it can get, and they voted against that one, too."
One night last week, I called Waters' Capitol Hill office at 9 p.m.
her time and she answered the phone herself, having just returned
from a House session.
"I was on the floor for an hour, helping educate people about the
cuts being made to veterans' programs," she said.
So let's review.
We're asking 200,000 troops to risk life and limb in Iraq, and the
White House and Congress are preparing a welcome-home party by
slashing veterans' benefits.
Last week, I visited the Veterans Affairs dorms in West L.A., where
I met a Vietnam vet who was wounded six times. He had a brace on
his leg and shrapnel scars from head to toe, and he'd finally given
up on his fight for enough disability pay to live on.
When I walked away, patients were calling out to me, saying there's
no hot water for showers.
Things are not looking good for the future veterans of Operation
Iraqi Freedom.
By Waters' count, current budget proposals would trim $15 billion
from veterans' programs -- something's got to cover those big tax
cuts -- over the next 10 years.
And that's if there are no unforeseen costs in the rebuilding of
Iraq.
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