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---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 22:26:02 EST From: Rodrigo Toscano <[log in to unmask]> Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Iraq and depression In response and agreement (and addition) to David Bromige's post. I, for one, am such an apostate. Feb. 23rds headline in Time magazine is appropriate: Wall Street Goes To War. The article notes: Like Presidential approval ratings, stock prices tend to inflate when the U.S. engages in armed conflict. Look no further than the tireless bull market that we enjoy today. It began in 1991 when the U.S. drove Saddam Hussein and his Iraqi army out of Kuwait. The first allied air raids came on January 17 of that year and sent the Dow Jones industrial average soaring 4.6% in a day. By mid-March the Dow had jumped 20%. The point is illustrated with a graphic chart which ties the Birth of the Bull Market to the day the bombing began. Yes, sir! The generals on Wall Street do love a war, the article continues. There's nothing like the smell of smart bombs in the morning as long as theyre ours to arouse feelings of invincibility. And what better frame of mind for dialing ones broker and cheerfully picking up another 100 shares of Boeing or Lockheed Martin. With Saddam the Sequel possibly only days away ... itıs no shocker that the market has hit new highs for the first time in six months. With the massive collapse of capitalism in Asia reverberating in the board rooms of stock exchanges and corporate headquarters across the world, talk of a severe downturn is commonplace in Barrons, The Financial Times, The Far Eastern Economic Review, and the Wall Street Journal . Wall Street is betting heavily on war. Yes, Time continues, success in the Persian Gulf would vindicate all those market patriots bidding up share prices. ... stocks of defense contractors, oil producers and oil service companies would be good hedges. Remember, those generals on Wall Street wear suits, not battle fatigues. They don't really know a thing about war. They do know, however, how to profit from it. The Annual Report called The State of the Union concealed the $6 trillion of debt in the United States and an arms budget that consumes 70 cents of every dollar. Clintonıs boast of an entire new generation of weapons, the military arsenal of the 21st century, translates this way: smart weapons must be tested against a country with no defenses, and with a gross national product less than 1 percent that of the United States. Pentagon sources tell Time that U.S. warplanes patrolling the southern no-fly zone over the past three months have been practicing bombing runs on targets that top brass figured they might ... have to attack. Order of battle Time has the Order of Battle: The First Wave involves Tomahawk Cruise Missile attacks by night and attack by Air Force F-117 Nighthawks. Navy warships and subs armed with hundreds of precision missiles target sites ... F-117 stealth fighters zip out of Kuwait flying undetected into Iraq targeting communication centers ... with 2,000 lb. laser-guided bombs. The Second Wave includes The EA-6B Prowler, EF-111 Raven and the F- 16CJ to jam ... radar .... making it safe for the bombers. The Third Wave will see Bomb Laden Air Force B-1 Bombers from Bahrain and missile-loaded B-52s from Diego Garcia aim for high value targets ... launching weapons from high altitudes. Refueling planes ... rendezvous with the B-52s. Wave Four involves Air Force F-15 Eagles and Navy F-14 Tomcats patrolling the sky while F/A 18 Hornets, F-16 Falcons and British Tornados roar to attack. Surveillance throughout the battle by ES-3A Shadow Jets ... vacuum up Iraqi Radio Transmissions. E-2 Hawkeyes scour the skies and ... direct the attack. Bomber squadrons will be launched from Incirlik Air base in Turkey and from bases in Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Germany. AWACS, aerial tankers, and support aircraft will depart from Saudi Arabia and 42 bomber squadrons from Kuwaits Al Jaber air base. The U.S.S. George Washington, U.S.S. Independence, launch destroyers in the Persian Gulf, bomber squadrons from Bahrain, armored brigades in Qatar, Air Refueling Tankers in Oman, and B-52 squadrons in Diego Garcia will amplify 28,000 troops. 300 war planes on naval carriers will coordinate saturation bombing around the clock for seven days. On the eve of what is shaping up as the biggest combat operation of his Presidency ... war is just around the corner. Time reports. No one expects the operation to be bloodless. The White House has begun preparing Americans for unpleasant pictures from Baghdad and less-than perfect results from the battlefield. There were 40,000 bombing sorties during the Gulf War. More bombs fell on Iraq than in seven years of World War II. Massive devastation Nothing that we have seen or read could quite prepare us for the particular form of devastation that has befallen this country. The conflict has wrought near apocalyptic results upon the economic and social infrastructure. ... Most means of modern life support have been destroyed ... and Iraq has been rendered a country ... in a pre-industrial age.(U.N. Report, 1991.) Iraq has been devastated further by the seven-year embargo. UNICEF estimates one million Iraqi children dead from starvation and the FAO in 1997 reports 1.5 million Iraqis dying from hunger and untreated disease. There are no medicines or IV bags, syringes, insulin, asthma medication, antibiotics, standard medications, or sterile health facilities. The claim to be targeting biological weapons facilities in Iraq is absurd. These can made in a portable lab. Anthrax or bubonic plague bacteria are housed in small vials. The largest producer of biochemical weapons in the world, however, is the United States which refuses to ban them. For years, this country supplied biochemical weapons to its client, Saddam Hussein, to use against Iran. The Israelis, who delivered them to Iran for use against Iraq, deployed toxic gases causing paralysis, vaginal bleeding, and catatonia in Palestinian victims during the intifada. The imminent aerial massacres prepared by U.S. rulers aim to terrorize the Arab masses, whose profound disaffection threatens U.S. client regimes throughout the region. This is the true face of U.S. imperialism. Rodrigo Toscano %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%