Wednesday, January 15, 2003
ARMS DEALS CRITICIZED AS CORPORATE US WELFARE
LONDON - After Lockheed Martin clinched one of its largest deals ever in Europe, Prime Minister Leszek Miller of Poland was taken for a spin last week in the same kind of F-16 fighter jet that his country is purchasing. He watched from the cockpit while a second
F-16 performed rolls and tactical maneuvers for his benefit.
Consider this private air show a kind of customer perk, which the Pentagon confirmed was paid for by the US government at the end of a long marketing campaign by Lockheed. The US government also provided a $3.8 billion loan to Poland, on very favorable terms, to finance the purchase of 48 F-16s, which are manufactured in President Bush's home state of Texas…
[US Committee on NATO director and Bruce] Jackson’s advocacy work in the expansion of NATO and Lockheed's arms deal with Poland highlight the political and corporate linkages that make the NATO expansion both a matter of strategic significance for the United States and economic advantage for its arms manufacturers…
Bruce Jackson, former Lockheed Martin vice president, argues that ‘greater security for the United States’ can be attained by having American taxpayers loan billions of dollars to U.S. arms manufacturers for the explicit purpose of encouraging European and Middle Eastern countries to resolve their differences using sophisticated weapons. At the same time, the government, the 'private sector' and its media extol the virtues of less government, free markets and small business.
LONDON - After Lockheed Martin clinched one of its largest deals ever in Europe, Prime Minister Leszek Miller of Poland was taken for a spin last week in the same kind of F-16 fighter jet that his country is purchasing. He watched from the cockpit while a second
F-16 performed rolls and tactical maneuvers for his benefit.
Consider this private air show a kind of customer perk, which the Pentagon confirmed was paid for by the US government at the end of a long marketing campaign by Lockheed. The US government also provided a $3.8 billion loan to Poland, on very favorable terms, to finance the purchase of 48 F-16s, which are manufactured in President Bush's home state of Texas…
[US Committee on NATO director and Bruce] Jackson’s advocacy work in the expansion of NATO and Lockheed's arms deal with Poland highlight the political and corporate linkages that make the NATO expansion both a matter of strategic significance for the United States and economic advantage for its arms manufacturers…
Bruce Jackson, former Lockheed Martin vice president, argues that ‘greater security for the United States’ can be attained by having American taxpayers loan billions of dollars to U.S. arms manufacturers for the explicit purpose of encouraging European and Middle Eastern countries to resolve their differences using sophisticated weapons. At the same time, the government, the 'private sector' and its media extol the virtues of less government, free markets and small business.
themassesareasses© on blogger Wednesday, January 15, 2003 
