Seymour Hersh predicts war in Iraq will plunge U.S. economy into downturn

[indigobusiness]

Journalist predicts war in Iraq will plunge U.S. economy into downturn


By PAM ZUBECK THE GAZETTE

CRYSTAL CITY, Va. ? President Bush's willingness "to take a lot more body bags" from the Iraqi war will plunge the United States economy into a tailspin as European nations further distance themselves from the war with boycotts of American markets, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist predicted on Friday.

"I just see very hard times ahead," Seymour Hersh, who broke the Abu Ghraib prison detainee scandal story last spring in The New Yorker magazine, said in a keynote address to about 100 people attending the Military Reporters and Editors conference.

snip

"This president believes in what he's doing. He is prepared to take a lot more body bags," he said. "He is going to fight this all the way. The bombing has gone up exponentially ... How are we going to end this if the president's convinced that he has to see this through?"

snip

"You're going to see American profits disappear. American corporations are going to be in big trouble. It's going to be a mantra not to buy American," he said. "All our major manufacturers are reporting major slowdowns in Europe. You're going to see the dollar disappear. Economically, this country is going to be in trouble and he's going to continue to fight this war."

snip

http://pm.gazette.com/fullstory.php?id=3943

[prodigal_green]

1. Afghanistan brought down the Soviet Union

this will be our undoing.

Thanks chimp.

[finecraft]

23. Don't forget the Mujadeen had a little help from the US

Read Charlie Wilson's war--We supplied Osama and the other "Freedom Fighters" with weapons, ammunition, tactical assistance, intelligence and training for many years. Heck- we were the ones that gave them that nifty new weapon...the shoulder fired missile! It would not surprise me in the least bit to see confiscated weapons in Iraq stamped "Made in Russia". What goes around, comes around.

[rooboy]

2. The Saudis should buy that banner that says "Mission Accomplished" n/t

[scarletlib]

13. very good remark

[NVMojo]

3. I would put money on what he says.

And you can bet the repugs who put their money on Bush will live to regret it once it becomes more personal, as in wallets and lives.

[ClintonTyree]

4. The Little Dictator.............

could care less. As long as his pals in the defense industry are happy, he's happy. We warned the Red Staters, don't expect us Blue taters to bail your asses out of this one. He's your pResident, you pay the consequences. See how those "moral values" sandwiches taste.

[colonel odis]

5. a ruined economy will mean more people unemployed or

working for lower wages. or, if you'd like not to starve, join the military.

the former increases the profits of the corporations who've backed bush. the latter keeps more fodder in the pipeline for our perpetual war.

both should make the bush administration very happy.

[opihimoimoi]

6. One of the signs of a Fool is Hard Headedness

He is prepared to go ALL IN on a weak hand. Bluffing can take one only so far.... there will be times when you must have a HAND to win on.

Bush shows many signs of a failure. That he was selected Prez does not mean he is smart...we all saw the first debate just a few weeks ago. Bush is not astute by any means.

And so, he will move forward with his plans given to him by Rove or whoever happens to be in real charge. America has got to remove the cancer that is the Pub Party of late.

[indigobusiness]

9. "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds"...

Now, where have I heard that? Never mind, if the shoe fits...

[opihimoimoi]

17. Mental Midget Presidents are rarely elected/selected/connived to

be Leaders of Consequence. That Bush is such a case leaves many astute people agog with wonder. This has happened in the old days when they chose Leaders by Birth/Victory/etc and not by popular choice. There are more than a few Mental Midgets in the course of Human History who made it big time.

But this, in this day and Time? Most perplexing!! and the People sem to lap it up. Its almost as if they want a LOLO for a Prez, some one who is persistently Hard Headed.... are we looking in the mirror when we vote?

Do we want our Leader to be exactly like ourselves? The evidence shows a whole ebunch does......

[pinkpops]

24. The last throwes of an empire in decline -

I heard some yound employees at an independent bookstore last nitne (Book People in Austin). One young lady had read an article comparing the USA to Rome. Military power is meaningless without an economy to back it up. Sooner or later your creditors call on you to pay up.

[opihimoimoi]

29. But But the Rapture will come and all will be good

Bush will seat at the right hand of Isis, the Goddess of Love, and all will be copastatic

[itzamirakul]

7. They will find a way to ...

explain it all away by blaming it on the liberals in America who will in some way be held accountable for not "supporting" the president.

It will always be someone else's fault. We are used to it by now.

Where is the outrage from the "blue" parents of soldiers in the "red" states? They should be marching and screaming at the tops of their lungs.

[FlyByNight]

8. As long as Caesar Bush's courtiers and donors are...

getting obscenely wealthy at the expense of US soldiers, US taxpayers and Iraqi blood, simply nothing else matters.

Bush owes his life to patronage and family connections.

[xchrom]

10. Bush owes his life to patronage and family connections.

bears repeating.

[KlatooBNikto]

11. In many ways this is a hopeful sign. I do not think that the followers of

Bush are going to be deterred by anything other than a total meltdown of our economy. Their belief in our military supremacy, so long as poor young whites, blacks and hispanics do the fighting and dying, is so total, only the lack of funds for the military machine will have any impact.I hope it comes to pass soon so we can retrun to sanity.

[indigobusiness]

12. Their self-licking ice-cream cone...

is about to topple onto the hot sidewalk.

... MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL-CONGRESSIONAL COMPLEX IS "A SELF-LICKING ICE CREAM CONE"
http://webpages.ursinus.edu/rrichter/opinearc03.htm
http://www.evolutionaryethics.com/Ethics/formal_logic.h...
Dick Cheney and the Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone ...
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Corporate_Welfare/Car...
Part 2 - Bureaucracy is a Self-licking Ice-cream Cone
http://www.sistareenterprises.org/Orwellian.htm
Petrified Truth: Good news via London
http://www.petrifiedtruth.com/archives/001171.html

ARCHIVE OF WORKING OPINIONS
http://webpages.ursinus.edu/rrichter/opinearc03.htm

[TexasChick]

25. Yep. You said it! This is my only hope too! When America starts to

crumble and this supreme military is brought down to its knees, maybe the sheeple will finally start waking up to the fact that we are NOT invincible!

[indepat]

14. America doesn't need the rest of the world except maybe to buy its

debt obligations, otherwise finance its rather large budget and trade deficits, buy its weapons and other products, and prop up the value of its dollar. So what do we need them for anyway?

[indigobusiness]

15. When the weighty tables are turned

nobody will be there to save us from the crunch.

[Gin]

16. One good thing since Nov.2 is they hold all the power....can't blame

anyone but the rethuglicans...they will make this country bankrupt...and it will get much worse before it gets better.

The light at the end of the tunnel is the train heading toward us.

[opihimoimoi]

18. Hopefully, a percentage of them there Sheep wake up to smell the

coffee and take action. Else all is lost. Reason and Sanity cannot hold out much longeer. Food and water running out, no K Rations, No MREs, no nothing.

[Vitruvius]

19. The Rethugs can blame anybody they want,so long as they control the media

Owning the corporate media means never having to accept responsibility, never having to say they're sorry. And they can turn their every foul-up into a stick to beat the Dems with.

If we ever come back to power, we'd better take away broadcast licenses & cable right-of-ways from the partisan Rethug media; if they want to be Rethug fascist propagandists and help loot the public for the benefit of the rich like themselves, they can do it without the public's airwaves & without the public's cable right-of-ways.

[indigobusiness]

20. Blame won't matter at crunch time.

At that too late date, we'll realize the vain and petty considerations we held so dear were co-architects of our self-destruction.

[indepat]

22. Hopefully any such crunch won't make the 1930s depression seem like childs

play in comparison.

[TexasChick]

27. Oh, but I'm afraid it will! With Chimp at the helm.... n/t

[indigobusiness]

28. People were much more self-reliant then,

and fewer in number. Odds are, it will be far worse.

[indepat]

32. Should enough people not be able to service their mortgages/other debt

due to continuing job losses and a shrinking economy, the S&L crisis which evolved, but was not acknowledged, during the Reagan years, might indeed seem like child-play in comparison, because everything, for good or bad, feeds upon itself. But hopefully good will feed upon itself with the job market and economy booming.

[michael_1166]

21. I think Seymour Hersh

is quite right with his prediction. I don't buy American products anymore (I'm from Germany)... Hell, for example I LIKE Californian wine, but when all this mess in Iraq started, I thought we here in Europe have to start somewhere to show our disgust of what your country does to the rest of the world. And if money is the only language your people in power still do understand, so be it...

[DuaneBidoux]

26. Your in Germany?

I see you've posted once...I've been looking for forums like this in Europe and elsewhere to spread the meme to begin boycotting American (this from a guy who until Nov. 2nd looked for hours to find something American vs. take the easy step of buying foreign).

It needs to be Hollywood too...which of course is probably the most consumed export of the U.S. (and unfortunatly probably the least deserved since they've always supported progressive candidates)

Bush is bought off by the corporations...when they hurt he'll hear. Until they hurt he will continue with his imperialistic policies.

On DU there is a big debate about boycotting Red and buying Blue but I've been saying that unfortunately the entire corporate military beast must be brought down...and it must happen on this Presidents watch, or they threaten to hold power for 50 years and truly turn America into a fascist state.

[michael_1166]

30. Yes, I'm in Germany.

There was a poll here during the U.S. election and 80% of us would have voted for Kerry as far as I remember. Bush is detested here. I suppose he'd need a lot more Diebold machines to get his 51 %.
It's increasingly difficult to still distinguish between the American government and the American people... But DU gives me a bit of hope that all is not lost.

Just recently I've heard of a noticeable (small) decline of American products being bought in Europe but can't remember where it was (I think the Coca Cola Company was especially mentioned).
Not watching Hollywood movies - hmmm, not a big prob. Ok, except movies starring Renée Zellweger...

[DuaneBidoux]

31. Well Coca Cola has missed their last several quarterly profit

targets and in the report there is this innocouous sounding little phrase "a challenging global climate."

When it comes to an American symbol they certainly don't get any bigger than that. I'm hoping for organized movements in Europe, against Shrub, against American corporate power, against the War in Iraq...

[Petrodollar Warfare]

33. Let's examine two leaders from 1933 and the Great Depression

In the throes of the economic dislocations of the Great Depression, history shows that the US was ultimately blessed in 1933 when FDR came to power with a message of: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." We preserved our Democracy and prevailed during that very difficult time in history.

On the otherhand, history shows that Germany was cursed in 1933 when a man named Adolf Hitler came to power with the message that God was on German's side, and even ordered belt buckles for the Wehrmacht (German Army) that stated: "Gott mit Uns" or "God is with Us."

Make no mistake, in times of economic turmoil, the rise of authoritarian fascism is greatest - and after the Iraq war and this month's Fradulent Elections we are well on our way. That is one reason why I want Kerry to be President during economic hardship, as we might be able to preserve some of our liberty and freedoms under him, but I can not say the same for the Bush administration.

FWIW: here's some scary commentary and anaologies...
http://semiskimmed.net/bushhitler.html

[patomime]

34. Who Knew?

Who knew this would happen? All people of logical "reality based existence."

[gordianot]

35. Isn't this amazing who would have predicted?