Soldiers die, CEOs prosper (a must read piece)

[Justice]

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/08/30/soldiers_die_ceos_prosper?mode=PF

By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist | August 30, 2006

"MORE THAN 2,600 US soldiers have died in Iraq. July's toll for Iraqi civilians was 3,500, the deadliest month of the US occupation. Iraq's civil war is on pace to kill 25,000 to 30,000 civilians by year's end. If you add in the tens of thousands of deaths from the 2003 invasion (we do not know the exact number because the Pentagon won't comment), researchers will inevitably say that the body count has crossed 100,000."

"As soldiers have died in displaying personal patriotism, the pay gap between soldiers and defense CEOs has exploded. Before 9/11, the gap between CEOs of publicly traded companies and army privates was already a galling 190 to 1. Today, it is 308 to 1. The average army private makes $25,000 a year. The average defense CEO makes $7.7 million."

"The report said ``democracies decay when one segment of society flourishes at another's expense." Leondar-Wright said, ``It is now at the point where we have lost any sense of proportion. There is no sense of shared sacrifice, no sense that we're all in this together." Spreading democracy to Iraq is far-fetched when defense and oil CEOs speed its decay at home. They are all in it for themselves, at our expense"

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This piece brings it home with a sickening and sad truth.

[Callalily]

1. Wars have always been

about profit, plain and simple.

[gratuitous]

2. Sinking in yet, America?

They're not fighting to protect us; they're not fighting for freedom; they're fighting for the right of overrich fatcats to make more money. Get it?

[Supersedeas]

7. the Corp Television News will never EVER pick up this story

[oc2002]

3. It use to be called War Profiteering. and it use to be criminal.

but not anymore.

[Blue_Tires]

4. exactly n/t

[lpbk2713]

5. And the beat goes on .....

and the beat goes on.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. But, but these soldiers knew what they would die for before they signed

up.

[Blue_Tires]

8. deserves another kick