The Great Iraq Swindle

Fair warning: this will probably piss you off.

The Rolling Stone presents: The Great Iraq Swindle.

Let me boil it down for you.

Step 1: Choose government officials not by experience, but by political affiliation and in particular loyalty to the administration.

Step 2: Deceive the public into channeling their 9/11 anger into a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. Intentionally ignore the mountain of evidence indicating an Iraq invasion would be nothing short of a quagmire, even if it's the very evidence once used to justify keeping Saddam Hussein in power after the first Persian Gulf War, even if said explanation came out of the mouth of one of the second war's biggest proponents. Despite knowing the exact opposite is true, tell the American public that the war will be payed for by Iraqi oil, that the whole enterprise will take less than 6 months, and that we'll be greeted as liberators.

Step 3: Create a coalition of the coerced, and go to war with just over a third of the troops recommended by the military's top generals.

Step 4: Privatize EVERYTHING. Put all the military specialists on the battlefield and replace them with contractors who will pay civilians twice as much to do the same job half as well. Hire mercenaries to handle some of the security as well.

Step 5: When the contractors defraud the taxpayer, refuse to prosecute them.

Step 6: Profit!