Nordhaus on costs of war

Gordon Fitch gcf at panix.com
Mon Nov 18 11:48:09 PST 2002


gcf at panix.com:
> > Is it, actually, marching ahead? I mean physically. The task
> > is a considerable project which is only very modestly advanced

DoreneFC at aol.com:
> What do you call forward positioning of materiel, negotiating for overflight
> rights, widespread stoploss in the military, screaming about everything that
> happens in the no-fly zones ....?

In order to conduct a proper war against Iraq, the U.S. government will have to locate about 200,000 troops, plus the appropriate materiel and support systems, on adjoining territory (unless they can subvert existing forces on the ground, as in Afghanistan, which seems doubtful so far.) Also, the reserves will have to be called up to man the ramparts the combat forces will be leaving. The location of such a large force of foreign infidels on Muslim ground will be very exciting to the local people and will almost certainly lead to noteworthy events. But as far as I know, which isn't much, of course, most of what is going on is diplomatic and bureaucratic housekeeping and window-dressing.

For instance, the other day I noticed a headline in the _USA_Today_ on the floor of the men's room at work which stated that Iran was going to "cooperate" with the war against Iraq. Unable to resist reading further, possibly due to the influence of my environment, I found that the "cooperation" consisted of agreeing to discuss the disposition of pilots and airplanes which might happen to be downed in Iran during some possible future war with Iraq sometime maybe. In other words, there was _no_story_. The media are spinning their wheels. Given the very close connection of the media with the government, this may indicate other wheel-spinnings elsewhere.

This does not take away from the dark karmic consequences which the American people have just voted themselves, but it may indicate that the presently upcoming war is a fake of some sort. Or at least that the authorities should upgrade the class of propaganda they're putting out.

-- Gordon



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