The war industry is bipartisan.

[Karmadillo]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/no_one_cares_20100503/

<edit>

“It is one of the sober realities of the time we are living in that you can put forward a bill that says something as simple as ‘we should not outsource national security functions to private contractors’ and you only get 20 members of Congress to support the bill,” Scahill said. “The unfortunate reality is that Rep. Schakowsky knows that the war industry is bipartisan. They give on both sides. For a while there it seemed contractor was the new Israel. You could not find a member of Congress to speak out against them because so many members of Congress are beholden to corporate funding to keep their House or Senate seats. I also think Obama’s election has wiped that out, as it has with many things, because the White House will dispatch emissaries to read the riot act to members of Congress who don’t toe the party line.”

“The entire government is basically privatized,” Scahill went on. “In fact, 100 percent of people in this country that make $100,000 or less might as well remit everything they owe in taxes to contractors rather than paying the government. That is how privatized the society is, that is how much of government has been outsourced in this society. There are 18 U.S. intelligence agencies on the military and civilian side and 70 percent of their combined budget is outsourced to for-profit corporations who simultaneously work the United States government as well as multinational corporations and foreign governments. We have radically outsourced the intelligence operations in this country because we have radically outsourced everything. Sixty-nine percent of the Pentagon’s entire work force, and I am not talking only about the battlefield, is now privatized. In Afghanistan we have the most staggering statistics. The Obama administration is infinitely worse in Afghanistan in terms of its employment of mercenaries and other private contractors than the Bush administration. Right now in Afghanistan there are 104,000 Department of Defense contractors alongside 68,000 U.S. troops. There is almost a 2-to-1 ratio of private-sector for-profit forces that are on the U.S. government payroll versus the active-duty or actual military forces in the country. And that is not taking into account the fact that the State Department has 14,000 contractors in Afghanistan.”

“Within a matter of months, and certainly within a year, the United States will have upwards of 220,000 to 250,000 U.S. government-funded personnel occupying Afghanistan, a far cry from the 70,000 U.S. soldiers that those Americans who pay attention understand the United States has in Afghanistan,” Scahill said. “This is a country where the president’s national security adviser, Gen. James Jones, said there are less than 100 al-Qaida operatives who have no ability to strike at the United States. That was the stated rationale and reasoning for being in Afghanistan. It was to hunt down those responsible for 9/11.”

more...

[defendandprotect]

1. It's corporate . . . which means it has to be bipartisan to protect its bread/butter . . .

[obxhead]

2. Most corporations are, they own both sides of the isle equally. nt

[Robeson]

3. A good read is The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11...

...by Robert Scheer. Pretty much exposes how the "defense" industry controls Washington. That includes Republicans and Democrats.

[Octafish]

4. The War Party

They spent our Peace Dividend. And our kids' and our grand-kids' and our great-grandkids'...

They get away with it because the same turds own Corporate McPravda. How else can we explain Bush and Cheney lying America into two illegal, immoral and unnecessary wars and then getting away with it, let alone the continuation of the same under a new administration.

Imagine what a different world this would be, and what a better America we could have, were we to harness the budget of the United States to to do good for ALL citizens, rather than just the warmongers.

Thank you for another excellent article and your usual excellent post, Karmadillo.

[Karmadillo]

6. You've pretty much nailed it. Look how many people are struggling to get by

and how easy it would be to improve their lives if the money we waste on the rich & their wars was targeted where it was really needed. And I hate to think how our children will look back on our era. When greatness called, we sent out a predator drone to kill it.

Thanks for the kind words. Means a lot coming from one of the posters who makes DU a worthwhile place.

[troubledamerican]

5. The Pentagon is not too bipartisan.