We know why there are wars, and we've known it for a long time. Good wars, that is, necessary wars, not wars by powerful foreign invaders, wars that might threaten our country.

Everybody knows we're in the process of old-hat empire building, the kind designed by the British in the salad days of colonialism and for which they eventually took hits around the world by the likes of George Washington and Mahatma Gandhi.

No lessons learned there. President Obama is about to make a momentous decision on Afghanistan. He has been mulling over, for the last few weeks, how many more troops he will be sending to McChrystal, to further his counter-insurgency in that country. Ten thousand? Eighty thousand? Whichever, it's a process of foregone futility. And everybody knows it. But the mainstream media, heavy with punditry, spends endless hours hashing over every detail. And you don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing. The propaganda circle from government handout to media coverage is complete.

These graphs are provided by The Center for Public Integrity whose mission is to produce original investigative journalism to make institutional power more transparent and accountable. Just an example at random:

The Top 15 Private Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, 2004-2006

Name Amount Rank Unidentified Foreign Entities $20,435,870,190 1 KBR Inc (formerly known as Kellogg Brown and Root) $16,059,282,020 2 DynCorp International (Veritas Capital) $1,838,156,100 3 Washington Group International Inc $1,044,686,850 4 IAP Worldwide Services Inc (Cerberus Capital Management LP) $901,973,910 5 Environmental Chemical Corp $899,701,070 6 L-3 Communications Holdings Inc $853,535,680 7 Fluor Corp $736,853,200 8 Perini Corp $720,859,110 9 Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) $617,089,510 10 Parsons Corp $579,265,450 11 First Kuwaiti General Trading And Contracting Company Wll $495,404,500 12 Blackwater USA $485,149,590 13 Tetra Tech Inc $362,107,010 14 AMEC PLC $317,171,280 15

Here's how the circle of influence works.

We elected Barack Obama to change all that, didn't we?

But Obama took over from Bush without missing a stroke. The faceless corporate oligarchy that runs this country has been around awhile. It ran Clinton and Bush, now runs Obama. (How far back do you want to take it?) Who are these oligarchs? Yes, there are factions within the oligarchy. They have their differences. They don't all agree. They represent different entities of industrial and corporate power. They have their collateral network. They are the pillars of capitalism. They are mostly unheard and unseen, but occasionally you may get a glimpse of a face...

Obamastocks.net says this:

Zbigniew Brzezinski - Puppet Master of Obama? "Zbigniew Brzezinski is the puppet master of Obama. This is a fact. Brzezinski is an 80-year old man from Poland who despises Russia. He was behind the catastrophic Carter administration. Brzezinski has the ultimate plan of preventing China from gaining access to African oil. China must have access to African oil or else the Chinese economy will recess rapidly. Brzezinski figures this will force China to invade the oil rich fields of southeast Russia just above North Korea. If China were to militarily take these oil fields from Russia, the two would obviously be at war which is what Brzezinski seeks. That plan is perfect in his eyes as it will weaken those two super-powers thus enabling American imperialism to regain strength. The real problem with this plan is that the Russians and Chinese are well aware of it. They know what Brzezinski intends to do. Unfortunately, the end result will most likely back fire on the west and produce world war III--China and Russia against the US and Europe."

The strategy of George W. Bush to keep the nation in a state of perpetual war was to keep the American public in a perpetual state of fear. Obama is continuing that strategy. We must keep an enemy in the cross-hairs.

Al Qaeda, of course, is the one that does the trick--an Islamic group calling for global jihad. They claimed responsibility for 9/11--blowing up the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City--for blowing a hole in the USS Cole, for bombing US embassies in Africa. Al-Qaeda has attacked civilian and military targets in various countries. They have instilled fear in many places. When you hear the words "Al Qaeda", think bogeyman.

The demonizing of the word "terror" didn't originate with George W. Bush. Ariel Sharon, army general and a former Israeli Prime Minister, and others before him, used the technique quite effectively. They turned just about every Palestinian into a "terrorist" which put the mission of Zionism on the road to a Greater Israel.

Sharon's own government found that he bore personal responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp massacre of Palestinians in September of 1982.

Acts like these notwithstanding, the United States has been a staunch ally of Israel and supporter, in this special relationship, through the years, despite its war-like moves against the Palestinians, the Gaza Strip and the adjoining country of Lebanon.

According to Kathleen and Bill Christison, writing in Counterpunch, the United States committed to giving Israel $30 billion over the next decade. The only stipulation to Israel's use of this cash gift is that it spends 74% of it to purchase U.S. military goods and services. Israel is, by far, the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid.

Not bad for our war industry. We can keep our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan going, and then some.

Do you like the idea of your son or daughter giving his or her life for the profits of KRB or DynCorp International?

I don't think anyone could call that "service to my country."

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SEFleischman

About author Stephen Fleischman, writer-producer-director of documentaries, spent thirty years in Network News at CBS and ABC. His memoir is now in print. See Stephen Fleischman, writer-producer-director of documentaries, spent thirty years in Network News at CBS and ABC. His memoir is now in print. See www.amahchewahwah.com , e-mail stevefl@ca.rr.com