How is the U.S. government planning to cover the Iraq war’s debt?
By circulating dollars abroad and gathering capital from periphery
countries. The United States economy is going to try to save itself
from the current crisis by spending money on arms and having
Third World countries like Brazil pay for this spending.
by:
Joóo Pedro St™dile
The
other day I was reading a study from Professor Arturo Valenzuela, the
director of the Center of Latin American Studies at Georgetown University
in Washington, D.C. The information in the article that comes to us
from the center of the "Empire" is in itself revealing.
The
Congress of the U.S. is currently debating the budget for 2004. They
are expecting total costs to be 2.23 trillion dollars. Of this total,
390.4 billion will go toward military spending. (Almost 20 percent of
all public spending.) In the military budget, they are planning to spend
57 billion dollars on scientific studies for new weapons. (While Europe
spends on average US$ 7,000 per soldier in scientific military studies,
the US spends US$ 28,000 per soldier.)
Further,
the U.S. government is estimating that a war with Iraq will cost anywhere
from US$ 50 – 200 billion. Thus, they are predicting a fiscal deficit
of 304 billion dollars. How is the U.S. government planning to cover
this debt? By circulating dollars abroad and gathering capital from
periphery countries. Conclusion: the US economy is going to try to save
itself from the current crisis by spending money on arms and having
Third World countries pay for this spending. We will be the ones paying
for the war.
According
to Pentagon analysts, during this four-year term of George W. Bush,
the government will accumulate a fiscal deficit of 1.08 billion dollars.
According to these same sources, the total military spending during
the Bush years will be greater than all of the military spending of
all the countries of the world combined.
Another
study completed in the U.S. by economist analyst Luis Nassif shows that
during the 20 years of neoliberalism, countries in the Third World have
sent no less than 1 trillion dollars to the US. Neoliberalism has created
an exceptional mechanism for exploiting the Third World, transforming
these countries into exporters of capital. And it is exactly this trillion
that the US uses to maintain its military power, which in turn is used
to deep these same countries under the Empire’s domination. Thus the
vicious circle of the U.S.’s economic, political and military power
over the world is complete.
It
is becoming more and more clear that Marx was right when he said that
capitalism systematically uses the machine of war and death as a way
to overcome its cyclical crises, maintaining markets captive. Weapons
are made to augment levels of profit regardless of the cost to human
lives. Wars are only logical extensions of disputes over markets and
economic territories.
For
how long will we put up with this financial, military empire? No one
knows for sure, but it is certain that its domination represents a step
backwards for humanity and the values of equality, fraternity and social
justice. Let us all work to oppose war and this empire.
João
Pedro Stédile is one of the national leaders of the MST (Movement
of Rural Workers without Land). You can email him at mst@mst.com.br
This
material was supplied by Sejup, which has its own Internet site:
http://www.oneworld.net/sejup