A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Evelyn Pringle
On Monday, April 9, the Boston Herald reported that the U.S. military had announced the Easter weekend deaths of 10 more American soldiers, including six killed on Sunday. The Associated Press reports that, since the war began in March 2003, over 3,000 members of the U.S. military have been killed in Iraq, as of April 8.
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According to the January 14, 2007 Los Angeles Times, Steven Kosiak, director of budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, says that, starting with the anti-terrorism appropriation a week after the 9/11 attacks, he estimates the U.S. has spent $400 billion fighting terrorism through fiscal 2006, which ended on September 30, 2006.
This January, Marine Corps spokeswoman Lt. Col. Roseann Lynch told Reuters the war in Iraq is costing about $4.5 billion a month for military "operating costs," which did not include new weapons or equipment.
Since this war on terror was declared following 9/11, the
pay levels for the CEOs of the top 34 defense contractors have doubled. The average compensation rose from $3.6 million during the period of 1998-2001 to $7.2 million during the period of 2002-2005, according to an August 2006 report entitled, "Executive Excess 2006," by the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies and the Boston-based United for a Fair Economy.
This study found that since 9/11, the 34 defense CEOs have pocketed a combined total of $984 million, or enough, the report says, to cover the wages for more than a million Iraqis for a year. In 2005, the average total compensation for the CEOs of large U.S. corporations was only 6% above 2001 figures, while defense CEOs pay was 108% higher.
But the last name of one family, which is literally amassing a fortune over the backs of our dead heroes, matches that of the man holding the purse strings in the White House. On December 11, 2003, the Financial Times reported that three people had told the Times they had seen letters written by
Neil Bush...Read the rest here:
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/919 Neil Bush, Bucky Bush, Carlyle, Bin Ladens, Winston Capital Fund, and more...
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