Is anyone out there old enough to remember the comic strip, “Little Orphan Annie?” Perhaps you can’t remember it because of your youth, but possibly you remember a stage musical of a couple of decades ago, which was titled simply “Annie.” That “Annie,” was the ancient “Little Orphan Annie” comic strip put to music. In both the comic strip and musical, one of the major characters was a bald headed, brute of a man named, “Daddy Warbucks.” Most don’t know this, but the name “Warbucks” came from the fact that Daddy Warbucks made a whole truckload of dough from selling war stuff to the government. Hence his name Daddy Warbucks. He made his bucks from the First World War.
Few realize how true Eisenhower’s warning was, when he said to beware of the military-industrial complex. Wars are very profitable stuff for some. Government and war are not productive enterprises, but deplete currency values, needlessly kill, and push productive jobs overseas. There are lots of Daddy Warbucks equivalents around today, and have always been, when there were wars. WW II is said to have been the “last good war,” but it wasn’t ’good’ at all. Tens of millions were killed, twenty million Russians alone. WW II ruined cities, killed millions, and bankrupted nations. It was a huge waste, as were WW I and the War Between the States, which Lincoln fomented. WW II maybe had to happen, but we didn’t have to get into it. We did, thanks to FDR, and I have at least a dozen books which prove it. Wilson got us into WW I after it was almost over, which was criminal. Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, and now Iraq and Afghanistan, were and are, pointless, expensive, needless, tragic, and outrageous, which most Americans now seem to think is OK, thanks to bought and paid for media. They have fallen for the nonsense of “protecting America by fighting overseas,” which is garbage. Iraq was never a threat to us, and neither was Kuwait, Korea, or Vietnam. I well remember those wars, and how abominable they were. There are still tens of thousands of Vietnam vets who are sick, mentally ill, or in some way incapacitated because of Agent Orange, drugs, or other poisons and foolish actions which existed by the thousands in Vietnam. It was foolish from the word go.
Iraq today, is a tragedy and outrage, as is Afghanistan. Typically, fortunes are made by selling and creating weapons, ammo, war vehicles, planes, electronic devices, food for the troops, transportation, and everything that goes with war. The huge profits made by the makers and sellers of war goods, are never posted or publicized, but they exist, and their profits are huge. Do you think making thousands of Hummers and helicopters makes big profits? Do you think making fighters and bombers makes huge profits? Do you believe that making guns and bullets show profits? Radar and bombsights? Do you think there are huge profits making MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat)? Is it possible that huge profits are made from selling fuel for vehicles and planes? Is it a profit item to do as Vice President Cheyney’s outfit does, (Halliburton), and get contracts which have not even been bid? The war in Iraq costs an official $12 billion a month, but I am sure a lot more. Is that a 30% profit, or $8 billion? Is it profitable to have close to 100,000 civilian workers in Iraq, rebuilding what war has destroyed? Are thousands of “consultants” at mega bucks per hour, and Congressional junkets, profitable for some, but not for America? Is it thrifty to send Condoleeza around the world in a custom 747, attempting to mend fences her bosses have destroyed?
Our taxes are gobbled away making war, and our boys are maimed and killed. For what? How is Iraq any of our business? How was it any of our business when we attacked it in the first place? How were the North Koreans invading South Korea, our affair? How were the North Vietnamese attacking the South Vietnamese, a concern of ours? Is it possible that America has been deliberately gotten in to numerous wars, just to make profits for those ’insiders’ who profit from wars? Do politicians foment and vote for wars, as a fraudulent method of supposedly boosting an economy, or ’bringing home the bacon?’ Is it possible that a million Americans have been killed needlessly since WW I? It’s hideous to see the missing legs, arms, and severe in juries of returning servicemen. It’s horrible to witness the anguish of loved ones when their boys come home in a casket. Iraq will be radioactive for generations because of depleted uranium ammo. A pox on those insiders, politicians, and others who love to make war and profit from them. Usually their children don’t go.
Just imagine how grand our land would be if we hadn’t engaged in needless, costly, wars. Our jobs would still be here, our dollars would have some value, and the world wouldn’t now despise us. All we are good for now in the manufacturing sector, seems to be armaments and all that goes with them. Productive jobs aren’t paid for with government scrip. Productive enterprises create wealth, whereas wars and government destroy wealth. Eisenhower was correct. Here’s another former President who was correct. George Washington was against the two party system and foreign wars. A curse on you modern day “Daddy Warbucks.”