Before the Storm

[Ivo Skoric]

America Today			
 
More Money for the Rich

Who are ‘compassionate conservatives’ in the U.S.? The oligarchy of 
rich families, terrorized by the fear to lose what their ancestors managed 
to loot from the planet, that try to convince their subjects that they are 
ruling over them with compassion. Now, they want to cut taxes for 
themselves, again.

This year utilizing capacity fell from 82% to 75%, according to Peter 
Orszag from Brookings Institute. Utilizing capacity refers to use of 
existing capacity to produce stuff. The lower the number, the less 
efficiently that capacity is used. Lower number relates to decrease in 
demand for products. In other words, the U.S. supply-side economic 
policy can produce marvelous amount of stuff. Now, it just needs 
suckers to buy all that stuff. 

There will be even less of them with the new tax cut. People don’t buy, 
because they have no money. Unemployment is back at the rate it was 
under the Bush senior (Bush family seems to be atrocious for the U.S. 
economy). The domino effect is then that the production falters, too. 
When production falters, it needs less employees. Which means even 
bigger unemployment, etc.

In order to continue spending billion dollars a day on its war toys, 
balance the budget, dig social security out of deficit AND be able to cut 
taxes for himself and his cronies (Haliburton’s Cheney will make 
$250,000, for example), Bush will have to cut something somewhere. 
College tuition is likely to go up. State taxes are likely to go up. Property 
taxes are likely to go up, hitting hard all those middle class suckers, that 
took advantage of low interest rates and bought houses recently.

It is likely that majority of U.S. citizens will become poorer with the new 
tax cut, contributing to contraction of the U.S. economy. “Other than 
that, is fine...” said senator Lautenberg talking about Bush’s proposed 
tax cut for the rich, after listing all that horrible socio-economic maladies 
the country should expect as a consequence of that proposal.

To cut taxes of the rich, the government will cut spending on education, 
health care, social services, infrastructure, environment and all those 
other items unnecessary for remaining in power. However, it seems that 
there will never be a shortage of money under the ‘compassionate’ U.S. 
administration, to fuel the instruments of state oppression. They will 
continue to be “tough” (rather ruthless) on anyone who stands in their 
way.

More Prisons for the Poor

U.S. has 4 times more homicides per capita than France, and 8 times more 
prisoners per capita than France. It is a myth that getting tough on crime 
reduces crime. The U.S., with the prison population the size of smaller 
European country, still leads the crime statistics. Washington DC has the 
larger number of homicides per capita than any other capital city in the 
world. Number of homicides per capita in the U.S. capital is bigger than in 
the two runner-up capital cities combined (Moscow and Pretoria).
Which draws a disappointing picture of the world’s leading democracy. 
This is a society that relies on power, on violence, on repression. The 
hospitals are not able to provide free X-rays to their patients, but the 
police will proudly show you the new hi-tech gadgetry they got. Just 
recently, every small township police station in Vermont was outfitted 
with the Livescan machines (State Trooper magazine brags about them in 
the top story). This must be more expensive than an X-ray. Livescan 
takes your picture and fingerprints and compares it to the database that 
covers several states.

And it is used liberally. Under new, and they are always harsher and 
more restrictive, laws, the police can arrest you for almost anything. So, 
they can take you to the station and play with their new toy. Favorite 
now is to send people to jail for motor vehicle offenses. The racket of 
insurance companies and state troopers keep the automobile bound U.S. 
citizenry under the constant horror of being thrown in jail for violating 
the deliberately strict traffic rules (does anybody in this country really 
obeys the speed limit?). I was given a tour of Livescan machine when my 
left tail light was found not working, and that despite I managed to 
change the fuse, while the youthful and unbearably polite officer was 
checking my data.

Also, despite the fact that the Vermont state study found that low risk 
offenders are three times as likely to re-offend if they are jailed, than if 
they are not, the state just built a new prison. Prison beds are in demand 
in Vermont (Vermont exports its surplus prisoners to Virginia, the land of 
prisons), and with new ridiculous legislation, they might be in demand 
even more. The $26.5 million new prison in Springfield, VT, recently had 
and ‘open house’ event. Matt Smithwick wrote in Rutland Herald: 
“...many people left impressed with its size and OFFERINGS for inmates.” 
That’s precisely what the land of the free needs: more offerings for its 
inmates.

