I just watched one of the most effective documentaries that I've ever seen, called "Iraq for Sale" by Robert Greenwald, independently distributed via Brave New Films. This is the official web site:
http://iraqforsale.org/
Ignore some of the more sensationalist computer overlay effects. This is all about the journalistic content.
The majority of the interviews are not with academics, "liberal" journalists, nor politicians, on any side of any fence. Most of the content is television news footage, and interviews with people directly involved in the Iraq war -- contractors, soldiers, and their families. Most of them are traditionally Republican voters.
They have been to Iraq, and they have seen the enemy, and it is not the Iraqi people. The enemy is our own American Corporations. The biggest enemies revealed in the film are: CACI (provided the "interrogation contractors" who were directly responsible for Abu Ghraib atrocities), Titan (providers of unaccredited, unaccountable translators, with no valid security clearance), Halliburton/KBR (providing our troops with horrible living conditions, dangerous meals, infected water, and empty trucks), and Blackwater (killing our allies, so our troops don't have to). All of these companies have made billions of dollars in no-bid contracts, by using oppressed and under-paid third country national workers, by taking away jobs traditionally done by American soldiers, by short-changing our troops, and by putting American workers directly in harms way, at all service levels. The multi-billion dollar profits taken by these unethical corporations are all paid for 100% by American tax payers.
I always knew the Bush war on competitive contracts was horrible for the American public, and the world at large, but I had no idea of the extent of atrocities committed in the name of profit. All the current poitical campaigns need to address these issues. The voting records of the candidates need a closer look, to see who voted for war profiteering, and against accountability. Some Republican Congressmen who contributed to war profiteering, and who actively suppressed accountability measures, are named in the film. Many in the Republican establishment are also shown to have intimate relationships with these corporations. We also need to look closely to see if any Democrats voted against the health and safety of our troops, and against American taxpayers, by letting this war profiteering continue, unabated and unaccounted.
This is a little off topic, but I think any candidate willing to work with lobbyists, to the extent that Hillary Clinton already has, is susceptible to the same corruption that has been ruining America for the past 8+ years. Just watch these videos in succession:
WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Prices
Now you tell me, which candidate is more likely to support corporate profiteering, on the backs of the American middle-classes? I know it is NOT Barack Obama. I'm contributing to his campaign, not the lobbyists.
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