More Blowback

January 18th, 2007

Views: 618

Posted by ChrisG at 7:29 pm

Interesting piece in the Christian Science Monitor on the astronomical costs of the Iraq War, and how the rhetoric of security and emergency contributes to making the books eminently cookable:

“Calling it an emergency means the spending does not get the scrutiny,” he adds, because then the spending is reviewed by only one committee – House Appropriations. In addition, he says, emergency spending is exempt from caps on discretionary spending. This has prompted the military to include in the bill items that are not directly related to the war. Making the spending a part of the budget would end the practice of some members placing pet projects on a bill that must be passed, he says.

Iraq is the first major American war to be financed entirely by borrowing, rather than by war bonds, austerity measures or raising taxes. Short-term and huge-scale investment is being sought with scant regard for the economic blowback for future generations (and indeed, for those alive today who will still be alive in 10 years’ time). Capital’s inherent tendency to stripmine the future for the benefit of the present gets an adrenaline boost from the appeal to emergency, deployed ever more readily as it becomes ever more addictive.