More Wars for the sake of it....

U.S. is not only the country with the largest military spending in the 
world (more than next 15 countries combined), but also the country with 
the largest trade deficit in the world: according to senator Corzine, it is 
borrowing $2-3 billions a day overseas, while spending half of that to 
operate its huge war machine. Basically, if the world cuts of that 
allowance to the U.S., it may stop the war monger administration.

British senior conservative MP on why the Brits are reluctant to support 
Bush’s ‘drang nach Iraq’: “It is necessary that America as early as 
possible affirms its belief in the international law.” Law? That’s 
something that pertains to the lower income brackets and immigrants. 
Not to Bush family.

They had put up with that nonsense of consulting the Security Council 
and allowing UN inspections to resume long enough. The inspectors 
were supposed to find Saddam’s “precious” by now. If they did not, 
they must be either incompetent or in cahoots with Saddam.

Rumsfeld and Cheney were clear from the beginning: they KNEW that 
Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. They did not need any 
stinking inspections. Because, what could inspectors find, if Saddam 
didn’t want them to show? Iraq is large enough place for Saddam to hide 
his toys from any, no matter how thorough, UN inspection.

Therefore, if there is no trust that Saddam will indeed co-operate, the 
inspections are a waste of time. Because, they will find nothing, and the 
U.S. will still claim that Iraq has the weapons, because the U.S. does not 
trust Saddam and wants him removed - which Bush repeated on many 
occasions.

The inspectors are simply not complying with Bush’s request that they 
provide him with the legal justification for finishing off Saddam’s Iraq. 
Hans Blix is one headstrong individual. And he reiterates day after day 
that Iraq has nothing and hides nothing. Rumsfeld, yet another stubborn 
person, thinks Blix is not doing his job.

Obviously, this thug of war can last forever. Saddam either really does 
not have WMD, or he is indeed lying and carefully hiding them. In any 
case, Blix will never find anything. The U.S., that put a third of its military 
force in or near the Persian Gulf, and badly wants to go to war, will never 
trust Saddam, and, subsequently, will never trust Blix findings.

The U.S. will be briefly ostracized by the other Western governments for 
leading this unilateral, unjustified war of aggression. Because, if Saddam 
doesn’t have WMD, he would be wrongfully attacked, and if he does 
have them, but does not use them (just as the U.S. does), he would be 
wrongfully attacked, too. And if Bush get bogged down in the Arab 
world, just like Nixon did in Vietnam, he would be brought down by the 
American people.

But, with the strike in oil producing Venezuela and an incredibly harsh 
winter season (which puts higher demand on heating oil), if he wins, and 
multinational corporations take over Iraqi oil-fields, and oil price goes 
down substantially, 90% of the world’s population will quickly forget the 
illegal nature of his war. That’s his gamble.

Actually, it is likely that Bush does not believe Saddam has acquired a 
nuclear weapon. I doubt Pentagon would put a third of its navy within a 
Scud’s range, if they thought he had a bomb. Like they believe North 
Korea has a bomb, and they are very careful to handle that issue through 
diplomacy. The lesson is: first make the bomb, than thumb your nose 
against the U.S.

Where is Osama Bin Laden in all this? Is he maybe hiding in Iraq? Could 
he obtain enough feasible material for Saddam’s bomb through his world-
wide connections to pay for his stay there? Given his sick sense of 
humor, what could be the worst damage he could do to the third of US 
military and the quarter of British military congregating in Persian Gulf, if 
he would have a bomb? 

He could have placed it somewhere at the bottom of the Gulf, and wait 
for four US aircraft carrier groups to park there, then blow it up, creating 
a nuclear tsunami wave in the small, enclosed sea of the Gulf, tipping 
over American and British war toys. At least, this is what would happen 
in Tom Clancy’s novel in the next chapter.

This, of course, would not be worth the cheaper oil we could get by 
owning Iraq.