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For Washington, It Is a Big Game With No Ending
by James Glaser
[email protected]

Special to The Libertarian Enterprise

The first rule in Washington's game is tell the people what they want to hear. It doesn't matter how outrageous they have to be, just keep the American public satisfied that they are working for us.

The truth? Well, the truth doesn't really matter. That is why President Obama can pretend that he is doing something about our debt, and the Republicans can pretend that they are going to do even more.

All the while our government is scamming us. The rich of America are getting richer, and one of their best cash cows is war. It doesn't matter where the war is, and it doesn't even matter why we are having a war. All that matters is we have wars, and that we keep them going just as long as we can. If the American people get too upset, like what happened with Vietnam, Washington will end the war. It really doesn't matter if we win or not. What matters is that we keep buying everything the Military Industrial Complex (The Defense Industry) has to sell.

They are always coming up with new weapons. Why? Because we pay them to do the research and development to create new weapons. Even if the weapons don't work, they make a profit. They make more of a profit with weapons that work because we buy them. Later, when those weapons systems get old and are replaced by new weapons, those Defense Industries Corporations can sell the old weapons to the countries we give military aid to. Right now Egypt and Saudi Arabia are flying our F-16s, and those we developed in the early 1970s.

F-16 fighters are no longer produced for the United States military. However, the fighter is still manufactured for export to various countries around the world. In total, more than 4,000 F-16s have been built for 24 different countries, according to the Aerospaceweb.org website.

Washington had figured out that the American people were sick of our war in Iraq, so they just up and said that the combat phase of that war was over. Of course we still have tens of thousands of troops there, but that is no surprise as we still have tens of thousands of troops sitting in Europe left over from WW II and tens of thousands more in Korea. That is the only real drawback when we lose, we can't leave troops in the country we lose to. So, the Defense Industry doesn't get to keep making profits for decades supporting those troops we left behind.

The last few months' polls have shown that Americans are losing their interest in our war in Afghanistan. So yesterday, USA Today had a headline saying, "General: Taliban 'beaten' by surge"

Washington knows they are going to have to wrap up this war, but they want to leave troops there. So, we are going to have to win this one. In order to claim victory, we have decided that we have beaten the Taliban. Yes, it is that simple. We won because we say we won.

Yes, maybe the Taliban will come back to power over there, but they will get some of the profits in exchange for letting us keep tens of thousands of troops in their country. After ten years of fighting us, even the Taliban will come around to seeing that cash profits are better than getting shot at. Of course the Taliban will be required to share some of their opium trade with us.

The only trouble with shutting down our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is that we have to come up with a new place to fight, although with Terrorism, that shouldn't be that hard. Yemen looks good, and so does Pakistan. They are in the neighborhood of our present wars, so it would be an easy move.

But it is a big world out there, and I bet there are fifty or seventy countries we have never attacked. Each one of them could be a gold mine for our defense industry, and with that many countries left to attack, profits are assured for decades to come.

Yes, it is a big game to Washington, and that means big money, too. The only drawback is all the people who are killed and maimed. Washington has to be careful that we don't lose too many or young men and women will not sign up to fight. Maybe that is why they are going for Predator Drones. If we can get to the point that we don't need Soldiers and Marines to do the actual fighting, we can save a lot of money. Oh but wait, we do need heroes to get the tax payers back home to support the war.

It is all very complicated with all sorts of new rules coming up all the time. About the only constant thing in this game is the profit margin, and that is very high. High profits mean this game will have no end.

First published on Mr. Glaser's 'blog dated February 16, 2011

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