{"id":12424,"date":"2008-05-06T18:19:07","date_gmt":"2008-05-07T01:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/05\/06\/war-profiteering.html"},"modified":"2008-05-06T18:19:07","modified_gmt":"2008-05-07T01:19:07","slug":"war_profiteering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/05\/06\/war_profiteering.html","title":{"rendered":"War profiteering"},"content":{"rendered":"

The War on Terror will never end. Not because we can never actually defeat a concept like “Terror,” not because we haven’t been able to actually find and kill Osama bin Laden, not because we’ve let ourselves get distracted in Iraq — but because the War on Terror is just so darned profitable<\/em><\/a>. Everyone, it appears, has figured out a clever way to hold their hand out to the federal slop bucket.<\/p>\n

\n

In mid-2003, the Department of Homeland Security compiled a list of 160 potential terrorist targets, triggering intense efforts by representatives, senators and their constituents to find potential targets in their districts that might require protection and therefore be eligible for federal funding. The result? Widened definitions and blurrier categories of potential targets and mushrooming increases in the infrastructure and assets deemed worthy of protection. By late 2003, the list had increased more than tenfold to 1,849; by 2004 it had grown to 28,364; by 2005 it mushroomed to 77,069; and by 2006 it was approximately 300,000.
 <\/p>\n

Across the country, hundreds of interest groups recast their traditional objectives and funding proposals to reflect the new imperatives of the new war. The National Rifle Association declared that the War on Terror means more Americans should own firearms to defend against terrorists. The gun control lobby argued that fighting the War on Terror means passing stricter gun control laws to keep assault weapons out of the hands of terrorists. Schools of veterinary medicine called for quadrupling funding to train veterinarians to defend the country against terrorists using foot-and-mouth disease to decimate cattle herds. Pharmacists advocated the creation of pharmaceutical SWAT teams to respond quickly with appropriate drugs to the victims of terrorist attacks.
 <\/p>\n

According to a 2005 report by the Small Business Administration (SBA) inspector general, 85 percent of the businesses granted low-interest SBA counterterrorism loans failed to establish their eligibility. The SBA authorized 7,000 loans worth more than $3 billion, including $22 million in loans to Dunkin\u2019 Donuts franchises in nine states.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sort of like using the “Sarbanes-Oxley” stick to justify IT spending on all sorts of activities that we’ve always wanted but could never justify on their merits, the WoT has become the source of endless justifications for spending money on anti\/counterterrorism measures. And it’s better than the Cold War, because they may be among us even now<\/u>.<\/em> <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(via J-Walk<\/a>)<\/p>\n

<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The War on Terror will never end. Not because we can never actually defeat a concept like “Terror,” not because we haven’t been able to actually find and kill Osama…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homeland-security"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":128902,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/19\/terror-suspects-are-allowed-to-buy-guns-because-guns.html","url_meta":{"origin":12424,"position":0},"title":"Terror suspects are allowed to buy guns, because … guns!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 19-Nov-15 9:51pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yeah, I have problems with how the federal government creates lists of potential \"terrorist\" suspects \/ allies \/ affiliates \/ fellow-travelers.But it's ironic (read: outrageous) that at a time when we are apparently terrified that some refugees might actually turn out to be (gasp) terrorists, we are so obsessed with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10142,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/24\/how_about_a_rea.html","url_meta":{"origin":12424,"position":1},"title":"How about a real War on Terror?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 24-Aug-06 3:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As in ... not giving in to Terror (and, in so doing, not giving in to the Terrorists) The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/terror.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9094,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/02\/20\/the_more_things.html","url_meta":{"origin":12424,"position":2},"title":"The more things change …","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 20-Feb-06 12:40pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The FreeRepublic website is known as being, um, rabidly \"conservative,\" i.e., radibly supportive of the Bush Administration (which is the new definition of conservatism, it seems). Which makes makes this...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10177,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/17\/unconstitutiona.html","url_meta":{"origin":12424,"position":3},"title":"Unconstitutional? Well, like that’s going to stop us …","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 17-Aug-06 3:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A Federal Judge has ruled that the NSA's warrantless wiretap program is -- shock! -- unconstitutional. A federal judge ruled Thursday that the government\u2019s warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44348,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/14\/when-special-weapons-and-tactics-arent-all-that-special.html","url_meta":{"origin":12424,"position":4},"title":"When “Special Weapons and Tactics” aren’t all that special","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 14-Aug-14 12:04pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Makes one wonder, between the War on Drugs and the War on Terror and the leftovers from the War in Iraq, where else we might have put all that money that wouldn't have involved so many flash-bang raids on houses that didn't really need flash-bang raids.\u00a0\ufeff 10 facts about the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48762,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/09\/maybe-not-the-right-day-for-a-blank-check-war-on-terror-bill.html","url_meta":{"origin":12424,"position":5},"title":"Maybe not the right day for a "blank check" War on Terror bill","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 9-Dec-14 5:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Summary: \"Senate, please authorize us to militarily do whatever we want, wherever we want, because ISIL and TICKING TIME BOMB and YOU CAN TRUST US.\"And, of course, they will. Obama Wants Congress to Let Him Hunt ISIS Anywhere Secretary of State John Kerry asked lawmakers not to constrain the president\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}