[109509] in Cypherpunks
Profits in the Balkans
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Frederick Burroughs)
Sat Mar 27 10:37:28 1999
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 10:19:30 -0500
From: Frederick Burroughs <riburr@shentel.net>
To: Cypherpunks <cypherpunks@ns.minder.net>
Reply-To: Frederick Burroughs <riburr@shentel.net>
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon intends to sell 50 F-16 fighters to
Israel for $2 billion. OK... So the Middle East peace process is a
bonanza for daddy warbucks here in the US. The Pentagon and US defense
contractors must be coming in their pants over the thought of profiting
from an "armed peace" in the Balkans. If we play our cards right and
NATO bites, comfortable retirements are on the house.
Call me dense, but I'm just beginning to understand the incentive for
preserving the situations we find in Korea, Taiwan, the Middle East,
etc., and now the attempt to install a similar situation in the Balkans:
It's very, very profitable. Vietnam stands in stark contrast. This
conflict was unfortunately resolved and Pentagon and contractor profits
dried up, but it was good while it lasted.
This "arming for peace" is replaced by covert action and more earnest
conflict resolution in areas such as Central America that are too close
to home. Can't have unrestrained arms trade so close to the US border.
Unfortunately and to the consternation of the US/NATO, President
Milosevic wants the dispute with Kosovo to be resolved, however horrible
that may seem to the rest of the world. The US naturally prefers a peace
plan that involves troop and equipment deployment, and the profits to be
gained by supporting the "peace" effort in the Balkans. See CNN for the
latest weapons systems for you peacekeeping requirements (I'm dead
serious about this. Iraq and now Yugoslavia are some of the best
Pentagon sponsored infomercials I've ever seen).
What had originally been an internal skirmish in a Serbian province the
size of Connecticut has now widened to include the entire Eurasian
theater. The Pentagon marketing executives earned a big bonus for this
one!
