Now is the winter of our discontent. We are approaching a decade of continuous combat in Afghanistan while our occupation of Iraq shifts from overt military action to covert taxpayer-financed mercenaries. The U.S. economy continues to disintegrate while corporate profits for the world’s most powerful corporations are at all-time highs.
By now it should be clear to us that multi-national corporations have no loyalty to nations. Examples abound in history. In World War II Dutch, British and American corporations (Royal Dutch Shell, Anglo-Persian Oil a.k.a. British Petroleum and Standard Oil) continued to conduct business with Nazi Germany through their German subsidiaries, despite laws against trading with the enemy.
War is a profitable business. So is oil. What is even more profitable than oil and war? How about narcotics? Narcotics are to Wall Street what steroids are to athletes. They are a source of low-interest capital for those banks and companies willing to launder drug money. Laundered money is often impossible to track in the age of electronic money transfers. How much money? Estimates vary from $500 billion to $1 trillion per year.
Why are we in Afghanistan? In early 2001 the Taliban had destroyed Afghanistan’s opium crop. Subsequently, heroin production bottomed out at 180 tons in 2001. By contrast 2002 production was 3,700 tons and 2003 production reached a new record of 4,000 tons (source: Michael Ruppert, “Crossing the Rubicon”). Today 70 percent of the world’s heroin originates in Afghanistan.
The so-called wars on drugs and terrorism cannot end because they are too “profitable” (neglecting “externalities” such as increased misery and mortality everywhere). What’s even more profitable than oil, war and drugs? National disasters create immense profits for some of the same groups that profit from oil, war and drugs. Why settle for a country’s resources when you can own a country?
Eric Teegarden
Brier
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