#  Cashing In On the ISIS Crisis

     Details    Emily Schwartz Greco and William A. Collins   ![logo](https://www.citywatchla.com//templates/ja_teline_v/images/logo.png)         November 20 2014       [ARCHIVE](https://www.citywatchla.com/archive)   - [  Previous Article **How Big Plastic is Threatening California** ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7931:how-big-plastic-is-threatening-california&catid=16)
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> ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Nov-2014/94g.png)OTHERWORDS-Maybe you think the U.S. air war on the Islamic State is a fine plan. Maybe you don’t. Either way, have you considered how little Washington’s latest military foray in the Middle East has to do with America’s welfare?
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> In case you haven’t heard, shock and awe are out in what’s increasingly being called either Iraq War 3.0 or — more ominously — Iraq War III. “Persistent and sustainable” are in, according to [General Martin Dempsey](http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/09/16/U-S-campaign-on-ISIS-won-t-be-shock-and-awe-.html), chairman of the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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> Why can’t our leaders leave bad enough alone and get out of there? One possible explanation is that this apparently eternal battle has more to do with profits than protection.
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> No matter how pointless these wars prove, America’s military-industrial complex makes a killing.
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> There’s always a profit to be skimmed by the makers of cruise missiles and builders of submarines. They stay in the black even when humanity suffers.
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> But wait. Doesn’t the United States lose when these wars inevitably shore up anti-American hatred?
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> Worrying about that kind of thing isn’t really a job for military contractors. Just like the oil, gas, and coal industries, their goal is to grab what they can while the grabbing is good.
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> America’s hired guns and military contractors [took a big hit](http://www.ibtimes.com/lockheed-martin-boeing-other-defense-contractors-pay-jobs-end-combat-operations-iraq-1669872) after the last Iraq War wound down. But thanks to the eruption of “the ISIS crisis,” the dogs of war in Congress are howling again.
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> ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Nov-2014/94z8.png)At the moment, they’re yelping at President Barack Obama and telling him to stop ruling out more “[boots on the ground](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2833422/Congress-armed-forces-leader-tells-Obama-stop-ruling-boots-ground-battle-against-ISIS-general-says-certainly-considering-it.html).” Obama has already called for doubling current troop levels in Iraq and asked Congress for permission to spend [$5.6 billion more](http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/07/obama-doubles-us-troop-levels-iraq-isis) than anticipated on the conflict.
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> Perhaps the most galling military development so far is the Pentagon’s mobilization of [depleted uranium](http://www.aljazeera.com/humanrights/2014/10/us-deploys-du-aircraft-middle-east-201410287450282932.html) weapons. These weapons are already suspected of causing [widespread birth defects](http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/26703-iraqi-doctors-call-depleted-uranium-use-genocide) in Iraq from prior military campaigns, and there is a debate underway right now in the United Nations to ban them.
>
> Whistleblower [Peter Van Buren](http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175920/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren%2C_iraq_and_the_battle_of_the_potomac/) recently asked a good question about all of this: “What could go possibly go right?”
>
> *(Emily Schwartz Greco is the managing editor of [OtherWords](http://otherwords.org/), a non-profit national editorial service run by the Institute for Policy Studies. [OtherWords](http://otherwords.org/) columnist William A. Collins is a former state representative and a former mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut. This column was provided CityWatch by [OtherWords.org](http://OtherWords.org)). OtherWords cartoon by Khalil Bendib.*
>
> -cw
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> Tags:
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> CityWatch
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> Vol 12 Issue 94
>
> Pub: Nov 21, 2014

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