(558 Obama-dumping days until 2012 election-Hugh's Obama's Scandals List)
Get your vomit buckets ready.
Oil, drugs, weapons. Supposedly the three hottest commodities on the planet right now.
We know the lengths corporate-controlled governments will go to follow through on their lust for oil. Illegitimate wars and assassinations. 1 million plus human beings dead. 4 million plus displaced.
Jeremy Hammond’srecent expose discusses how drug laundering was common and vital in giving shameless ballast to the world’s most powerful banks during the economic crisis.
Now, Tim Hepherof Reuters spotlights one more HUGE example of grotesque amorality to fathom. The sub-basements of evil our global leaderships have been frequenting for cold-blooded “advertising” and profit-making of the armaments trade. Heads of states have become the front-line hawkers the competition is so fierce.
Did you as an American citizen have some hope that the surreally and unjustly humongous military budget in the US is gonna be cut significantly to ease up on the present threats by the austerity and, coincidentally, war hawks? Nope. Those political psychopaths are always playing with the aces. Time to rethink any sane and promising path to fiscal sanity, especially from the ramifications of this Libyan War (without even a constitutional declaration) madness. How can we reduce the defense budget with all this war going on now?
Dontchathink there will be quite the clamor of ALL countries to gather what is left of their diminishing budgets but nevertheless arm themselves to the hilt and/or sell sell sell armaments for desperately needed profit like crazy in the present violent “might makes right” gangsta global climate? Play extorted economic hard-ball with the super-powers or you, too, will end up on the bloodbath hit list of the corporatist powers that be, the military hard-ball game that enforces the economic one, c/o front man Obama and/or his politically mighty equivalents in other countries.
By the way, regarding the Libyan War in terms of arms selling, Sarkozy not Obama is salesman of the month according to Hepher.
One interesting ironic sidelight in terms of the Libyan nightmare is that the very armaments now punishing Libya from the assorted NATO countries Gaddafi was being coaxed to buy just a very short time ago. Gaddafi was rejecting arms of mass or profoundly serious destruction? Playing hard to get? Couldn’t have been a pro-peace inclination, could it? Maybe not, but we’ll never get the reality on that given corporate-controlled media. Now the super-powered faux-humanitarian bombers are getting Gaddafi, with the added advantage of demonstrating their dazzling wares.
I warned you about the vomit bucket.
Tim Hepher of Reuters writes:
Air shows like the one outside Tripoli 18 months ago are a routine fixture of the arms industry's marketing calendar. But to convince potential buyers, defense equipment needs to be tested and survive what marketers call a "hot war".
"Battle-testing is something often referred to by the arms industry as an important factor for promoting their wares to export customers," says Paul Holtom, director of the Arms Transfers Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
A 'hot war' gives arms buyers a chance to cut through marketing jargon and check claims are justified. "Everyone is looking at Libya. It is definitely a showcase," one western defense company official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. A Dassault executive, who did not want to be named, said the Rafale had been "combat-proven" since being deployed in Afghanistan in 2007.
[snip]
Times change, allegiances shift, but weapons companies will always find takers for their goods. Libya won't be buying new kit any time soon. But the no-fly zone has become a prime showcase for other potential weapons customers, underlining the power of western combat jets and smart bombs, or reminding potential buyers of the defensive systems needed to repel them.
"This is turning into the best shop window for competing aircraft for years. More even than in Iraq in 2003," says Francis Tusa, editor of UK-based Defense Analysis. "You are seeing for the first time on an operation the Typhoon and the Rafale up against each other, and both countries want to place an emphasis on exports. France is particularly desperate to sell the Rafale."
Almost every modern conflict from the Spanish Civil War to Kosovo has served as a test of air power. But the Libyan operation to enforce UN resolution 1973 coincides with a new arms race --a surge of demand in the $60 billion a year global fighter market and the arrival of a new generation of equipment in the air and at sea. For the countries and companies behind those planes and weapons, there's no better sales tool than real combat. For air forces facing cuts, it is a strike for the value of air power itself.
"As soon as an aircraft or weapon is used on operational deployment, that instantly becomes a major marketing ploy; it becomes 'proven in combat'," says a former defense export official with a NATO country, speaking on condition of anonymity about the sensitive subject.
Hepher writes of the hungry shoppers for the weaponry and the level of competition among the respective arm’s manufacturing countries. Again, Sarkozy scored big getting the Rafale out front in Libya:
The rewards are huge. India, Brazil, Denmark, Greece, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman and Kuwait are among a growing list of countries shopping for one or more of the fighters flying sorties over Libya.
The deal of the moment: India's plan to buy 126 fighter jets, an order which should be worth an estimated $10 billion. Reliability, say industry experts, is likely to be key to winning the exports.
Four of the six companies in the running to sell New Delhi planes - Dassault's Rafale, the Eurofighter Typhoon, Lockheed Martin's F-16 and Boeing's F/A-18 - have already helped enforce the no-fly zone over Libya. A fifth contender, the Saab Gripen, arrived in Sicily at the weekend, ready to take part in the first air combat action by the Swedish air force in decades.
France is also using its new Horizon-class frigate and latest air-to-ground missiles.
But it's not just offensive equipment such as planes and missiles. Aerial shock and awe provides free advertising for companies that build early warning systems and missile defenses.
"Libya is a reminder that if you can't compete on the level of attack platforms, then you need to compete on the level of defense systems," says Siemon Wezeman, senior fellow at SIPRI. "Libya had reasonable air defenses and yet they didn't make a dent. If you want to defend yourself, you need either the aircraft or the defensive systems. You will see countries asking people like Russia and China what they can provide". U.S.-built systems from companies like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are already in high demand in the Gulf, to counter the perceived threat from Iran.
By the way, the so often vilified and corporate media ignored Wikileaks supplied Reuters with some of these chilling insights.
U.S. diplomatic cables, obtained by WikiLeaks and seen by Reuters, detail repeated efforts by U.S. diplomats to drum up high-level political support for fighter jet and other sales -- efforts which according to defense industry sources are matched by intense lobbying by France Britain, Russia and others. One cable, from around the time of the 2009 Libya air show, comes from the U.S. embassy in New Delhi which recounted how India, once a major Soviet arms buyer, was warming to the idea of U.S. weapons thanks to their proven combat capability.
As for the cause of nuclear non-proliferation? Libya's plight a sobering lesson to non-nuclear countries to go nuclear.
Nobel Peace Prize, anyone?
[cross-posted at correntewire and sacramento for democracy]
nice find!
much more in my post "comprehensive links on the US warmachine" & Ill add the one you found
much more in my post "comprehensive links on the US warmachine" & Ill add the one you found
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