War Money

What happened in 2003 that caused Exxon- Mobil's profits to double?

Was it Super Bowl XXXVII?
No.

Was it Great White?
No.

What else happened that year?

We invaded Iraq.

Exxon-Mobil has managed to quadruple it's profits in the five years that have passed since BushCo started the Iraq War. This trend shows no sign of change, in fact E-M just posted the highest-ever annual profit by an American company, beating the record that was set by themselves last year.

One would think that such an announcement would be celebrated, but Exxon is trying to down- play it; there are currently quite a few apologists trying to explain how this boom is actually very good for America. They point to the enormous taxes that Exxon pays on those profits ; on the surface this sounds almost reasonable:

"Millions of people benefit financially, as either individual shareholders, or through their pension, insurance and mutual funds that hold Exxon Mobil shares," [E-M public affairs VP] Mr. Cohen said. "We have over 2.5 million individual shareholders alone, and for every dollar we earn, we contribute US$2.50 in taxes the governments use to provide schools, roads, hospitals, and other essential services. In the U.S. alone, our total tax expenses over the past five years were about US$65-billion, exceeding our U.S. earnings during that period by more than US$18-billion."

The only problem with this is that it isn't exactly true. I mean, with all that moola rolling into "essential services", you'd think we'd be living in a Golden Age. Instead, the federal deficit is threatening to break BushCo's 2004 record of $413 billion dollars.
One year, Exxon breaks records, the very next year the federal deficit hits an all-time high. Interesting.
It happened in 2003-2004 and it's happening again right now.
Does this feel like a Golden Age?

The man that gave Exxon their 2003 cash cow is doing his best to make sure that as little money goes to social services and programs as possible. BushCo's recent budget proposal includes large increases for defense spending and drastic cuts in social programs:

The Pentagon would receive a $36 billion, 8 percent boost for the 2009 budget year beginning Oct. 1, even as programs aimed at the poor would be cut back or eliminated. Half of domestic Cabinet departments would see their budgets cut outright.

The tax dollars are funneled to the Pentagon, which awards contracts to corporations like Exxon, who return a portion as "taxes", which are given back to the companies in the form of more government contracts and so on, all at the expense of the average citizen. It's an amazingly efficient mechanism for the upward re-distribution of wealth but it requires an endless war in order to maintain itself.

That is why we invaded Iraq.

To BushCo, the Iraq War is not a failure, it's a huge success. That infamous "Mission Accomplished" banner was true- the Mission was to make money, which obviously has been done. Peace would break the money cycle, which is why the Bushies have been so hot to invade Iran as well...we'd be at war forever if they did. Profits would continue to rise and a new generation of impoverished, jobless Americans would make excellent fodder a volunteer army.

Desperate economic times at home would prevent the need to re-instate the military draft- if there are no jobs or opportunities, then the poor kids will have little choice but to enlist; a draft would be inevitable in prosperous times as few people would be willing to give up good jobs for a bad war, so it's unlikely that we'll see prosperity while the war profiteers are calling the shots in D.C.- BushCo knows the best way to avoid a draft is to limit the educational and career opportunities of America's youth, forcing enlistment up.

Actually, the best way too prevent a draft would be to not start wars in the first place but it's a little late for that now.