Re: the mysteries of capitalism

[Carl Remick <carlremick@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: michael perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> The New York Times has one story about all the material compforts SOME
> soldiers in Iraq have.
>
> The New York Times
> August 13, 2005
> G.I.'s Deployed in Iraq Desert With Lots of American Stuff
> By KIRK SEMPLE
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/13/international/middleeast/13soldier.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print
>
> In the same edition, we read:
>
> August 14, 2005
>
>  U.S. Struggling to Get Soldiers Improved Armor
>
> By MICHAEL MOSS
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/international/middleeast/14armor.html?ei=5094&en=0fca05dd8b935b11&hp=&ex=1123992000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

[There's also this from today's NYT oped page, by a US soldier who served in
Iraq:]

... I left for Iraq on Feb. 12, 2003. The war hadn't started yet. ... things
started fairly well. There were no complaints as March waned and we crossed
from Kuwait into Iraq; only thinly veiled excitement. As the weeks turned to
months, however, and we watched active-duty units return to their families,
our stoicism was replaced with mounting frustration. Our Vietnam-era flak
vests, retooled M-16's more than two decades old and a general absence of
supplies added to an irrefutable feeling that we had been abandoned in the
lion's den. When the tour ended a year later, our uniforms were in tatters,
night vision goggles had been packed away seven months earlier when all our
replacement parts ran out, and the ragged men who stepped off the plane in
Hinesville, Ga., scarcely resembled the "shock-and-awe" troops seen on
television. ...

<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/opinion/14crawford.html>

> Isn't this the way of capitalism, to have a display of goodies, while
> ignoring the basics?

[Not only that, but the goodies have a way of not lasting too long in the
conditions we create.  Also in today's NYT, there's this revealing glimpse
of life in Baghdad today:]

... in this third summer of war, the American project in Iraq has never
seemed so wilted and sapped of life. It's not just the guerrillas, who are
churning away at their relentless pace, attacking American forces about 65
times a day. It is most everything else, too.

Baghdad seems a city transported from the Middle Ages: a scattering of
high-walled fortresses, each protected by a group of armed men. The area
between the forts is a lawless no man's land, menaced by bandits and
brigands. With the daytime temperatures here hovering at around 115 degrees,
the electricity in much of the city flows for only about four hours a day.
...

For much of last year, the soldiers of the First Cavalry Division oversaw a
project to restore the river-front park on the east bank of the Tigris
River. Under American eyes, the Iraqis planted sod, installed a sprinkler
system and put up swing sets for the Iraqi children. It cost $1.5 million.
The Tigris River Park was part of a vision of the unit's commander, Maj.
Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, to win the war by putting Iraqis to work.

General Chiarelli left Iraq this year, and the American unit that took over
had other priorities. The sod is mostly dead now, and the sidewalks are
covered in broken glass. The sprinkler heads have been stolen. The northern
half of the park is sealed off by barbed wire and blast walls; Iraqis are
told stay back, lest they be shot by American snipers on the roof of a
nearby hotel. ...

<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/weekinreview/14filkins.html>

Carl